[jefe_]

Similar thing would happen in my Toyota, the song 'Afraid' by Yellowcard would play every time I turned on the car. Realized it was playing the first song in my library. In Apple Music there is a song called 'A a a a a Very Good Song (Silent Track)' by artist Samir Mezrahi, that contains 10 minutes of silence. I added that to my library and now that song plays when I turn on my car (although this autoplay only happens occasionally since some Toyota update). The album art simply says: 'have a wonderful day.'

The song: https://music.apple.com/us/album/a-a-a-a-a-very-good-song-si...

[mcculley]

I had a Mercedes lease for three years with the same problem of automatically playing the first song as sorted alphabetically. In my case, it was "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash. That song loses its humor after you hear it a few hundred times.

[cptcobalt]

Same thing with my husband's car, his phone, and the song "A-Punk" by Vampire Weekend. I now jokingly play it as the first song any time we head off on a long road trip, much to his immense frustration.

[lloeki]

Sort happens by album artist over here, the first one being Take On Me by a-ha, triggering all sorts of physical pavlovian reactions now.

Trigger seems to be iOS thinking it's being helpful so that when I "plug" headphones (either physically, bluetoothically, or carplayly) I presumably want to play music.

Also, double click on Library in Music.app nee iTunes on macOS. Plays the whole library, linearly, which, like, who does that?

[derefr]

> Also, double click on Library in Music.app nee iTunes on macOS. Plays the whole library, linearly, which, like, who does that?

Often, when I see a feature like that, one that makes you ask "who would want to do that with the whole dataset?" — the answer is usually "developers regression-testing their feature branch of the program, where their 'whole dataset' is a test fixture consisting of a bunch of data samples where each one exercises a weird edge-case path in the code."

Sure, you could just make a playlist for this. But iTunes has a directory it watches within the library, where putting stuff in it will cause iTunes to automatically move those songs into your library. And if I were an iTunes dev, my scripted "Test" action would consist of creating a new library directory structure; plonking a copy of my regtest fixture dataset into its auto-import dir; starting up the new build targeting that dir; and then sending it the Automator action "Library → Play All." A playlist would only complicate that.

[NavinF]

> iOS thinking it's being helpful so that when I "plug" headphones (either physically, bluetoothically, or carplayly) I presumably want to play music

There’s gotta be something else going on because I’ve never had this happen over the last decade. I’m pretty sure the car is sending a play command to the phone every time it connects.

[richbradshaw]

I’ve had tons of cars and only seen this behaviour in one - think was Citroen.

[devilbunny]

Mercedes does this. A Ford that I rented last year did so as well.

[lloeki]

Except it happens randomly with headsets, whether bluetooth (Bose QC35) or wired (EarPods)

[jgwil2]

Haha, I can hum that opening riff instantaneously because it's the first song on my wife's phone. Do di do di do di do di do di do di. Bum, bum, bum bum bum bum!

[hbn]

My car's song of choice is About a Girl (Live Acoustic) from Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York live album

[selcuka]

Heh, decades ago a Phil Collins tape was stuck in my car's cassette player (yes, that was a thing) and there was no way to switch to radio when there is a tape inside. I guess I listened to that album few hundred times until I decided to do something (probably spray some WD-40) about it.

[feet]

But why the hell is it autoplaying in the first place? Does apple really hate their customers/users so much that they can't make this an option?

That's completely insane. The more I learn about apple, the more I see extremely hostile UI decisions for literally no reason

[oliveshell]

I believe what’s happening is that certain car stereos are programmed to basically send the “play” command as soon as a device is connected. From the phone’s perspective, it’s as if you had connected Bluetooth headphones and then pressed the “play/pause” button.

I say this because my iPhone never autoplays when connecting to any Bluetooth audio device except for my car stereo.

I agree it’s aggressive and should be able to be turned off, but it’s the car’s software, not the phone’s, that’s the problem.

[porknubbins]

Sending the play command itself would be less of a problem if iOS wasn’t so completely opaque as to what “currently playing” or “default music app” means, but that distinction itself would require more clarity as to whether apps can be run in the background or not.

[swamp40]

Agree that a "play" command is being sent from vehicle. This autostarts Apple Music if nothing else is using the speaker.

[gedy]

This drives me crazy as I don't use Apple Music and I don't want to keep playing handful of songs I bought 15 years ago on iTunes. I've yet to find out how to disable this.

[onlyusername]

Delete the Apple Music app from your phone.

[dudus]

I don't have an iPhone. But at least on OSX I didn't find a clean way to remove Apple Music.

Every time I accidentally tap play on my bluetooth headset it opens Apple Music and asks me accept the ToS, which I happily reject. It's a daily thing for me because it's almost impossible to put my headphones on without triggering a play due to bad button placement.

[jcpst]

Yep, I have it disabled. My main music apps are “Picky” and Bandcamp, and it works pretty well.

When they do start autoplaying in the car (Picky does it), it’s at least whatever I album I was last playing on the app.

[rkagerer]

Couldn't the phone provide an option to disable this on a per-device basis?

[falcolas]

IME, this doesn't happen in any of my Subaru vehicles. It picks up where I am in Spotify with no issues. Whether via carplay or connecting via Apple's Car integration.

That said, I have had this issue when connecting an iPhone to a '11 truck via USB. It tries to treat it like an iPod, and consume its default playlist (all songs in Music, sans shuffle).

So this is probably the bluetooth equivalent being done by the cars - treat it like an iPod that the entertainment center should be in charge of.

[StevePerkins]

As others have already explained, the autoplay is because the car sends a "play" command as soon as the bluetooth connects.

From the auto manufacturer's perspective, this kinda "makes sense". Because that was the legacy behavior, pre-bluetooth. If you turn off your car with the radio playing, then the radio will start playing again the next time you crank up the car. If drivers didn't want that, then hey... they would have turned off the stereo before turning off their car. So it would be less confusing to carry forward that legacy behavior into this new thing.

The problem is, it's 10 years later now. The culture and the consumer expectations have shifted. Maybe (?) the radio-like behavior makes sense for older consumers in their 60's and up, who lived with radio for many years more than they've lived with bluetooth. But for the younger bluetooth-native consumers, it's generally pretty infuriating.

It's LONG past time for auto makers to stop this legacy behavior with bluetooth connections. Or at the very least, offer the option to disable it somewhere in a dashboard menu.

[rightbyte]

> If drivers didn't want that, then hey... they would have turned off the stereo before turning off their car.

There was a time of honey and milk where we could visualy inspect the power/volume nob before ignition and see if the radio was on or off. Maybe even turn the nob with a reassuring little feedback click.

[sportslife]

I think the design is actually for us under 60, who got into the car listening to a podcast on earbuds, and want to continue listening as we drive off.

What I can't get over is that I can be driving the car for 3 minutes before the podcast I was just listening to will play in my car (which does not have this play command quirk).

[scifibestfi]

I've always assumed this is a bug. Why isn't it just resuming from whatever you were last listening to? And why is this still an issue after so long?

This is one of those things that Steve Jobs would have fired people on the spot for.

[krallja]

If you are listening to Spotify and accidentally engage with a video on Facebook, after the video plays, your device will be completely silent. “Now Playing” will be blank. If you press Play it will resume from whatever was last playing … in Music.app!

If you have a HomePod playing your family member’s music, say “Hey Siri, pause” because a phone call came in, and then “Hey Siri, play,” it will start playing wherever _your_ music.app last left off.

User intention is a really tricky problem! But a cynical thought would be “why would Apple fix a bug that causes people to use Music.app more?”

[MDGeist]

Perhaps I am lucky but my Subaru does resume whatever I was last listening to. Although it seems to prioritize the itunes app over podcasts for some reason so even if I had been listening to a podcast there is a chance it will play whatever was last up in itunes. :/

[thewebcount]

Same. I have an Acura and it plays whatever the last thing that was playing out the speakers or headphones of the phone was. If that was Apple Music, that's what plays. If it was Podcasts, that's what plays. For many years, I used a 3rd party podcast app, and it would play that.

It does, however, have the same connection problems described in the root of this thread. Sometimes just doesn't see the car (or vice-versa). Sometimes connects and starts playing within a minute of starting the car. Sometimes (frequently) stops playing after like 1 minute of playing. Sometimes auto-reconnects a minute later, sometimes doesn't. It's very irritating.

[bombcar]

I assume it's something to do with the devices not quite recognizing themselves as being identical to last time (perhaps any single change to anything on the iPhone causes it to download all the playlists again, etc).

I just use a stupid adapter with a mini jack input. Ain't got time for wireless wierdness.

[dkarl]

Engagement is eating the world, maybe engagement is now driving these decisions, too. People who listen more, buy more, so optimize for time spent listening.

My car and phone achieve a level of randomness that makes me wonder at the complexity of the software behind it. Usually it starts playing Music, but sometimes it's another app, especially if the last thing playing on my phone was YouTube. But sometimes it's YouTube even if the last app that played audio was something else. Sometimes I get the pause music from a game that's been running in the background for days.

I can't even predict whether Music will start in shuffle mode and pick a random song or if it will start playing an album I was recently listening to in sequential mode.

The result is that I've started to look at my phone the way I used to look at cable TV, as an invader in my home that works for people who want to manipulate me.

[kmeisthax]

So there's actually three different components involved with this. Someone else has already mentioned the possibility of cars that just lie to your phone and say you pressed the play button because "well the user connected their phone they must want music".

The OS itself is also responsible for managing where that "play" command goes, and because this is a mobile device it also manages what apps are in memory, which one owns media playback, etc. If nothing is currently playing, it has to pick something, because you pressed the play button and you're currently driving down an overextended highway at unconscionably American speeds and can't be arsed to care about what app's play button needs to be pressed.

Individual apps can also grab or drop the media playback role at any time. Maybe that game has some background sync nonsense to send you a bunch of notifications, and whenever it gets woken up to do that the game engine it was written on immediately tries to start media playback because nobody tested it for background use.

Music's inconsistent behavior sounds like someone didn't implement state resumption correctly.

The underlying problem is that nobody owns the whole experience and this all is supposed to happen without projecting selection UI to the user. The phone just hears "PLAY MUSIC DAMN YOU" and makes a shitty guess as to what you meant.

[feet]

This is one reason I'll only run customized android builds without gapps until something better comes along. Linux phone devices are becoming more and more appealing

[joshu]

i seem to recall that this is what the spec calls for, and toyota follows the spec. it drives me up the wall.

[tiagod]

Why do you assume this was decided by Apple?

[feet]

Because they're the ones programming iOS? Who else would decide it, it's not like iOS is an open source project

[nkjnlknlk]

It's obviously the car. Otherwise you would have heard of this problem well before now.

[rtsil]

The car may send the request to play, but the OS decides to play the same song again and again and again...

[dzikimarian]

Hmmm, what about these 10 or so comments of iPhone users with various cars?

[jeromegv]

It's quite clear that all those cars are sending a play command.

[focusedone]

Modern problems require modern solutions. Nice work.

[yakak]

Modem problems require AT solutions, but I guess I need a font problem solution.

[jtbayly]

I created a one-hour long silent MP3 and named it similarly and added it to my phone. I've sent it to a friend who uses it as well.

[marbu]

I have a script (simple ffmpeg wrapper) to generate silent mp3 files:

https://github.com/marbu/scriptpile/blob/master/silence.sh

I'm not quite sure what I needed that for anymore, but I find it interesting that there are such weird use cases for this.

[a9h74j]

Call it Subliminal productivity silence and you can make a fortune.

[SilasX]

Semi-related: I tried out Microsoft/Ford's SYNC system (voice commands for your car) in '08 and was upset that it didn't seem to support an option for "continue listening to podcast series X where I left off" ... like, the thing you would want to do all the time. (Item 5.)

http://blog.tyrannyofthemouse.com/2008/07/setting-sync-strai...

[Lammy]

I use a jailbreak tweak for this: http://cydia.saurik.com/package/com.itortrix.stopplayin12/

[iancmceachern]

Samir is brilliant. Talk about identifying a need and then solving it in the most efficient way possible.

[nostromo]

I wonder how much this person makes in royalties for a silent track.

[lattalayta]

Was (and maybe still is?) top of the charts

https://www.engadget.com/2017-08-10-silent-10-minute-song-it...

[void-pointer]

My dad added the song to the library, but it didn’t work, because he has a song called “A” [1] in his library and that one takes priority. It’s a family in-joke now.

[1] https://music.apple.com/gb/album/a/1316144097?i=1316144100

[bakemawaytoys]

My car does this too! Except the first song in my library is A Christmas Festival by Boston Pops Orchestra.

The song has a dramatic opening, to say the least.

[funcDropShadow]

That is the best workaround for a software problem, I've ever heard.

[dhimes]

My Toyota only plays my iPhone bluetooth if (a) my car is in bluetooth "mode" and not radio and (b) I have my music app open.

I've never experienced what you (two) describe. 2020 Toy and iPhone 11.

[edgyquant]

I have a 2017 Toyota and never has that problem. Though for awhile I did have an issue where audible kept starting randomly but it seems to have fixed itself.