Why is Siri unable to play Playlists on iOS 17.5?

At the very least, if Apple is not going to fix this bug, they should give us a way to opt out of not being able to select playlists on our car's screen while driving. I don't need Apple to be my nanny. Using the touchscreen while driving doesn't seem safe, but it seems more safe than having to pick up our phones and select a playlist there.

Well, the playlist problem was finally fixed for me and then I made the mistake of buying a new iPhone and iOS 18 and the playlist problem is back again. Siri says looks like Apple Music can’t play that.

On top of that all the other little commands I used to give Siri and she understood what I was asking no longer work, such as if I just say, Siri flashlight, she knew to toggle the flashlight state, or Siri airplane mode she knew to toggle airplane mode. No more.

I updated my iPhone 12 from 17.6 to 17.7, and the issue persists if you ask the following:

1. When connected to Apple CarPlay in a 2019 Chevrolet Camaro, Command "play playlist", Siri "What playlist do you want to play?", Command "(List Name)", Siri "Sorry it looks like Apple Music Can't Play That" or "I don't Understand."
2. Command "play playlist (List NAME)", Siri "Sorry it looks like Apple Music Can't Play That" or "I don't Understand."
3. Command "play playlist (List NAME) shuffled", Siri "Sorry it looks like Apple Music Can't Play That" or "I don't Understand."

It doesn't appear that "shuffle" is part of the bug, since the issue occurs with or without the shuffle command. Once out of approximately 30 times, a playlist did play, but I couldn't replicate it "working" again.

The commands above work normally when the Iphone is not in Carplay mode.

This is a work around for those with Apple Watch or iTunes Match Subscription.

From my observations Siri on CarPlay will only search the Apple Music Subscription for the playlist.

1. Apple Watch: For those with Apple Watch, this method bypass the Siri interface via CarPlay, simply raise the watch to your lips and say: “Hey Siri, play playlist x” and Siri will play flawlessly. Just have to make sure the “‘’Listen for “Siri” or “Hey Siri”’’ is activated on your watch. Search the web, if you don’t know how to do this;

2. iTunes Match Subscription: This is a more complicated work around and make sure you do this on WiFi; or else, the iPhone will gobble up your mobile data.:

• On your Mac or PC, on your iTunes app, Goto the “Settings” select “Sync Library”, then, “OK”. Following that - Click “File” - “Library” - “update Cloud Library”. This takes a while to complete.;
• Delete your music library from your iPhone :- Goto “Settings” - “General” - “iPhone Storage” - “Music”; then, scroll down to the middle of the page for ”Edit“, next to “All Songs” click on the red circle with “-“. Wait for a few minutes for the iPhone to delete all songs from the device.
• Goto “Settings” - “Music” - “Sync Library” toggle that option on.
• Open the Music app, from here you’ll find all your music library and playlist. At this point, the music library is stored online. Select the playlist that you use most often, you will find “+” on top of the screen, next to the name of your playlist. Click on the “+” sign to download the songs onto your device.

So, bear in mind, other then the playlist you have downloaded, the rest of the songs reside online, should you play all music while using CarPlay, you are using Mobile Data. Download as many playlist as you want and only ask Siri to play playlist.

From now on, until Apple Developers fix the Siri on CarPlay playlist search parameter, do not connect your device to your Mac or PC. Any music from iTunes to the devices will render playlist unworkable again.

Good Luck!!

This is a work around for those with Apple Watch or iTunes Match Subscription.

From my observation Siri on CarPlay will only search the Apple Music Subscription for the playlist.

1. Apple Watch: For those with Apple Watch, this method bypass the Siri interface via CarPlay, simply raise the watch to your lips and say: “Hey Siri, play playlist x” and Siri will play flawlessly. Just have to make sure the “‘’Listen for “Siri” or “Hey Siri”’’ is activated on your watch. Search the web, if you don’t know how to do this;

2. iTunes Match Subscription: This is a more complicated work around and make sure you do this on WiFi; or else, the iPhone will gobble up your mobile data.:

• On your Mac or PC, on your iTunes app, Goto the “Settings” select “Sync Library”, then, “OK”. Following that - Click “File” - “Library” - “update Cloud Library”. This takes a while to complete.;
• Delete your music library from your iPhone :- Goto “Settings” - “General” - “iPhone Storage” - “Music”; then, scroll down to the middle of the page for ”Edit“, next to “All Songs” click on the red circle with “-“. Wait for a few minutes for the iPhone to delete all songs from the device.
• Goto “Settings” - “Music” - “Sync Library” toggle that option on.
• Open the Music app, from here you’ll find all your music library and playlist. At this point, the music library is stored online. Select the playlist that you use most often, you will find “+” on top of the screen, next to the name of your playlist. Click on the “+” sign to download the songs onto your device.

So, bear in mind, other then the playlist you have downloaded, the rest of the songs reside online, should you play all music while using CarPlay, you are using Mobile Data. Download as many playlist as you want and only ask Siri to play playlist.

From now on, until Apple Developers fix the Siri on CarPlay playlist search parameter, do not connect your device to your Mac or PC. Any music from iTunes to the devices will render playlist unworkable again.

Good Luck!!

This is a workaround for those with Apple Watch or iTunes Match Subscription.

From my observations, Siri on CarPlay will only search the Apple Music Subscription for the playlist.

1. Apple Watch: For those with Apple Watch, this method bypasses the Siri interface via CarPlay, raise the watch to your lips and say: “Hey Siri, play playlist x” and Siri will play flawlessly. You just have to make sure the “‘’Listen for “Siri” or “Hey Siri”’’ is activated on your watch. Search the web, if you don’t know how to do this;

2. iTunes Match Subscription: This is a more complicated work around and make sure you do this on WiFi; or else, the iPhone will gobble up your mobile data.: 

• On your Mac or PC, on your iTunes app, go to“Settings” select “Sync Library”, then, “OK”. Following that - Click “File” - “Library” - “update Cloud Library”. This takes a while to complete.;

• Delete your music library from your iPhone :- Goto “Settings” - “General” - “iPhone Storage” - “Music”; then, scroll down to the middle of the page for ”Edit“, next to “All Songs” click on the red circle with “-“. Wait for a few minutes for the iPhone to delete all songs from the device.

• Goto “Settings” - “Music” - “Sync Library” toggle that option on.

• Open the Music app, from here you’ll find all your music library and playlist. At this point, the music library is stored online. Select the playlist that you use most often, you will find “+” on top of the screen, next to the name of your playlist. Click on the “+” sign to download the songs onto your device.

So, bear in mind, other than the playlist you have downloaded, the rest of the songs reside online, should you play all music while using CarPlay, you are using Mobile Data. Download as many playlists as you want and only ask Siri to play the playlists.

From now on, until Apple Developers fix the Siri on CarPlay playlist search parameter, do not connect your device to your Mac or PC. Any music from iTunes to the devices will render the playlists unworkable again.

Good Luck!!

I've been experiencing this same issue exactly as you stated. I'm hoping someone can help.

Same issue with Siri responding “Looks like Apple Music Can’t Play That” when I ask play playlist XYZ both on CarPlay and not on CarPlay. Restarting has no impact.

Yeah, and Apple moved all their engineers from the Apple Car project to iPhone software development. Unbelievable that they can't fix this 4 month old software bug.

The same error persists after upgrading from 17.7 to 18.0 on iPhone 12.

iOS 17.6 just released.

Good: Siri appears to execute playlist functions through the iPhone now.

Bad: Same old crap when iPhone is connected to Car Play. “Looks like Apple Music can’t play that.” My vehicle is a Honda. Perhaps others will have better luck.

My previous CarPlay issues have resulted in Apple blaming Honda and Honda blaming Apple.

Hopeless.

Same behavior here with 17.6. Siri can once again play playlists on the iPhone directly. However, Siri fails (“Looks like Apple Music can’t play that.”) when trying to play the same playlist when using Siri and CarPlay.

I like all you guys have had this infuriating issue for the past few months (sorry can’t remember the version)

I have updated to iOS 18.1 and still not working.

i have managed to fix this myself though by renaming my playlists, it’s not ideal and I have renamed to a name that consists of one word I.e “daily” playlist but it is now working as it was.

i know this isn’t ideal and not something we should have to do but I hope this helps some of you guys.

Ok, perhaps I wasn’t clear, so I had a playlist called “mix music” which Siri always identified when I said “Siri, shuffle mix music playlist” but this hasn’t worked for months. Today I renamed that playlist to “daily” and it works fine.

i also had for example another playlist called “Christmas music” which hasn’t worked either and I renamed that to “crimbo” and again that also works now.

hope this makes more sense.

thanks