Level 3 (740 points)

iOS 27 - Music app album download button stuck and unresponsive

It appears that the album download button is stuck on its "available to download" image and has no functionality on certain albums in the library. I believe this affects albums where metadata changed between the time of purchase versus the present, i.e. same album is still available for purchase, but some minor change in the metadata (provided by the record company) makes the same album "available for purchase" again to your account.

See the screenshots attached for an example - this Beatles record was purchased years ago (and still recognized as a purchase within the Music app) but because of some metadata change to the album from UMG and subsequently provided to Apple Music, the Store thinks it is still available for me to purchase (indicated by "Show Complete Album"):

The bug here is that once the download button is used to download the album, it fails to change into a checkmark indicating that the album has been downloaded locally, despite the "downloaded" arrow indicator being present on the individual tracks. Furthermore, clicking on the button again has no effect - normally, you would have the options of "Delete Album" or "Only Remove Downloads"...... here, nothing.

The only way to remove downloads of this situation is through Settings > Apps > Music > Downloaded Music. The tracks will then be removed. However, using the download button through the Music app will repeat this ugly process once songs/albums are downloaded in this manner.

I've logged this as a bug via Apple Feedback... wondering if anyone else is experiencing similar.

[Edited by Moderator]

Posted on Oct 17, 2026 8:20 AM

3 replies

Steve A. Author

Level 3 (740 points)

Oct 17, 2026 8:52 AM in response to Kilgore-Trout

Force restart had no effect, nor a manual hiding/unhiding of the album in question. Button still exhibiting same spurious behavior.

It’s not limited to that one (just happened to be that the Beatles were the last artist I was perusing) - I replicated with a couple of other Beatles albums (Live at the BBC, Love, etc.). The only common denominator is that these are all albums where some minor metadata change (ISRC, fix to song title, etc) occurred between the time of purchase (pre-2024, let’s say) versus if purchased today (or recent past).

Out of curiosity, do you recall when you purchased that album (in my example)?

I think some bug was introduced in iOS 27 involving purchased albums of this nature. This wasn’t happening in iOS 26 (my iPad is still on iPadOS 26.7.1 and this feature is behaving as usual). Hence the bug feedback request. Also noticing that many purchased albums (not necessarily subject to metadata change) do not have the “Only Remove Download” option - only the option to “Delete Album”, which forces the album into a hidden state. (downloads have to be removed manually via Settings)

Kilgore-Trout

Level 8 (43,363 points)

Oct 17, 2026 8:31 AM in response to Steve A.

Download is working as expected for me (check mark appears, option menu appears when pressed). I’m running iOS 27.0.1, tested on the same album as you have in your screenshot. If it’s a bug, it isn’t a widespread one. Asking if someone else experienced it would be sort of pointless. You can search the forum for recently posted issues.

Otherwise, try a forced restart: Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

Kilgore-Trout

Level 8 (43,363 points)

Oct 17, 2026 9:06 AM in response to Steve A.

Steve A. wrote:

Out of curiosity, do you recall when you purchased that album (in my example)?

I didn’t purchase it. I subscribe to Apple Music. But, no, I didn’t have that particular release in my library. However, I recently cleared out all of the downloads on that Phone, and subsequently redownloaded a few. No issues.

Instead of going down rabbit holes chasing what may or may not be a “bug” why don’t you reach out to Apple Support, see what they have to say: Contact - Official Apple Support

Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256377860