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kyle76
User level: Level 1 (10 points)

macOS Music app won’t play older library songs after a 27.1 update; files exist and play after re-import

Environment:

  • Mac running macOS 27.2 (previously 27.0; 27.1 released around September 21, 2026)
  • Music app, library of about 10,000 songs in roughly 70 playlists (I cannot simply reimport 10,000 songs because that will take too long)
  • Library folder: ~/Music/Music/Media/ (many files are stored elsewhere on the laptop)

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Open the Music app and select a song added before September 21, 2026.
  2. Click Play.

Expected result: The song plays.

Actual result: Nothing happens. The title never appears in the status bar, and no error is shown.

What I’ve verified:

  • The affected songs show the correct file location in Get Info, and “Show in Finder” opens the file, so the file is present and reachable.
  • Songs added after September 21, 2026 play normally. Songs added before that date do not.
  • Affected and working songs show the same cloud status icon. Only one song shows the missing-file exclamation mark, and that file was deliberately deleted.
  • Get Info on working songs shows an encoder tag (LAME or LAVF). Affected songs have no such tag.
  • Importing a copy of an affected song produces a new entry with the encoder tag, and that copy plays.
  • Playing a copy in Finder or QuickTime was not yet tested. [Add the result if you test it.]

Impact: Users with large libraries built before a certain date cannot play those songs without re-importing them. Re-importing a library of this size means rebuilding playlists, which is not practical.

Requested fix: Make the Music app play existing library songs without requiring re-import, and explain what changed around September 21.

Attachments to include if possible: a screenshot of Get Info for one working and one broken song, and the output of afinfo for each.

Posted on Oct 28, 2026 8:19 AM

2 replies

kyle76 Author
User level: Level 1 (10 points)

Oct 28, 2026 9:16 AM in response to kyle76

here's an update. i've done more research:


Expected result: The song plays.

Actual result: Nothing plays. The title never appears in the status bar, and no dialog or permission prompt is shown.

What I’ve verified:

  • Get Info shows the correct file path, and “Show in Finder” opens the file, so the file exists and is reachable in Finder.
  • The same files play normally in QuickTime Player.
  • Songs added after September 21, 2026 play in Music. Songs added before that date do not, and they are in different folders.
  • The Music unified log (captured at 11:59 on October 28, 2026) shows the playback failure:
    • MPCEnginePlayerError Code=16 "Player item failed", with an underlying error of NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=257: “The file couldn’t be opened because you don’t have permission to view it.” (NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-12203)
    • Kernel lines in the same window: System Policy: Music(7664) deny(1) file-read-xattr path:/Users/.../myself/genesis 44.mp3 xattr:com.apple.FinderInfo
  • Music does not appear in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access.
  • Resetting Music’s Documents Folder approval with tccutil reset SystemPolicyDocumentsFolder com.apple.Music did not change the result.
  • Folder ownership and permission bits are the same for a working folder and a broken folder (owner kylefoley, group staff, drwxr-xr-x, no ACL).
  • Adding a missing encoder tag to a file (verified with ffprobe) did not change playback. The encoder tag was ruled out as the cause.
  • Ruled out: the audio stream data, which is identical between an original and a re-tagged copy.

Impact: Users with large libraries cannot play older songs stored outside Music’s own folder after updating to macOS 27.2. Re-importing hundreds or thousands of songs to work around the problem would require rebuilding playlists, which is not practical.

Requested fix: Allow Music to read existing library files in user folders as it does newer files, and explain the permission or privacy change that began around September 21, 2026.



here is what console showed when i tried playing the song that failed


error 11:59:11.370440-0400 kernel System Policy: Music(7664) deny(1) file-read-xattr path:/Users/kylefoley/Documents/resto/languages/greek/audio/authors/myself/genesis 44.mp3 xattr:com.apple.FinderInfo

kyle76 Author
User level: Level 1 (10 points)

Oct 28, 2026 9:21 AM in response to kyle76

another console read is Error Domain=MPCEnginePlayerError Code=16 "Player item failed" ... NSUnderlyingError=... {Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=257 "The file couldn't be opened because you don't have permission to view it." ... NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-12203


I should also note that these are audio books which I myself created so of course I have permission to listen to them and they work on other apps.

Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256384640