10 Ways to Fix Amazon Music Won’t Play

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Grace
December 2, 2024

Amazon Music is a fantastic streaming service, especially for Amazon Prime members, who can access Amazon Music Prime for free. Even if you’re not a Prime member, you can enjoy free playlists and stations with Amazon Music Free. For a premium experience, Amazon Music Unlimited offers ad-free, on-demand listening.

However, like any streaming service, Amazon Music can sometimes encounter hiccups. If you’re facing issues like buffering, pausing, or songs not playing correctly, don’t worry. Here are some effective troubleshooting tips to get your music back on track.

Solutions to fix Amazon Music won’t play

  1. Check Your Network Connection
  2. Restart the Amazon Music App
  3. Restart Your Device
  4. Change Audio Quality
  5. Remove and Download Again
  6. Clear Amazon Music Cache
  7. Update the Amazon Music App
  8. Reinstall the Amazon Music App
  9. See If Amazon Music Is Down
  10. Download Amazon Music to MP3

1. Check Your Network Connection

For uninterrupted music streaming, a stable internet connection is essential. Ensure that your device is connected to either Wi-Fi or a mobile network. If you’re using a mobile network, check if your Amazon Music app settings permit cellular data usage.

Enable Amazon Music to Use Cellular Data on iPhone

  1. Go to device Settings on your iPhone.
  2. Select “Apps” and tap on Amazon Music.
  3. Turn on “Cellular Data.
Cellular Data

Enable Amazon Music to Use Mobile Network on Android

  1. Open the Amazon Music app on your Android device and tap your profile picture at the top left.
  2. Select Settings.
  3. Under “PLAYBACK”, tap on “Audio Streaming Network preference.”
  4. Select “All network connection types” to allow the Amazon Music app to use mobile data.
All Network Connection

2. Restart the Amazon Music App

If the Amazon Music app doesn’t respond, you can force it to close and then attempt to reopen it.

Force Stop the Amazon Music App on iOS

  1. From the Home Screen, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause in the middle of the screen.
  2. Swipe right or left to find Amazon Music.  
  3. Swipe up on the app’s preview to close Amazon Music. 
Force-close-Amazon-Music

Force Stop the Amazon Music App on Android

  1. Open your device’s Settings app.
  2. Go to Apps.
  3. Select the Amazon Music app.
  4. Select Force Stop.
Force Close Android

Force Amazon Music to quit on Mac

  1. Press these three keys together: Option, Command, and Esc
  2. A Force Quit window opens. Select Amazon Music, then click Force Quit:
    force quit on Mac

    Mac-Force-Close

    Force Quit Amazon Music on Windows

    1. Press the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys at the same time.
    2. Then select Task Manager from the list.
    3. Click on Amazon Music.
    4. Click End task to close the program.

    3. Restart Your Device

    If relaunching the app didn’t resolve the problem, try restarting your device. This can help address system glitches that might be affecting the app’s performance. Restarting your device can also improve internet connection speeds and ensure proper app processing.

    Before you turn off your device, make sure to close all running apps. After turning it off, wait for at least one minute before powering it back on. This should restore the Amazon Music app to normal functionality.

    4. Change Audio Quality

    If you’re an Amazon Music Unlimited subscriber, you have access to a vast library of over 100 million songs in High Definition (HD) and millions in Ultra High Definition (Ultra HD). You can check the audio quality of the song you’re playing with the Amazon Music app. If a song is available in HD or Ultra HD, you’ll see the corresponding badging on the Now Playing page.

    Keep in mind that if your device doesn’t support playback of 16-bit/44.1kHz and higher quality, you might encounter playback issues with Amazon Music. In such cases, consider switching your Amazon Music streaming audio quality to Standard or Data Saver to ensure compatibility with your device.

    Follow the steps below to adjust the streaming audio quality of Amazon Music.

    1. Launch the Amazon Music app on your device.
    2. Tap your profile picture or the gear icon and select Settings.
    3. Choose the Streaming Audio Quality under the PLAYBACK section.
    4. Choose Standard or Data Saver under WIFI or MOBILE DATA. This will lower the music quality for smooth streaming.
    Amazon Music Audio Quality

    5. Remove and Download Again

    If the songs you’ve downloaded are corrupted, it can lead to Amazon Music not playing issue. To resolve this, you can try deleting the affected songs from your Amazon Music library and then re-download them to your device.

    Here’s how to remove and re-download the songs from Amazon Music:

    1. Open the Amazon Music app on your device, go to your LIBRABY, and tap Recently Downloaded.
    2. Locate the downloaded song you want to remove and click the three dots on the right.
    3. Choose Remove from Library to delete the song from your library.
    4. Search for the song in the search bar to download it again.
    Remove Downloads

    6. Clear Amazon Music Cache

    Cache files are temporary files stored on your device to reduce loading times and improve performance. However, they can become corrupted and cause playback problems. To address intermittent app performance issues, consider clearing the cache in the Amazon Music app. Learn how to clear the cache on various platforms such as Android, Fire Tablets, iOS, PC, and Mac.

    Clear Amazon Music cache on Android and Fire Tablets

    1. Open the Amazon Music app and tap the Settings icon in the upper right corner.
    2. Choose Settings from the list that appears.
    3. Scroll down to the Storage section.
    4. Tap on Clear Cache.
    Clear-Cache

    Amazon Music clear cache for iOS

    There is no option to clear all Amazon Music caches on iOS devices. To refresh data, select the Gear Icon (upper right) > Settings > Refresh My Music (bottom of the page).

    Refresh-My-Music

    Clear Amazon Music cache for PC and Mac

    There are three different ways to refresh the data of Amazon Music on your PC or Mac.

    1. Log out and Sign in again to the Amazon Music app to enable a library resync and refresh data.
    2. Remove the Data folder that is in the following locations:
      • Windows: Click the start menu and in the search box type: %userprofile%AppDataLocalAmazon MusicData and hit enter.
      • Mac: In the Finder menu, select Go > Go to Folder
        type: ~/Library/Application Support/Amazon Music/Data
    3. Reload Music of the Amazon Music app with the following steps:
      • Windows: Profile > Preferences > Advanced > Reload My Music? and click on Start Reload.
      • Mac: Amazon Music > Preferences > Reload Library and click Continue.
    Mac-Reload-Library

    7. Update the Amazon Music App

    Outdated apps can often lead to crashes, instability, and various issues. To ensure smooth performance, it’s important to have the latest version of Amazon Music. Here’s how to check for updates:

    1. Open the app store where you initially installed Amazon Music on your device.
    2. Search for the app and open its detail page.
    3. If an update is available, you’ll see an Update option.

    8. Reinstall the Amazon Music App

    If your Amazon Music app is consistently not working properly, there might be issues with its core files. In this case, the best solution is to uninstall the Amazon Music app, and then download and reinstall it from the app store on your device.

    By doing this, you’ll remove any problematic files and replace them with fresh, error-free ones. Once the app is reinstalled, sign back into your Amazon Music account and resume streaming.

    9. See If Amazon Music Is Down

    Like other streaming platforms, Amazon Music’s servers can experience outages, leading to streaming problems within the app. When this happens, you may encounter the issue where Amazon Music won’t play.

    You can verify if the service is experiencing an outage by visiting websites like Downdetector. It provides information about ongoing outages for Amazon Music as well as other streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.

    Amazon Music report

    If Amazon Music’s service is temporarily down, you’ll need to wait until it’s restored by Amazon. Once it’s back up, you can resume enjoying your music as usual.

    10. Download Amazon Music to MP3

    Another approach to fix Amazon Prime Music’s won’t play issue is to download songs in MP3 format for offline listening.

    Amazon Music Prime members could download songs for offline playback, but the download feature is limited to All-Access Playlists. On the other hand, Amazon Music Unlimited members can download songs, albums, and playlists to listen offline. But the downloaded content – whether with Prime or Unlimited plans – is protected by DRM. This means they can only be played within the Amazon Music app and cannot be transferred to other devices.

    Luckily, there is a professional Amazon Music Downloader – Pazu Amazon Music Converter that allows you to download any songs, albums, and playlists from Amazon Music Prime/Unlimited to MP3, M4A, AAC, FLAC, WAV, and AIFF. This way, you can listen to your favorite tracks anywhere you’d like, using applications like iTunes, Windows Media Player, or your MP3 player. Moreover, the audio quality and original ID3 tags of the downloaded MP3 files are preserved.

    Amazon Music Free doesn’t support offline playback. However, with Pazu Amazon Music Converter, you can also download songs to MP3 with Amazon Music Free. Now follow the tutorial below to learn how to convert Amazon Music to MP3 with a few steps.

    1. Run Pazu Amazon Music Converter

    Download, install, and launch Pazu Amazon Music Converter on your computer, then click the Sign In to log in to your Amazon account.

    Amazon Music converter

    If you have purchased a license, click the key icon to register the converter. If not, continue using the trial version.

    2. Choose the output format

    Click on the Settings icon in the top right corner and select the output format such as MP3 and FLAC, etc.

    Amazon Music converter

    3. Add songs, albums, or playlists

    Select the desired songs, albums, or playlists you wish to download. Once you open an album/playlist and tap the red Add button suspended on the right side, you’ll be presented with the list of songs.

    Amazon Music converter

    All songs in the playlist will be added by default. Click the check box next to the track that you don’t want to convert.

    Amazon Music converter

    4. Convert Amazon Music

    Click the Convert button on the bottom right corner, and Pazu Amazon Music Converter will automatically download and convert Amazon Music tracks to the default folder on your computer.

    Amazon Music converter

    When the conversion process finishes, you can browse all the converted songs in the history list by clicking on the  icon. And now you’re prepared to stream your Amazon Music songs anywhere.

    Amazon Music converter

    MP3 songs downloaded with Pazu Amazon Music Converter are tagged correctly. MP3 players read artists, songs, and other information from the ID3 tag that is embedded in the MP3 file.