Rubenerd

This has been happening to me since the iTelephone 3G, on every iPhone OS/iOS version, on every phone. I:

1. play music or a podcast;
2. pause playback;
3. leave the phone for a bit;
4. press the headphone play button to resume; and then
5. Heartbeats by José González plays

It doesn’t matter:

• if I was playing music or a podcast
• if I was using an official Apple or third-party player
• the duration I was playing it for
• if I was using Apple headphones or not

Just that once a week, if not more, resuming playback just plays the first song on the first playlist in Apple Music, regardless of what I was listening to before.

One day I’ll narrow down the conditions to predictably reproduce this. Maybe it’s when the phone has low battery and suspends the original audio player. Maybe I’m pressing the headphone play button too long, or for not long enough. Maybe I haven’t had enough coffee, or too much.

If I could only ever change three things about iOS, it would be to have the discoverability of PalmOS, the closest we’ve come to mobile operating system perfection; the ability to also disable useless Voice Control when disabling Siri; and to Correctly. Resume. Playback! Flipping hell it’s maddening!

Other people tell me they don’t have this problem. That’s the great thing about anecdotes though, I have them too.