Can’t Share Playlists on Apple Music? Try These 5 Steps

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Are you stuck trying to share your Apple Music playlists?

Get in line! Thousands of people encounter this problem daily. While Apple Music offers fantastic features, its performance issues have caused several users to cancel their subscription.

And to be honest, I don’t blame them. Sharing playlists is really fun and helps us stay connected and discover new music. But not being able to do it can be really annoying.

Hopefully, with the help of this article, you’ll be talking about your favorite songs with your friends in no time!

The 5 fixes to share your Apple Music playlists are:

  1. Set up your profile.
  2. Create a new playlist.
  3. Remove privacy and content restrictions.
  4. Turn off your VPN.
  5. Restart your device.

Keep reading to fix this annoying issue!

#1 Set Up Your Profile.

While some people like to keep their music for themselves, others love sharing it with their closest friends, family, and even social media followers.

Music has started great conversations, and a lot of people appreciate discovering new music genres. This is why, almost every music streaming service offers the option to share playlists with others.

But sometimes, doing it on Apple Music may be tricky.

If you can’t share a playlist with your friends, the first thing I recommend doing is setting up your profile.

Please note that having an Apple Music membership is not the same thing as having a profile.

Creating your profile is really quick and easy, just follow these steps: (Android and iOS users)

  1. Open Apple Music.
  2. Tap on “Listen Now” located at the bottom of the screen.
  3. Go to your profile icon in the top right-hand corner of your screen.
  4. Choose “Set Up Profile”
  5. Tap on “Get Started”
  6. If you want, change your profile picture, then press “Continue to Find Contacts”
  7. Select friends you’d like to follow.
  8. Choose who can follow you, then select the playlists you want your friends to see.

If you want to set up your Apple Music profile from your computer, follow these steps:

  1. Go to iTunes.
  2. Sign in to your Apple Music account.
  3. Click on “For You” at the top of your screen.
  4. Press on the “My Account” button in the top-right corner of the window.
  5. Click on“Get Started”
  6. Follow the instructions to create a username, follow friends, and share playlists.

If you want to share playlists only with your friends and family, make sure you select “People You Approve” when you get to the “Choose who can follow you” section.

Once you’ve set up your profile, try sharing your playlist again. You can easily share it by following these steps:

  1. Open Apple Music.
  2. Tap on “Library” at the bottom of your screen.
  3. Go to “Playlists” and select the playlist you want to share, then open it.
  4. Tap on the three dots icon at the top of the screen.
  5. Select “Share Playlist”

#2 Create a New Playlist

If you’re still struggling because you can’t find the “Share Playlist” button, you may want to create a new playlist.

You might be wondering why creating a new playlist should solve the problem, and the reason might surprise you.

Apple Music may encounter different performance issues depending on the software version your device is running on.

If you created the playlist you’re trying to share while having an older software version (iOS or Android), but then updated your device, the “Share Playlist” button may not appear.

Fortunately, this can be easily fixed by following these instructions:

  1. Launch Apple Music.
  2. Tap on “Library” at the bottom of your screen.
  3. Add a new playlist. You can use the same name of the faulty playlist.
  4. Go to the playlist you want to share.
  5. Tap on the three dots icon at the top of the screen.
  6. Select “Add to a Playlist”
  7. Select the new playlist you created.

By doing this, all your songs will be automatically copied to the new playlist and the problem should be fixed.

You can now delete the old playlist to avoid further confusion.

#3 Remove Privacy and Content Restrictions

While privacy and content restrictions are great if you have a child or are looking for increased security, they may also limit certain actions, such as sharing information with contacts.

If your privacy and contact restrictions and enabled on your phone, this might be the reason why you can’t share playlists with your friends.

Follow these steps to disable restrictions:

  1. Go to Settings
  2. Select “Screen Time”
  3. Tap on “Content & Privacy Restrictions”
  4. Turn off the “Content & Privacy Restrictions” button.

If you want to enable this feature again after sharing your favorite playlists, you can do it by following the same steps from above.

#4 Turn Off Your VPN

Virtual private networks have fantastic advantages. They establish secure connections to ensure our privacy while navigating and allow us to access international streaming content.

However, streaming services put a lot of effort into blocking VPNs because of their licensing agreements. Apple Music, for example, has to negotiate licensing and distribution terms to offer certain songs on its platform.

If you’re using a VPN, Apple Music may be restricting some features in your account, and this may be the reason why you’re not being able to share playlists with your friends.

Luckily, the solution is really simple. You’ll just have to turn off your VPN.

To turn it off on an iOS device:

  1. Go to Settings
  2. Select “General”
  3. Tap on “VPN & Device Management” and disconnect.

To turn it off on a Windows PC :

  1. Type “View Network Connections” in the search bar at the bottom of your screen.
  2. Look for the VPN you’re using
  3. Right-click on it and select “Disable”

#5 Restart Your Device

There’s probably not a single person on this planet who hasn’t experienced glitches, bugs, or other performance issues while using their devices or a specific app.

It is extremely normal for devices to encounter some issues while their coding is running in the background. This could explain why your playlist was impossible to share.

Great news, though! This can be easily fixed by fully closing Apple Music and restarting your device.

The process of closing an app may vary depending on the phone you have; but generally, you can do it by simply swiping upwards at the bottom of your screen and the swiping up again on Apple Music.

After doing that, I recommend restarting your device. This simple action may help clear your RAM memory, giving your device the chance to fix any performance issues it might’ve encountered.

Conclusion

Sharing playlists feels like a new way of expressing what we feel with those closest to us.

Music unites us all.

This is why not being able to share your favorite playlist with your friends can be really frustrating. Luckily, with the 5 fixes mentioned in this article, the problem should be gone.

Sometimes setting up your account, creating a new playlist, or turning off your VPN will make the “Share Playlist” button on Apple Music visible.

I really appreciate those who read our content. Here, at Tech Detective, we’re passionate about bringing quick and easy fixes for annoying issues to everyone.

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