Dear Apple, Please Fix iOS Music

Dear Apple,

I don't like complaining. Let alone starting a new year with a complaint. But I've been sitting on this for a while, and New Year's Day is apparently the first block of free time I've had to write about it.

Making things is hard. Collaborative software development is hard. I get it. I've mostly ignored UX and bugs over the years because the benefit I get from running a primarily Apple ecosystem at home is so much greater than the pain of any one app. But I'm consistently frustrated now: the iOS Music app's UX is buggered.

It starts with a simple question: How do I search my music library for a purchased song?

I feel like this should be easy. I kind of expect it to be easy given how much money I've paid you for music over the years. It used to be easy.

Alas.

Step 0: Disable Apple Music

In Settings, I have disabled the "Show Apple Music" toggle. I have also enabled the "Show All Purchases" toggle. These settings have been like this for years.

Step 1: Open the Music app

Step 2: Tap the Search bubble

I've finally gotten used to the search bubble being in the bottom-right.

Tapping Search sure does a lot of things other than bring up a search box, hey.

Step 3: Huh.

I thought I disabled Apple Music.

What am I searching here?

What is Apple Music Live?

What happens if I tap on any one of those selections?

Actually, I'm curious: let's see what happens.

I get sent to a Store-like page containing dozens of links to songs that I can't play. Tapping any of the greyed-out links pops a modal asking me... to pay for Apple Music.

Step 4: So where the hell is my library search?

Oh! I have to tap the search box (again), providing an intent to search Apple Music first.

I really thought I disabled Apple Music.

Now that I'm searching Apple Music I can see there is a tab to search my Library instead.

I'm sure tapping "Library" will save that selection for next time. After all, I've disabled Apple Music. 👀

(To elaborate: it does, but not between app launches, which is a shame because I close apps regularly.)

Step 5: Search for a song

Step 6: Cry

This is one of the most painful iOS interaction patterns I have to deal with, multiple times a day.

Please fix iOS Music.

Seasons greetings for 2026,

David.

P.S: While we're here, why are there two X buttons right next to each other that do exactly the same thing? I might be conflating Safari and Music here, but the location change of "Submit" to be part of the keyboard has tripped me up so many times. Not because its location was changed (this I'm fine with) but because the original button was replaced with a destructive operation that does exactly the opposite of what it used to do.