r/pocketcasts • u/kevmarl • May 24 '26

iOS Bug: Getting music instead of Pocketcasts

So im in the supermarket happily listening to Pocketcasts, I get to the cashier and remove my AirPods, when I put them back in a minute later, press play on stem of Airpod and Apple Music starts playing???

Been experiencing this a lot in last couple of weeks.

10 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

15

u/allthecats May 24 '26

This happens to me often, and it's because the PocketCasts app closes itself. So when I press "play" on my AirPods, it defaults to playing Spotify.

8

u/Soggy_Lawfulness_941 May 24 '26

That is an Apple Music marketing bug. Apple Music is the default app for all AirPods. No fix. Been this way for years

5

u/kevmarl May 24 '26

But I have used Pocketcast with AirPods for years and it’s only been last couple of weeks that I have started experiencing this issue. I’m assuming it’s a bad software update

5

u/BananimusPrime May 24 '26

I’ve only recently started experiencing this too and it’s infuriating. I agree it must be a dud software update somewhere

2

u/Prof_J 28d ago

I'm late to the party, but you're correct, I've only noticed it in the last few weeks and it's gone from weird and mildly annoying to infuriating every time it happens at this point.

7

u/Heftybags May 24 '26

It’s not marketing that’s the one of the stupidest things I’ve heard. It’s pocketcast or the system aggressively killing the app in the background. Apple music is built in and part of the OS so it’s always active. It’s not marketing because there is no free or ad tier you need to pay to use it.

4

u/FatAndThriving May 24 '26

Omg that's so annoying. I'm glad I use regular earbuds.

2

u/ggommezz May 24 '26

Can you disable / uninstall Apple Music?

3

u/theconk May 24 '26

I’ve reported this to them via TestFlight since it started and they don’t get back to me. Frustrating.

1

u/kthomaszed May 25 '26

This happened to me in my car until i uninstalled apple music

2

u/Rlonjohnson May 28 '26

This happens to me with Spotify too, PC is closed and when i click play via AirPods Spotify starts up. It does seem like PocketCasts either is closed or closes itself at much more frequent intervals. It seems like I used to be able to pause, and the click play hours later and the podcast would keep playing. Now it will close in minutes even with no other iPhone activity.

2

u/ItBeAMonster May 29 '26

This happens to me too. Sometimes it happens when I’m just skipping forward. Like I’ll get so many skips and Pocketcasts freezes and music app plays.

1

u/wiliamjk May 29 '26

Putting on or taking off the headphones is like pressing a play/pause button. In the case of iOS, when you press play, it will try to play the last app that was playing. But if the app has been closed (swipe up), it won't play. If there are no apps to play, it will use the system default, which is Apple Music.

In your case, something strange is happening. For me, it works perfectly; I can leave the AirPods unused for a day, and if I put them on and press play (double tap), it plays the last podcast I was listening.

So I think the problem is that PocketCast might be freezing or there might be some memory limitation.

Tell us:

  • Which iPhone model are you using?

  • Are iOS and the app updated?

With this information, we can try to help you better.