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Audio problems: music and podcasts skipping in iOS 11.3

Users have been reporting problems with audio playback since upgrading to iOS 11.3. Specifically, music and podcasts have been stuttering and skipping, ocassionally missing a few seconds or playing silence for brief moments. The issue seems to be sporadic, but can be pretty annoying to those who experience it.

Music, Spotify, Podcasts, and Castro are all confirmed the be affected; it’s safe to assume all apps involving audio playback are suffering to some degree. It doesn’t seem to make a difference whether the tracks are downloaded or streaming over the internet. Some reports suggest that only older devices are affected, though we’ve had similar problems on an iPhone X so we suspect any iPhone model could suffer from this problem. It’s unclear whether iPads are suffering from the same issues.

One thing’s for sure: if you’ve experienced any kind of playback quirks recently, don’t delete your apps or change to a new music player in an attempt to fix things. It sounds like an iOS problem affecting all audio sources, which will (hopefully) be patched with an update very soon now the issue is out in the open. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an alternative fix in the meantime.