Pixel’s Now Playing Hasn’t Been Working Properly Since Last Year

Google Pixel devices have some useful exclusive features that other Android offerings don’t. “Now Playing” has always been one of the most appreciated exclusive options. However, for some time now, many Pixel phone owners have been reporting that Now Playing doesn’t work properly—or doesn’t work at all.

Now Playing is a feature that allows Pixel devices to automatically identify music playing around you. It displays both the name of the song and the artist on the phone’s lock screen. Plus, it saves a log of all the songs you encounter in your day-to-day. This is pretty handy if you heard a song on the street or in a bar and want to add it to your playlist later.

Google Pixel users report severe issues with Now Playing

Now Playing is different from Google’s “Song Search” widget available on all Android phones. The latter has to be manually triggered when you want to identify a song, which makes it less practical—though still useful. That said, Pixel device users have been reporting severe issues with Now Playing for quite some time now. Basically, the feature doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do: recognize songs. This happens not only with automatic detection but even when manually enabling song scanning. The Pixel phone just displays a “No Music Found” error message most of the time.

The issue doesn’t seem to be limited to a particular Pixel model or Android version. There are reports from owners of virtually all Pixel phones since the Pixel 6 series. The bug was first raised in mid-2024 on Android’s Issue Tracker, but the post is still receiving responses, indicating that it’s still occurring.

Interestingly, an Android System Intelligence update from last month included a fix for an issue related to Now Playing. However, the update dealt with an issue with the Album Art displaying, although many hoped that it would also fix song detection. Sadly, that didn’t happen.

A potential workaround that could help you

There’s a suggested workaround that seems to be a hit or miss, as it hasn’t worked for everyone. Basically, you need to clear the Android System Intelligence cache. You can do this from Settings > Apps > All Apps > Android System Intelligence > Storage & Cache > Clear Cache.

There’s no official word regarding a possible fix for the problem yet. Many have even disabled the feature completely. Let’s hope that the Mountain View giant doesn’t take much longer to solve the bug that is affecting so many Pixel users.