How to download music to Apple Watch

With watchOS 4, the Apple Watch is the best it has ever been. Even simple things such as displaying music playback controls when you’re listening on your iPhone makes it a very handy wearable.

If you’re heading out and you don’t want to take your iPhone, then you can download music to your Watch in advance and listen to it on Bluetooth headphones.

You can transfer albums and playlists, simply by synching them from your iPhone. What you can’t do (at least with the stock apps) is to sync audiobooks and podcasts).

We explain how it’s done.

How do I transfer music to my Apple Watch?

First, put your Watch on its charger (yes, annoyingly this won’t work when it’s on your wrist) and make sure that it’s charging properly.

Double-check that Bluetooth is definitely turned on on your iPhone, then open the Apple Watch app and tap on the My Watch tab at the bottom of the screen.

Scroll down until you see Music, tap on it then tap Add Music…

It’s then a case of choosing which albums (or genres or artists) and playlists you want to sync.

While your Watch charges, the music should sync. If you open the music app on your Watch, you should see a white circle rotating to indicate the album is being synced.

You may find some or all of the music you want is already on your watch. By default music that you listen to a lot will be synced automatically thanks to the ‘Heavy Rotation’ feature.

If you subscribe to Apple Music, the Favorites Mix and New Music Mix playlists will be automatically added to your Watch too.

To listen to music from your Apple Watch, you’ll need to have paired some Bluetooth headphones with it. If you haven’t a message to say so will pop up with an option to connect the headphones there and then.

If you want to remove music, maybe to free up storage space on your Watch, then repeat the process for adding it. On the ‘Add music…’ screen, swipe each item left and tap Remove. It’s that simple.