Apple Music no longer jettisons apps from the Dock with iOS 15.6 installed

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How to manage your Apple Music subscription
How to manage your Apple Music subscription (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • The coming iOS 15.6 update will fix an issue that caused Apple Music to replace third-party apps in the Dock.
  • The fix is already part of the second iOS 15.6 beta that is now available to developers and public beta testers.

Apple's recent iOS 15.6 beta 2 release appears to have fixed a strange issue that caused the Apple Music app to take the place of other apps in the Dock.

The issue, which first came to light last month, meant that downloading the Apple Music app would see its icon take a spot in the Dock, often replacing whatever was already there if there was no space available. It didn't help matters that only third-party apps were kicked out of the dock and that, predictably, caused uproar — with some suggesting that this was an intentional move on Apple's part. Apple subsequently confirmed to iMore that that wasn't the case and that a fix was being worked on.

With the release of iOS 15.6, that fix will be implemented.

While some would argue that Apple Music is the best iPhone music streaming app in the App Store, not everyone would agree. Even those who would agree might not want it in their Dock, making this a bug that could affect everyone. The good news? The fix is coming. The bad news? We don't know when iOS 15.6 will be released to the public.

It's likely that update will arrive relatively soon, however. The software is already in the hand of developers and public beta testers and Apple is set to begin the iOS 16 beta program in less than a week — when the WWDC22 opening keynote takes place on June 6. It isn't unheard of for Apple to run two beta programs simultaneously, but it's unlikely to want to do it for too long.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.