Why the sample rate switches mid-track to the next track on Mac.
Apple Music prepares the next track before the current one ends. A switcher that takes the prepared track's format as what is playing now switches early.
Quick answer.
Your output device's rate is right at the start of a track, then changes partway through the same track to the next track's rate. You hear a short interruption, and the rest of the track plays at the wrong rate.
Music reports the prepared next track's format while the current one is still playing, and a switcher that applies it moves to the next track's rate too early. This happens with Song Transitions, AutoMix, and Crossfade off, so turning them off does not fix it. It is not tied to one macOS version or one tool: it was reported against LosslessSwitcher in January 2025 and again in September 2026, and reproduced on a fork.
Audex Trace keeps its readout and Auto Sample Rate Match on the track that is playing, so a prepared next track normally does not move them until the track actually changes. This is best effort, not a guarantee.
What it looks like.
Consider a 44.1 kHz track followed by a 96 kHz track in your queue. At the start of the first track, your DAC shows 44.1 kHz. Somewhere during that track, sometimes in the middle and sometimes in the last few seconds, the DAC jumps to 96 kHz. The music drops out for a moment while the DAC re-locks, and the rest of the 44.1 kHz track is played with the output at 96 kHz, so macOS resamples it. When the 96 kHz track starts, nothing changes because the device is already at 96 kHz, so the switch looks correct again.
You see Audio MIDI Setup's sample rate for the output device, the DAC's own display, and the switcher's menu bar readout all move at the same moment.
The timing is unpredictable because it depends on when Apple Music decides to prepare the next item, which depends on buffering, track length, and queue changes.
Why it happens.
Apple Music on macOS prepares the next item before the current one ends so playback continues without a gap. It does this with Song Transitions, AutoMix, and Crossfade off as well; those features are not needed for the early switch to happen.
A switcher that applies the newest format Music reports applies the next track's rate when the next track is prepared, not when it starts.
Anything that makes Music refresh its player state mid-track can trigger the same read: queue edits, Play Next, metadata or artwork updates.
Where it has been reported.
- vincentneo/LosslessSwitcher issue #159, opened 2025-01-09: switches to the next track's rate instead of the current track's. https://github.com/vincentneo/LosslessSwitcher/issues/159
- vincentneo/LosslessSwitcher issue #231, opened 2026-09-29: macOS 27.0 (build 26A428), Music 1.7, LosslessSwitcher 2.0 and the horikei525 fork 4.4.2, iFi Go Bar. Correct switch at the start of the track, then a second switch partway through to the next track's rate; the reporter could not predict the timing. A contributor's comment on 2026-10-09 attributes it to Music preloading the next track and points to pull request #225 (opened 2026-09-20), which only runs detection on a real track change, resume, or seek and picks the log entry closest to that event. As of 2026-11-03 that pull request is open and not in a release. https://github.com/vincentneo/LosslessSwitcher/issues/231
These are two documented reports, not a measurement of how many people are affected.
What makes it worse.
Apple Music's overlap features (Song Transitions, AutoMix, and Crossfade) play two tracks at once around every track boundary on purpose. With them on, the prepared track's format is reported far more often while the current track is still playing.
Trace's Playback Verification screen states: "Song Transitions, AutoMix, or Crossfade can delay sample-rate switching. With one of them on, the sample-rate switch can land up to about 20 seconds after a track change."
The settings are in Music > Settings > Playback. AutoMix may be on by default on recent macOS versions, so check rather than assume it is off.
What Audex Trace does.
Trace's readout and Auto Sample Rate Match follow the track that is playing. A prepared next track's format is normally not applied until that track starts, and a format change within the playing track still updates the readout. This is best effort rather than a guarantee.
In Trace Pro, Playing Next lists the upcoming queue, with artwork and estimated format, separately from the track that is playing now.
In the developer's testing with Song Transitions, AutoMix, and Crossfade off, on macOS 26.3, 26.3.1, 26.4.1, and 26.5, and with earlier builds on macOS 15.4, the readout and the automatic switch followed the playing track. With AutoMix on, in the developer's testing on macOS 26, the readout moved to the next track when it started playing, and Auto Sample Rate Match waited for Music to finish handing over the previous track before switching. Crossfade has not been tested separately, and macOS 15 has not been checked with these features on.
Trace is signed and notarized, needs no logging configuration profile, and requires a macOS administrator account because standard accounts cannot read the playback logs.
What Trace does not fix.
The brief dropout when a DAC changes sample rate is the device re-locking to a new clock. Trace changes the device rate the same way other switchers do, so that gap exists with Trace too. This page is about switching at the wrong time, not about the gap.
With the overlap features on, the automatic switch comes late on purpose. Changing the rate in the middle of a blend makes Music break it off and start it again, so Trace waits until the handover ends. That can be a few seconds after the track change, up to about 20 seconds in the worst case, and macOS resamples the start of the new track until then.
Trace does not take exclusive control of the output device and does not claim bit-perfect output.
Check it on your own Mac.
- In Music > Settings > Playback, turn off Song Transitions, AutoMix, and Crossfade.
- Queue a 44.1 kHz track followed by a 96 kHz track, or any two different rates.
- Open Audio MIDI Setup and watch the output device's sample rate during the first track.
- If the rate changes before the first track ends, you are seeing the preload switch.
- Download Audex Trace and run the free Playback Verification. It shows the detected track format, the current output format, and whether Trace can match them on this device. It changes nothing unless you press the apply button.
To compare tools and setups, read Audex Trace vs LosslessSwitcher and check tested setups. For the separate case where the rate never changes at all, see the sample rate mismatch guide.
Verify playback for free.
Play a track in Apple Music, open Trace, and confirm detection on your Mac.
Common questions.
No single version. Reports exist from January 2025 and September 2026; macOS 27 is the most recent. The mechanism, Music preparing the next item, has existed for years.