SiriusXM: Music, Sports & News Reviews

I have multiple subscriptions and frankly only have SXM because of Howard. However, every single time I pause a live show for more than a minute, it “loses connection” and drops. This is not a wifi issue btw. That requires me to reopen the player, fast forward to the point in the show and start listening again! This was not an issue a year ago.

Secondly, I started listening to podcasts on SXM app. this year. Every single time I pause an episode the same thing happens noted above, and even worse some ADVERTISEMENT for some Entertainment Now channel 790 repeatedly breaks in and then interrupts a show, and begins blaring an ad for this stupid channel. This is every day up to a dozen times a day. The show is completely dropped because of this Ad! Considering I pay for uninterrupted shows (minimal normal podcast advertisements are understood) and no SXM ADS I expect to listen to anything on SiriusXM without eardrums being completely blown out by the sound level of the ad, and being irritated beyond belief that I cannot listen to anything that is talk or podcast without constant dropping out or being interrupted. Fix this error ASAP, it has been going on for at least 6 months. This is making me consider dropping all my subscriptions, you know I can stream music anywhere.

SiriusXM is awful. From what I’ve read about SiriusXM online, and from the many users who expressed the same complaints as me, I have a strong suspicion that the positive ratings on here are fake. Especially given the number of ratings versus the number of subscribers that Sirius has.

I’ve had SiriusXM for a while now. Like many, I suspect, I only use it to listen to the “Howard Stern Show.” But the various functions on SiriusXM that are supposed to enable you to restart the show from scratch if you don’t tuning immediately when Howard begins, well those functions don’t always work. And if you pause the show at any point, and go back to it, more than half the time it does not resume where you left off. Sometimes, it doesn’t even happen after a pause. If you are walking somewhere listening to the show but not in real time, and you walk through a store’s WiFi or something, the play jumps to the live feed. I’ve read that these problems are very common. A lot of people with SiriusXM express this same dissatisfaction. I have brought it to the attention of Sirius, only to be told that I should delete SiriusXM and re-download it. Their customer service is as bad as their app. Frankly, because I am so reliant on SiriusXM to listen, I am strongly considering canceling my subscription altogether.

NEW REVIEW (Feb. 2019): Another quick fix to the annoying download issue. Great response. App is back to working great.

OLD REVIEW (Feb. 2019): The new update is awful. It’s now back to the same issue of downloaded shows not opening from the last place they were being listened to. You can listen to a downloaded show for two hours and then when you go back to SiriusXM instead of it saving your place and continuing playing where it was, it goes back to some previous point at the very beginning of the show. Very annoying and it’s happened before. Thought they had it worked out but now this issue is back. Please fix as soon as possible as this makes SiriusXM almost unusable. Wish I never updated. Should’ve stuck with the last version that actually worked. Very angry.

OLD REVIEW (2018): Love the updated app. It’s the best. The addition of video is pretty cool, but the Stern Shows are loaded fast (usually same afternoon). Had an issue with holding place of downloaded shows, but it appears to have been resolved. A+

I have MANY apps on my phone and this one has to be one of the most unreliable. Too many issues to list here but the top two that make me crazy are #1 It stops working randomly mid shows, doesn't matter if its while listening to an on demand episode, a download or live. SiriusXM would go into a never ending loading state or just crash completely. #2 the most annoying and dangerous bug is when SiriusXM randomly starts playing in my pocket at the worst times. I listen to some XL rated shows with adult language and these shows that i haven't listened to for a few hours or sometimes haven't listened to that day at all will just start playing, full volume, in my pocket. SiriusXM is not running so i cant even kill it, i have to frantically turn the volume down then go into my control center and pause it. Its gotten to the point where if i’m going into certain places i have to turn my volume all the way down because i cant trust SiriusXM to not start playing, or i need to make sure the last thing i listen to is “safe”....Also when my phone connects to the bluetooth in my vehicles it just starts playing if i want it to or not, again SiriusXM isn't even running. Its ridiculous.....

We became this app listeners back at the end of 2012 when we bought our first car that had it. At the time, living in S.E. Missouri, the regular radio stations were horrible…..especially if you liked modern rock and modern metal! Eventually we moved to the southern tier of NY state and the radio stations here were no better. Once we got SiriusXM , we now listen all the time at the gym, out on the deck for BBQ get togethers and I’m in the process of opening a Microgreens business and listening to this app through SiriusXM during the shop setup and testing has been awesome. Stations 34 through 41 are the usuals….mainly 37 & 41. Being an old bass head from my late 80’s Cali days with the slammed street trucks, I sometimes do throwback days on 43. The selections that are offered are awesome! Life without it would be like “Masterbating with a cheese grater….sure it can be fun and exciting for awhile, but then it becomes dull and painful!” That one was for The “King of Douchbaggery” himself…..Lord Grant Random!

UPDATE: Thanks for adding the landscape mode back - although why on earth was it removed in the first place??? I have upgraded my rating from 1 star to 3 stars. What would give it one more star - display the times of the previously played RadioClassic shows. I have no idea what played when. You provide the option to listen to earlier shows, but the segments aren’t descriptive enough so I am having to go through all of them to find the show I want to listen to.

PREVIOUS REVIEW: As others have stated, not having the ability to view using landscape mode is very annoying. However, not nearly as annoying and useless as what the upgrade has done to the RadioClassics station. Before the update, I could see all the programs that played in the past 5 or 6 hours and select one of those shows - easily. Now —- you can’t see the time a previous show was played and have to guess which item it is in the viewable segments. Viewing all the segments is nearly impossible. No way to easily see and select earlier segments. The upgrade has made the RadioClassics stations impossible to navigate.

While I love the Sirius stations, the mobile app is problematic. Whereas Pandora almost never has any issues starting up and playing whether on WiFi or not, Sirius is horrible! 9 times out of 10 when I want to start listening I tap the station I want, from my favorites, and the little play arrow turns into a circle that spins for a very long time. Like, some days it does that for hours without ever playing. Yes, I have uninstalled and reinstalled SiriusXM . Yes I have closed SiriusXM and reopened. That has never changed anything. It is still very much a pain and very unreliable as to whether I will actually get to listen to anything via SiriusXM . On average I’d say it takes 15 -20 minutes to get it to start playing. This is regardless of whether I am in my office right by my wifi modem or out on 5g service. Just as problematic either way. Find out how Pandora is so reliable and do that, please. Otherwise, I won’t renew when this subscription expires.

Does Sirius even read these user reviews and care about customer service? For 2 months all my favorites keep getting deleted. Lately it seems to occur almost daily, sometimes even twice in a day. Before that it had been every couple weeks. I’ve seen other reviews claiming the same thing. Do you even read the user reviews? Last month I even sent a Feedback email to tech support reporting the issue and was given a response that they will reply back within 24 hrs. Nope. Nothing. Not even a follow up. And meanwhile, the problem has gotten worse and it’s very time consuming to constantly go back & forth re adding shows to the favorites list. In addition, 3 times in the past week and as recently as last night, I haven’t been able to access anything because SiriusXM keeps saying “we’re sorry but you seem to be offline. Please check your WiFi connection or try again later.” There’s been absolutely nothing wrong with my internet & WiFi. This used to be my favorite app and I use it daily mostly for MLB Radio. But lately SiriusXM has been horrible and I’m paying too much money for an annual subscription to put up with this crap.

Like me, you use your iPad in landscape mode. I’ve changed every relevant setting I can think of to get SiriusXM to load in landscape mode (as it once did prior to one of the latest updates) but, alas, to no avail. This is so much of a problem that saving the $20 a month I pay for this service is under serious consideration. It’s too much money to pay for the inconvenience of having to turn my iPad 90 degrees to read SiriusXM . I would have given it less than one star had that been possible.

Update: I’m happy to report that the people at Sirius were listening and have addressed this landscape vs. portrait mode problem. It’s nice to know that there are still some companies out there who listen to their customer’s complaints and respond to them positively, especially in such a short period of time. Happily, I will not have to cancel my subscription, and I can recommend SiriusXM without reservation at a solid 5 stars.

So glad they recently added Apple CarPlay, however it’s very buggy. Many times favorites don’t load, recents may not load, or the car play screen is just blank. It does work better if you unlock your phone first, but who can do that if your driving and have your phone put down (it auto locks fairly quickly). What is wrong with this app not offering chromecast functionality? It seems this would be the easiest way to get SXM in your house. To be able to chrome cast SXM would be a great asset to listen at home when doing household work. Other than the very buggy CarPlay support and lack of Chromecast feature, the sound quality is far better than what you get on the actual satellite. You also have access to many more channels and on demand content. This is why I prefer to use SiriusXM via CarPlay instead of my cars built in XM tuner. My car only goes up to channels in the 200’s. SiriusXM has channels into the 700’s! I’m no longer missing out on Faction or the Emo Project, indie 1.0, or Rock Bar. If only CarPlay worked all the time, this would be a killer app.

SiriusXM feels like it takes two steps forward, two backwards, and then one to the right. Constantly loses the settings I saved (tune start, streaming quality, etc), and then when it does retain them, they don't work (tune start recently stopped working?). The favorites screen only lets you see six stations at a time. I do not care about the logo of the station. I want to see 15+ stations AND the song that's playing. Oh and now playing? Who knows if that's accurate (hint: it's usually not). It doesn't update if SiriusXM isn't in focus, so I get to choose between my GPS app and this one during my commute. Finally, Madison continues to ruin the experience on many of my favorite stations. I do not give a flying fish as to what she thinks about literally anything. Her voice is annoying as it possibly can be, and she manages to be on one of the stations I listen to most during both my drive to and from work. I don't get why SiriusXM is so stagnant and doesn't improve regularly. If there was a term to describe the opposite of agile, it would be whatever SiriusXM is using.

Lots of glitz and glamour over the new features, & call me crazy, but it actually seems *harder* to just get to my downloaded shows now...
Also, if there’s something that looks cool on my home page, better remember it or keep swiping b/c it just scrolls away after a few seconds... sure it’s good to show the different options, but annoying. It also seems to have obfuscated which is actually a new show, or even to just get to what is actually playing live on 100 now. For all its faults, this was not an issue with the old version. All this complaining aside I do like the new app and addition of video clips etc. I’m just looking forward to some revision with usability/ease of use in mind—so keep it up dev team!! Thanks for a great app, I will change to five stars when updated! I do like the more streamlined way to manage/delete downloads and the addition of forward and backward skipping by a few seconds (which was sorely needed). So it’s great & I love it—that’s why I’m saying it just needs a few revisions to be the best in my opinion, thanks.

I use SiriusXM all day Monday through Friday and that involves opening and closing SiriusXM multiple times a day. At LEAST once a day it won’t load the Home Screen properly if at all and several times it tells me I’m not connected to the internet when I have full bars and can use any other connectivity app on my phone. It’s just Sirius that does it. I’m beginning to think the no internet error has something to do with CarPlay. If I unplug it from CarPlay and close SiriusXM and restart it, sometimes that works and then I just plug it back in once it’s working again. I deal with this several times a day.
Also, on demand shows are not always loaded or available next day like supposed to. Instead it finally shows up late afternoon or not until next day.
These issues won’t make me stop using it since I can’t miss my All Out Show on Shade 45 everyday in my work car…BUUUT, I’m not gonna lie when someone asks me if I like it or if I recommend it.

Hope you guys can fix it! Thanks!

The more I’m regretting my app update for it. Why would you fix something that was not broken?? I really hate this new update. There are more cons to point out than pro’s on this!
Con:
-No mix customizations (BIG NO!)

-No info description on each channel and shows within that channel, nor do they provide twitter/phone number to call in the radio channel!

-adding favorites just doesn’t work.

-backtracking only goes so much as 3 hrs instead of 6 hrs.

-there’s no schedule for when upcoming shows are going to broadcast.

-channel freezes and locks if your app ended up foreclosing on you or you foreclose SiriusXM . (I was always able to resume where I left off EVEN when I foreclosed it, now it makes me lose my place wherever I’m in. REALLY FRUSTRATING ESPECIALLY WITH GRATEFUL DEAD CONCERTS!!!!)

-no bright/dim light interface option, I hate how bright this design is now, especially late at night.

-takes longer to connect to audio when it used to not on data connection.

Pro’s:
-Video on-demand for Howard Stern

-audio scroller is a bit easier when you want to rewind or fast forward a lot.

And that’s all the pros that’s on SiriusXM. You have got some MAJOR EDITING to BRING BACK some of the old WITH the new! I feel like my subscription has just plummeted to a mediocre service, I’m really debating on cancelling if they don’t bring back and improve their main qualities of their app.

BRING BACK THE OLD APP!!!

I LOVE Apple Play, don’t get me wrong!! And unfortunately in some newer cars you’ll have to pay for the feature of have Apple Play. I can only assume it’s because the Xirius option is as basic as it can get. Normally, that’s nothing to be bothered about (I’ll just pay for the dealership to ‘install Apple Play’).
The eye opener for me was when I bought my now favorite modern car; A 2019 Hyundai Kona. It came with both higher ends of both media options. At first I stuck to what I knew, Apple Play. But the I started leaving Apple Play off, and realizing how much I was enjoying Xirius and the huge variety they offered. And, the price for a subscription was insanely good for all it has (you can customize what you want as well). My favorite is being able the listen to whatever I was, in the car, and picking it up again via my phone, or tablet.
Thanks for making options for consumers!!!

I would never promote you guys the worst customer service I’ve EVER HAD I work at the T-mobile call center service and this would be unacceptable and what would be Labeled a “customer mistreat”. You couldn’t refund me my money because service were so call provided after a free trial was over. Your team didn’t even take the time acknowledge the fact that I’ve tried reaching you guys multiple times to cancel service BEFORE THE TRIAL ENDED but because yall chose to continue a service I was not using or paying for anymore this is my fault. Then soon as I got money on the card that was on the account that yall stopped trying to charge, you went ahead and took the money today. This morning I finally got a hold to someone after calling three times because the 1st two tries I the reps hung up and the messaging team I contacted before y’all opened they reply when they want. You won’t get a message back in time unless you text them multiple times or say a bad review and this happens when your ALREADY CONNECTED with a rep. Its obvious I wasn’t using the service why else would I call for a $8.79 refund it’s not that much money.

This review is for SiriusXM and it’s performance on car play. To be clear SiriusXM works great on the phone but the main reason why I have SiriusXM and the main reason why I’m subscribed to Sirius XM is to use it in the car via CarPlay. After the iOS 15 update SiriusXM really doesn’t work on CarPlay. Doesn’t load anything, favorites don’t load at all and recents load sometimes and sometimes doesn’t. Literally SiriusXM is useless at this moment. No matter what I do, wether I open SiriusXM on the phone first and then on Carplay. I reinstalled SiriusXM . I reinstalled CarPlay. I logged out and then logged back in. Restarted the phone multiple times, NOTHING SEEMS TO FIX THE ISSUE. I am currently using the Sirius XM on the cars native system but because of that I’m now forced to decide wether listening to the cars native this app or using CarPlay and not listen to this app because I can’t have both systems open and working.
Hopefully there is a fix for this on its way but they should have somehow predicted and prevented this since iOS 15 beta has been out for a while and they had an opportunity to test SiriusXM with the new iOS.

When I open the this app mobile app on my iPhone running iOS 14.7.1 (this issue has been happening for the last year and before release of iOS 14) when i see a song title i like on a particular station, i select it and listen to the song, if the next song played isn't for me, i look for a new song title on a different station…”This is when the PROBLEMS start”…all the stations showing songs that are currently being played, ARE NOT the songs being played when you select that channel !?! This happens everyday when i use the mobile app on my cell phone while using home wifi or my Sprint mobile data plan…my husband has the same cell/same iOS, but with TMobile…and has exact same issues. The only way to correct this glitch, you need to get out of the mobile app and then re-launch/log back into the this app app on your cell, so the mobile app refreshes the channels. Can you please fix this!! It’s very frustrating…thx, customer since 2013

I can no longer listen to regular FM radio. I love my Sirius.

Wish you would have done more of a tribute to David Cassidy. A channel for a short time in his honor would be amazing.

At the same time, 70’s On 7 should be playing more of David’s stuff from his solo albums, as well as Partridge Family recordings; definitely not enough of the latter, and absolutely none of the forbearing.

David broke many records for various things in his career, which widely go unrecognized. I was really disappointed to see no periodicals in his memory, especially a Rolling Stones mag dedication. Such a talented artist should be remembered.

I also enjoy 60’s On 6 to get my Mad Men fix; love your regular morning DJ - he’s been everywhere!

Cowboy Bob & the 40’s Channel are greatly appreciated when I’m missing my grandparents. I also use the Toddler Channel a lot for my grandchildren. And when I’m feeling a little blue, it’s wonderful that I can listen Christmas music any time of the year to cheer me up!

Any chance we could have a Dean Martin channel for a short while? Frank’s channel don’t play him enough. What a legend!
And believe it or not, Lawrence Welk still has a huge fan base that tunes in to Public TV every Saturday night to watch his reruns... The Welk Channel, at least during the holidays ?

Love you guys. Never go away!

Sincerely,
Faithful Subscriber Cindy Beye
Marshall County, Iowa

No matter how many updates they release, SiriusXM is still a PIECE OF JUNK. And I'm tired of being polite about it. First, the saved on-demand favorites randomly disappear causing me to have to re-save them. Sometimes a reboot will bring them back, sometimes not. This bug has been in the last 3 or 4 versions. Also, SiriusXM won't "let go" of what I was listening to before to go to live or another choice. Example, listening to an on-demand news episode and then wanting to go to the live channel, the wheel just spins and spins and the eventually goes back to the main menu with the prior show still stuck in the player. Shutting down SiriusXM and restarting doesn't fix it. And there is no longer a go "Live" button in the on-demand GUI. The only workaround I've found is that you have to change to another channel and then go back to the channel you want in order for the player to clear and "let go" of what you were previously listening to. Is there some excuse this app can't hire competent developers to fix SiriusXM? Especially since we pay extra to use it???

By purchasing the high end this app service for one satellite receiver, you get this excellent streaming capability as a free bonus. If you have a smartphone with a decent data plan, you don’t need to increase satellite charges by adding a subscription for the other vehicle(s). Get it for one, then use your phone to stream the web based service thru the Bluetooth or cable connection to the audio system in your additional vehicle(s). It’s a terrific bargain for me, as I have 2 cars and two RV’s, and I can get full channel service for all four with just one subscription. Also, for those with vehicles (like my truck camper) that have difficulty getting a clear usable obstruction-free sat signal for their partially shadowed antenna, you can subscribe to service for the vehicle radio, then when in conditions when your antenna isn’t reliable, switch to using your smartphone for streaming to that radio from the same sat account via cell service providers. Thanks this app for offering this excellent, flexible service at a fair package price!

UPDATE: Happy that you quickly fixed the landscape iPad issue.

CarPlay app is kind of a hot mess. When it works it shows there is tremendous potential for it. But alas, it doesn’t always work. Sometimes it just refuses to stream or update or show anything really. Then there is the sporadic but extremely annoying display of channels and favorites. Often it will only show the first couple of pages of channels and favorites. You can’t see any of the higher numbered channels or favorites that are on the later pages. This is super annoying and I really wish this would be fixed.

Finally, Apple Watch app with stand-alone playback on cellular. Please, please, please with a cherry on top.

OLD REVIEW: I’m very happy with the performance and new design. It has been working great. Hopefully you bring landscape mode to iPad as the newest version doesn’t have it.

Also I really hope you consider an Apple Watch compatible app. Nothing would compliment my cellular Apple Watch more than being able to stream Sirius XM on it. Your UI wouldn’t have to be that complicated. A simple way to select stations and pause, play, volume, favorites, etc. Come on guys and gals. I know you can make this happen.

Also I’m having an issue with my favorites not showing all the stations on all devices. My iPhone seems to show them all but my iPad does not. Hopefully the synchronization of favorite stations across all devices can be fixed.

Nice app for the most part, but some silly omissions...Volume Bar for iPad?..., iPhone has it...albeit flawed...it needs to stay on the screen permanently and be further down so you don’t run into the other bar above it that handles rew/ff.... I waited for years for a last channel "jump to" button so you can quickly toggle between two channels?!?
Recent‘s from the latest update covers that... it’s about time!
I have felt for years like the people who develop SiriusXM never use it, because if you’ve ever used a television remote control in your life an A/B button and the volume button is what you use the most and if you haven’t noticed, the volume buttons on phones are often not so easy, particularly if you have a case on it! Thus the volume needs to stay on the LCD screen at all times not appear and disappear ...once you have touched the button on the side, why would you then need to then slide over to the one that appears on the screen.. it’s moronic!!
Someone needs to make more of an effort and this can be 5 stars!

What’s the point of having a download feature if I still need a connection?? I’ve downloaded on-demand episodes, and they played back fine, until I lost my cell/WiFi signal (my commute includes areas w slow to no connection for stretches). So to me this means that SiriusXM is not accessing whatever file is downloaded locally to the phone, and I’m using data to access something I supposedly downloaded to use later. Downloads in previous versions were buggy (also looked for data connection), but I eventually was able to get to episodes already downloaded.
Please fix this!!!
Update: so the top complaint (landscape on iPad) is fixed, but downloads still don’t work. Yes the downloads complete (didn’t have that issue previously), but you CAN’T ACCESS the “downloaded” files. I get the spinning icon over the play button when selected from the downloads folder (buried in the settings area as ppl have complained about before) and essentially freeze SiriusXM . Who do I have to call to get reimbursed for all the data I’m burning through since I can’t download over WiFi to then listen later???

I use SiriusXM all the time and I’m really frustrated by some of the changes in the update. It’s fine for listening to music but I also love the Radio Classics channel and the update is horrible for that. You used to be able to see the past few hours of individual shows, as well as the upcoming few hours of individual shows. Now all it shows is the past 45 minutes or so and the title of the hours long “Radio Classics” or “ When Radio Was” but not the individual programs being broadcast. And shows what commercials are played during that 45 minutes. Who would care about that?! It also used to let you choose individual programs as favorites to star ( The Jack Benny Program or Suspense, for example). Now the only options appear to be the 2 Radio Classics or When Radio Was shows ( which consist of several hours of individual programs that seem to be impossible to see within SiriusXM now). Why would an update provide fewer features than the old version ? Very frustrating. Please fix.

Even in this age of overstimulation and emphasis on the visual, listening to a good old radio show is still a totally fulfilling experience and one that is uniquely “my time”. Do you listen. You reflect. And you can do something else all the while (like drive, guard a present pod, or fix somebody’s rear left suspension housing) without feeling held hostage at all.

A lot of people who don’t have the time to read a lot get the majority of their outside perspectives on life from listening to the radio on that daily commute, when they are, for a time, a ‘captive audience’ for life‘s commentators. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your perspective.

But at least it allows them to think about topical stuff for a minute… And in that time their mind escapes some of that add you to build up by the daily grind.

I have loved having this app. I received it as a gift from my daughter so I could listen to baseball. With it, I can hear our beloved Cleveland Indians from my home in New England. (We lived in northeast Ohio for 17 years.). Problem was it took days and several calls to get what my daughter paid for. The station I needed didn’t come in on my radio and it seemed to be quite a problem to get it to work. Worse yet, my husband on a totally different account tried to add the Indians station, and while this app was quick to charge him for the extra station, they failed to let him know that for some reason his brand new car had the wrong type of radio to get the higher stations. (He already has a basic XM radio package, so still have no clue what the issue was.) The reps that help are very nice, but it should be as easy to get the stations you are looking for, as it is for the XM folk to take your money.