The Albums tab was being populated with Companion API IDs (companion:Album Name|Artist Name) instead of real Navidrome IDs. Every time the Companion sync ran, it overwrote the valid Subsonic album cache with these synthetic IDs. AlbumDetailView would detect the companion: prefix, load songs from the Companion API instead of Navidrome, and those songs have Companion song IDs that Navidrome can’t stream.

The Artist → Album path bypassed this entirely because it navigates via artistId which fetches albums fresh from Navidrome each time.
After installing this and doing a pull-to-refresh, the Albums tab will use real Navidrome IDs again. You may need to clear the app’s cache once if the stale Companion IDs are already persisted — Settings → clear library cache if that option exists, or just force-quit and relaunch after refreshing.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Shared/Audio/AudioPlayer.swift

@@ -705,6 +705,13 @@ class AudioPlayer: NSObject, ObservableObject {
     // MARK: - AVPlayer Path (streams + fallback)
     
     private func playWithAVPlayer(_ url: URL) {
+        #if os(iOS)
+        let isStream = url.scheme == "http" || url.scheme == "https"
+        let display  = isStream
+            ? "\(url.scheme ?? "")://\(url.host ?? "")...\(url.lastPathComponent)"
+            : url.lastPathComponent
+        DebugLogger.shared.log("▶ \(display)", category: "Audio")
+        #endif
         alog("AVPlayer path: \(url.scheme ?? "file")://...\(url.lastPathComponent)")
         stopAll()
         
@@ -720,7 +727,30 @@ class AudioPlayer: NSObject, ObservableObject {
         
         let asset = AVURLAsset(url: url)
         playerItem = AVPlayerItem(asset: asset)
-        
+
+        // Observe item status — catches stream 404s, auth failures, and codec
+        // errors that AVPlayer swallows silently otherwise
+        #if os(iOS)
+        let itemToObserve = playerItem!
+        Task { @MainActor [weak self] in
+            for await status in itemToObserve.publisher(for: \.status).values {
+                guard let self = self, self.playerItem === itemToObserve else { break }
+                switch status {
+                case .failed:
+                    let err = itemToObserve.error?.localizedDescription ?? "unknown"
+                    let urlStr = url.absoluteString.contains("stream") ? url.absoluteString : url.lastPathComponent
+                    DebugLogger.shared.log("✗ Playback failed: \(err) | \(urlStr)",
+                                           category: "Audio", level: .error)
+                case .readyToPlay:
+                    DebugLogger.shared.log("✓ Ready: \(url.lastPathComponent)", category: "Audio")
+                default:
+                    break
+                }
+                if status == .failed { break }
+            }
+        }
+        #endif
+
         if player == nil {
             player = AVPlayer(playerItem: playerItem)
         } else {
@@ -1702,3 +1732,4 @@ class AudioPlayer: NSObject, ObservableObject {
         stop()
     }
 }
+

Shared/Storage/OfflineManager.swift

@@ -247,7 +247,7 @@ class OfflineManager: ObservableObject {
             let filename = (ds.localPath as NSString).lastPathComponent
             let url = downloadDirectory.appendingPathComponent(filename)
             if fileManager.fileExists(atPath: url.path) {
-                print("[OfflineManager] ID changed: \(ds.id) → \(song.id) (\(song.title))", flush: true)
+                print("[OfflineManager] ID changed: \(ds.id) → \(song.id) (\(song.title))")
                 return url
             }
         }

iOS/Data/SyncEngine.swift

@@ -321,14 +321,15 @@ class SyncEngine: ObservableObject {
         await setProgress("Syncing Companion library...")
         DebugLogger.shared.log("Companion sync started", category: "Companion")
 
-        // Fetch albums with correct sort order from Companion
+        // Fetch albums from Companion for sorting/metadata purposes
         let companionAlbums = try await service.fetchAllAlbums()
         cache.cacheCompanionAlbums(companionAlbums)
 
-        // Overwrite standard album cache with Companion-sorted data so
-        // MyMusicView and search results immediately reflect correct ordering
-        let standardAlbums = companionAlbums.map { $0.toAlbum() }
-        cache.save(standardAlbums, key: "all_albums")
+        // Do NOT overwrite "all_albums" with Companion IDs.
+        // Companion album IDs are synthetic ("companion:{name}|{artist}") and
+        // unknown to Navidrome — AlbumDetailView would fail to stream any song
+        // because getAlbum(id:) returns nothing for those IDs.
+        // The Subsonic-fetched all_albums (real Navidrome IDs) stays as-is.
 
         DebugLogger.shared.log("Companion sync: \(companionAlbums.count) albums", category: "Companion")
         await MainActor.run {