iOS 15 Podcasts app - Up Next gone screwy

Absolutely infuriating. I have exactly the same issues. It started with the same podcast repeating after it had finished, which even happened in IOS14, but now with IOS15, it won’t keep my queued podcasts.

this is not what we pay good money for. Sort it out Apple!

I’ve been using the b 3 t a since July. And I reported this issue in the first week of July. Not only do they know about it, but they’ve categorized the issue as “more than 10” people have reported it (“more than 10” is the highest category they have). But they still don’t have a potential fix in the pipeline.

A related issue is that Podcasts seems to be purged from the memory too quickly. That’s why you’ll come back to podcasts after a few minutes of pausing and it will have reset to the Listen Now page. This is the point at which the Up Next list disappears.

I’ve given up on adding multiple episodes to Up Next. I just add the next episode to Up Next during the last 30 seconds of the current episode. Maybe next year there will be a fix.

I had over 60 podcast episodes in my play next queue and they’re all gone. I spent 45 minutes going back through and trying to locate which ones were on the list (I download before adding them to the queue).

I finally had it all fixed and they were deleted again this morning!!!

I am tired of this happening after each major iOS update.

I have exactly this problem and it is driving me mad. HOWEVER, I have found that if I find the play next queue cleared and then add another episode to the list, it will reappear. I can then just clear out any duplicates and keep listening - at least until I stop listening for a while and the problem reoccurs.

The other thing is that the episode I am currently listening to will also frequently appear as the first episode in play next so I just make sure I check the list and clear that first episode.

Same issue here. Erased app and reinstalled and persists.

Support team recommended force restart. If didn’t work, restore all settings. If didn’t work, erase all data + settings and restore from backup.

I refuse to erase all data. so after restoring all settings and bug persisting, I have just downloaded another app.

Same issue. Manually added Up Next will clear out if I pause the episode and exit the app. Sometimes episodes will repeat even if the Up Next has cleared. I exclusively listen to podcasts so it’s extremely frustrating having to go back and add 10+ episodes of a podcast 200+ episodes deep every time I pause the freaking app. Come on!!

Ok so I have been down and back with Support since the release of iOS 15 (contacted them day of release and been in contact since) and here's what we've found. If you ignore the message, PLEASE READ THE LAST TWO PARAGRAPHS. It's a call to action that needs to be done so Apple will prioritize this issue.

When the podcast app is force closed or is booted from the RAM (timed out due to not being used), the Playing Next queue mysteriously disappears. I use the word "disappears" because it's not technically gone. If you try to play a new podcast episode, it'll ask you if you want to resume with your queue after finishing the episode or clear the queue. That's because the queue still "exists".

So the podcast app timed out for the millionth time and your queue is gone again. Pick some random podcast episode and add it to the queue (either play next or play last, really doesn't matter) and boom, your queue with everything that you added to it previously will reappear. Every time this happens to me, I just add a random episode as "play next" and then go into the queue and delete it (I add a TON of episodes in advanced so this still saves me a ton of time).

The other weird thing about this is when doing the above trick to get the queue to reappear, if this is the first time you did it since that current episode has been playing, it will appear as a duplicate in the queue (like if you're listening to X episode 48 and it times out, you get the queue to reappear, and X episode 48 will show as the next show to play in the queue even though you're listening to it right now). Dunno why that happens but just be aware and delete it when it reappears in the queue. It's always next or second if you added a show to play next in the queue so it's easy to find and isn't hidden.

Support sent it to engineers and they pushed back saying they no longer work on Apple Podcast app. If you report the issue to Apple Support, NOTHING CAN HAPPEN. For everyone who is suffering from this issue (should be everyone), you have only two ways to report the issue that will actually be heard for it to be worked on. The first way is in the podcast app, go to any show or episode of a show, tap the three dots, then tap on "report a concern." Feedback type is "Broken Feature" and for "Broken Feature" I put other (seeing as the issue is the "Playing Next" queue, not the "Listen Now") and report it there. The second way is to go to the website on a browser (Apple's site /feedback) and under services, select Apple Podcast. It'll take you to the same place the app takes you. Make sure to use feedback type "Broken Feature"

The support agent made it clear they have no way to report the issue as their teams don't work on the Apple Podcast App anymore so everyone please report the issue using the method above. This is the only way they'll listen and actually prioritize/work on this issue. Also this will be where you report Apple Podcast issues in the future.

I got off a support chat with Apple. After giving me a bunch of troubleshooting steps including deleting the app and reinstalling it (which nuked my library and history) they found that this is an issue known to Apple and that it will be addressed in a future version.

Losing my library and history freed me from Podcasts it feels like, so I stepped over to Castro now.

Yeah dude it is ridiculously stupid. I was just listening to a podcast and when it ended it stopped. I checked what the problem was and my playlist is gone again. BUT if you try to choose a podcast it asks you if you want to clear the podcasts I just added to the queue that it isn’t playing or showing.

[Edited by Moderator]

@ those of you who’ve left the native podcast app— did you have backlog of episodes to transfer? I’m pretty behind on a lot of stuff and when I looked into leaving before (I hated what iOS 14 did to the podcast app) I couldn’t transfer them without adding each episode individually— and we’re talking hundreds here (which is why I need my queue left the fuck alone but I digress)

Somehow this problem is getting worse. Up until a week or so ago I could get the ‘playing next’ list to work intermittently but now it breaks every time and even loses the episode I am listening to if I pause the episode. Please, please fix this Apple.

This happens to me as well. It usually only does it if I close out the app entirely but just now it did it while the app was up but PAUSED. I don’t have the time to rebuild my queue every time the podcasts app chooses to retain or erase it. @apple please fix this issue immediately because it seems this is upsetting enough people to stop using the product.

It's driving me nuts. I load up before a long trip – download and plan the shows in their proper order – and it works fine until I stop for the night (or even a long break). Next day they're all gone and I have 20 episodes from the last show I was listening to as the only things in the queue – and they have no handles so I can't remove them! Now I have to start all over again someplace where I can find wifi.

Sucks!

I haven't seen any improvement in behavior in iOS 15.1. The "up next" queue is still not preserved if you leave the app for any amount of time, and I'm also noticing that some podcast will repeat as well. This is especially frustrating living in a rural area where I count on downloaded episodes in my queue to get me through the work day.

I have this issue as well, as I live in a rural area and can't rely on a data connection to stream episodes.

If you have the episodes downloaded, you should be able to go to "Library" and then "Downloaded" to re-add the episodes to the queue again (without wifi). This is the best solution I have found while we wait for a fix.