iOS 15 Podcasts app - Up Next gone screwy

@DTSmith1 - yes that was my experience too! I’ve seen some folks say if they add a new episode to their playlists that it may be recoverable … I destroyed my chance to do this before hearing that but maybe it’ll work for you 🤷🏽‍♀️

I have been having this problem as well, and it's driving me insane (literally)! I listen to a lot of podcasts while I'm driving, and I can't very well be going through and repopulating my Up Next queue while doing that. Even when I'm not driving, though, it's still annoying.

From what I've observed, the Up Next can sometimes be "brought back" if you add an episode of something to it. That doesn't always work, however. Most of the time, it just clears everything out and I'm back to square one. I also can't seem to figure out what causes it. Sometimes, the queue will stay stable for a whole day, even if I'm not listening to it nonstop. Other times, I can pause a podcast to make a single phone call and when I return, I'm playing a different episode of a different podcast!

This is really something Apple needs to fix.

Just keep submitting feedback with the link the person above provided.

I hope they release an update within the next few weeks because I seriously am about to give up trying with this dysfunctional app.

I am also still seeing this problem after the latest OS update, with it now failing sometimes within 15 seconds of pausing a podcast on the app. It will fail if I pause my podcast, place my Airbuds Pro in my ears and click to continue playing - at that time, it will skip item(a) on my list or what I was already listening to.

I am also seeing an effect when using my AirPods Pro to pause and/or start a podcast - my queue seems much more likely to vanish when I do this, as opposed to using my iPhone directly (although it does happen when using my phone, just less often).

I left feedback (again) and included a link to this thread, for what that’s worth.

I'm on iOS 15.1, and this is happening to me just about every time I haven't listened for a day or so. And I usually find out when I've gotten in my car and started driving. It even forgets the podcast that I'm halfway through listening to, and starts playing an old episode. It happened before iOS 15, but only rarely.

I'm on an iPhone 7+.

I think I’m noticing that as long as my queue only has one episode from each show it doesn’t disappear. Last day haven’t noticed issues. Clearly Apple needs to fix this problem. I wish they would seamlessly sync podcasts queues across my phone, iPad, Mac, and watch.

I did the same. Have been using Google Podcasts now for about a month & no issues at all. Only 1 of the podcasts I listen to isn’t available on Google Podcasts but to be honest I really don’t mind because I don’t have to worry about all the issues with the Apple podcast app (they don’t seem to care if they lose people as their app has been buggy for so long now). I think I’d stay with Google even if Apple “fixed” it, just don’t trust the app now!

I have this problem too. I’m so sick of the new podcast update. I’m listening to a podcast from 2019 and downloaded 10 episodes but it plays from newest to oldest instead of other way around. And it also plays an episode then another and then the 1st one again even though it’s marked as played. Plus I can’t see what episodes are in the que in advance so I’ve to manually play each episode I want. Sometimes I want to listen to 3 episodes of something and after 1 or 2 the app will play an episode of another show altogether (and the most recent episode of that show too, regardless of whether or not I’m up to date on that particular show. It’s infuriating!!!

Similar to what others have said, I like to use the Up Next list to order my podcasts. But there have been a number of issues lately.

• Far too frequently, when I've left the app for some time the entire Up Next list disappears. Sometimes there simply is no Up Next list at all. Sometimes it assumes I'll just want to continue listening to further episodes of the same podcast.
• When I go to re-add episodes to the Up Next list, sometimes adding a single episode will cause my old list to suddenly reappear back as it was, but now with that single episode also in the list. So I have my list back, but need to remove the one I just added because it's now there twice.
• But sometimes, adding an episode again does not trigger the old list from reappearing. So I have to just go on adding the entire list back again.
• Perhaps the most maddening thing is when I go back to the Podcast app and my Up Next list is still there, but the currently playing episode has been added to the top of the Up Next list. So when the episode ends, the next episode is the one I just finished. I'm constantly deleting this phantom repeat of episodes.

Sadly, nothing in podcasts is mentioned in the bug fixes included in 15.2, but I'm going to hope something is there anyway. I really don't want to switch to a new podcast app, but you never know what motivation a long weekend with idle time might create.

Yes I went through and added about 50 episodes in my up next queue. Its been about 3 weeks and the queue hasn't moved and my episodes play the next one appropriately with no issues saving my spot when leaving and re-entering the app like it was previously. Again I hope its a sign they fixed it but I wouldn't be surprised if the issue happens again as it took way to long for this to be resolved.

i transerred to google podcast last fall when this happened and like its format and features. however it crashs about 10 times every morning before i am able to play it. i feel like apple ios is crashing it on purpose to prevent use of google app.

I have a ticket with Apple and no troubleshooting steps work and they claim I’m the only one with the problem. They refuse to believe that they clearly have a bug affecting a knowledgeable user.

I am trying Castbox. I´m liking it.

But I´ll use it some more days before deciding.