iOS 15 Podcasts app - Up Next gone screwy

I just upgraded to 15.2, and first impressions are that it is fixed. As soon as the upgrade finished, the false “queue” - multiple episodes of a single show that I never chose, that can’t be moved or deleted, and that always fall below an episode I tell the app to play “last” - vanished, and episodes I added to the queue last night were still there this morning. Fingers crossed. It would be really nice to this app working again. It’s been a pain to live with it for all this time.

It’s a disaster. I add podcasts to my list, but when I close the app and go back later, it wants to start on a different podcast episode and the play next list has disappeared. I’m looking for an alternative.

I've upgraded to iOS 15.2 and it hasn't fixed it. I'm still seeing old played episodes in "up next" list and once something I have added is in the queue I cannot remove it unless I clear the entire list (or wait for the app to screw it up).

Interestingly what I am auto-offered by the app differs where I am navigating from - e.g. Listen Now vs Library, and within Library Shows vs Downloaded vs an individual Podcast page.

In case anybody at Apple actually cares (hard to believe) here is another example. As I left my house I prepped the app - made sure it was still playing the episode I was part way through and the "up next" was the next episode I wanted to play. I got into the car (no more than 10 secs), turned on the engine and once the phone connected to the stereo it started playing a 3 week old episode that I had already removed from my Downloads. Infuriating.

I've downloaded Overcast onto my phone, but hadn't started using it yet because I don't want to listen to a bunch of adverts (yeah I know £10p.a. to avoid ads). I don't think I have a choice anymore. This Podcast app is now just utter rubbish. I hope the Dev Team all get coal in their stockings.

This has been happening to me too! It’s driving me nuts. It would happen every once in a while but now it clears literally any time I exit the app or pause for more than 20 minutes. I can’t believe they’re not fixing this.

I’m also having this issue. Nothing new to add; I follow several podcasts and like to arrange them in the queue for the day and now when I pause or stop listening for a minute they are all gone and replaced with all the episodes from the podcast I was listening to. It’s extremely frustrating. Please fix this issue.

sometimes it does it even in the middle of going through! i don’t have to leave it alone. it’ll be actively going through the queue and then suddenly it isn’t. it’s extremely frustrating. i also regret updating.

What I have to do to get my podcast playlist back is go to podcasts —> library —-> latest episodes —-> then select any episode to play later and my playlist will reappear. Waaaay too much work just to get the playlist back but it does work.

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!!!

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.

This has actually gotten worse. I can create a list of 5-6 episodes in Playing Next and by the time the current episode finishes playing, the list is deleted. Worse yet, it repeats the episode I just listened to. Please fix this, it's super frustrating and has greatly diminished my enjoyment using my iPhone 12.

I think I have validated the solution provided by another respondent. I'm sorry that I don't have the respondent's ID.

I turned on "Background App Refresh" in Settings > Podcasts. Previously, it was off.

The misbehavior has gone away. I still have occasional glitches, but the "Up Next Gone Screwy" seems to have gone away. I'm still wondering why Background App Refresh is now necessary, but that's for another time.

I'm having a similar issue. When I go to a podcast's page and tap "Play Latest Episode" it adds the last 50+ episodes to the queue as well. The same thing happens if I just click on the newest episode and play it. The episodes are all previously played so it shouldn't do that, and it didn't do that before the update. Super annoying! 

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.