The three "Recents" playlists not updating on iPads when adding songs to playlists

This worked! Thanks!

From my experience, the Recents aren't so much "stuck" as they appear to be in a backlog. Using the suggestion from mrmax1986, I just kept adding the same song to the top playlist in the three "Recents". That top playlist would go away, and then I'd add it to the next playlist that rose to the top of the three "Recents". Sometimes one of the playlists would reappear, but that is simply because the playlists can be in the backlog multiple times (at least this is how it appeared to me). My Recents had been "stuck" since Dec. of 2023 (four months), so my backlog was VERY long. I think I added my song to over 20 playlists before the Recents FINALLY started showing playlists that were actually recent... if the playlist you are adding to keeps showing up in the Recents, that's a good sign you finally got to the end of your backlog.

One note: when you add a song to a playlist, in that latest iOS after you add the song it appears at the bottom of the screen for a few seconds; if you tap on it during those few seconds, the playlist will open and automatically scroll to the bottom of the playlist... where you can then remove the song if you really don't want it there (which was true for me, as I was simply using the one song to help me clear this backlog; I didn't really want it in all of those playlists).

I had a similar experience. I chose a "dummy" song and kept adding it to the top "recently added" playlist. After literally 30 adds, the 3 playlists finally started to show correctly and showed that I'd already added the song to each of the 3. As tedious as it was adding a song to 30 playlists, it was then even more tedious to remove the song from the 30. I used Apple Music on my MacBook for this as it was easier to play the song and then click on the three dots in the now playing area, choose "show in playlist", select a playlist, hit delete; repeat 30 times.

So a bit of effort, but now I finally have the 3 recents functionality back on my phone.

I have had some luck recently by fake-adding a song to a stuck list, then deleting the song off the playlist, and going back and adding the song to the correct list.

I’ve at least gotten the playlists to change now. The list I am actively updating is showing up in this area now.

This worked for me too. I only had to add a dummy song to about 10 playlists.

I added a song titled “Delete” just for lols.

Obviously it’s still massively annoying that Apple can’t fix their bugs or even acknowledge them here. Thinking of returning to Spotify after about 4 years on Apple.

Agree with the respondent who resolved this by just adding whatever song to the first playlist listed under recent. It will then go away and another playlist will show up. Add whatever song to the first playlist listed again. Do this (yep, as many times as you need to; is what it is) until the system reverts to showing you those playlists you "already added" the song to and you're there, problem corrected. Or wait for AM to debug it.

I've been experiencing the exact problem-- on the iPhone SE (2020). Running iOS 17.3.1.

Can't recall when it started, only that the problem used to be /intermittent/, whereas for at least a few weeks now, has been /constant/.

This has never truly worked for me. If it worked at all, it was spotty, sometimes showing me the most recently updated, but never consistently. Now it appears to just be stuck.

iPhone 15 Pro running 17.4

Also frustrated with this issue (iPhone 14 Pro). Just updated to 17.4 for the sole purpose of fixing this bug, but no such luck.

playlist “recents” is an incredibly useful feature. I hope this bug gets fixed soon.

Yes, I have an iPhone SE 2 with the latest update installed, and whenever I go to add a song to a playlist, my three most “recent“ playlists (which used to update whatever I added a song to them) has not been updating. So, instead of showing me my actual three most recently modified playlist, it’s showing me playlists that I haven’t played or modified in weeks.

I have had this same problem since last year. This feature was awesome while it worked - I was so excited to use it. It has been an utter nuisance for the last half a year that is has been broken. For the love of god Apple either fix it or let me turn it off.

This worked for me! This bug has been driving me nuts for months. I add music to playlists constantly and was getting tired of typing the playlist name to find it. Luckily I only had to add/remove from 3 playlists before it started working.

THANK YOU!!!! Just did this and it’s now fixed. It was driving me CRAZY and making it so much more difficult to build playlists-especially frustrating since I was so excited when the feature initially came out

Apple Music app is inferior to Spotify, in so many ways. Embarrassing for the company that brought digital music to the masses. iOS development resources are obviously dedicated elsewhere for emerging features like animojis and photo stickers, great!!

Hey Apple, is it really so hard to make your flagship ios application world class?

Happening to me on my iPhone 14 Pro, but not on my other many Apple devices.

I disconnected iCloud and deleted the app, still the same bug

(along with so many other issues syncing between devices … Apple really needs to get its sh*t together)

Having the same issue since upgrading to iOS 17.3

Eagerly awaiting restored functionality here. Thank you.