Where did iTunes (podcast) Playlists go in iOS 11?

Prior to iOS 11, at the top of the “My Podcasts” section of the AppLe Podcasts app there was a “iTunes Playlists” item which took you to a screen that lists the playlists created and maintained in iTunes. It appears to be gone in iOS 11.

I’ve come to depend on that because every weekend I build a podcast playlist for the week on my Mac, sync to my iPhone, and I’m all set for long drivrd, etc. without having to fiddle with my iPhone.

I really hope I’m just looking in the wrong place, but I’ve scoured the Podcasts app and it seems to have disappeared. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Posted on Sep 20, 2017 9:43 PM

Top-ranking reply

Steve Davidson Author

Level 3

560 points

Posted on Oct 4, 2017 7:03 PM

Kaa, well put, and an excellent demonstration of the point. By doing a search on the unique Playlist name I created in iTunes, the iPhone's Spotlight Search finds it, identifies it as being in the Podcasts app, and by tapping on the item in Spotlight, I can access the Playlist as before. However, when looking for that same, uniquely-named Playlist within the Podcasts app, I'm totally out of luck -- it's not there. See image.

I think that demonstrates nicely that the Playlist is there, but someone at Apple forgot to provide the UI to access it. But this tip makes it possible to use Podcasts again (albeit with a bit more difficulty -- but I'll take it!).

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66 replies

Nov 11, 2017 10:03 PM in response to Steve Davidson

Apple you suck. You suck very much!

Nov 16, 2017 2:20 PM in response to sudont

Did you give it an easy to find name, like maybe "ppp podcasts"?

Also, how did you do the downgrade? It sounds like a terrific idea!

Thanks

K Mac

Level 1

4 points

Nov 17, 2017 2:44 AM in response to martianfencer

I've never been successful with the workaround. No matter what I name the playlist, including your suggestion of "ppp podcasts", the spotlight search never finds it.

Kaa

Level 1

45 points

Oct 30, 2017 8:06 AM in response to sudont

One thing I did that KIND of helped on that front is to create a crap-ton of identical playlists with different names, so if you can't find one of them, maybe it'll find one of the other 14. 🙂 It's almost as though the search function on the phone is geared ONLY to find files it's never found before. Because I can get it to find 'Playlist A' once...and then I never see it again.

Dec 18, 2017 9:56 AM in response to Steve Davidson

I have found a solution: (I use iTunes in German, hopefully i find the right terms)

Build a podcast playlist as usual and add the podcasts you want.

Select all podcasts of the playlist. Right click in the mark and select "information"

Select the tab "options".

Change "podcasts" to "music"-

The podcasts and the playlist will disappear from "podcasts" and show up in "music" instead.

This will be syncronised to an iphone with no problems.

sudont

Level 2

170 points

Oct 30, 2017 7:31 AM in response to PhoneJoe

If only I could get the search function to bring up the playlist. God, this is so annoying.

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Where did iTunes (podcast) Playlists go in iOS 11?