Custom order of podcasts on iOs

[hdb4720]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

iPhone 12, Windows 10, Firestick2016)

Operating System

iOS 14.7 Windows 10

My Question or Issue

When I create a playlist of podcasts using either the Windows 10 desktop app or the iOS mobile app I have to go to the Windows 10 desktop app to set the custom order. I can do this, but my desire is to play the playlist on my iOS mobile app.

The desired custom order does show up on my iOS device, but when I attempt to play the playlist on my iOS device it plays in shuffle order.

How do I get my iOS device to play a custom order playlist of podcasts in custom order?

[Ver]

Hey @hdb4720,

Thanks for posting here 🙂

Just to double-check- does this happen when you click on the play button or when you choose the first episode?

In case you start the playlist from the play button the episodes will shuffle. This is an expected behavior.

It's also important to make sure that the shuffle button is turned off.

If the episodes shuffle after choosing the first episode, we'd suggest you restart your device, log out and then log back in again. Are there any changes?

Keep us in the loop.

[hdb4720]

I ran a series of tests this morning to see if I could spot a pattern. It appears that instead I muddied it even more.

First thing this morning I set up my morning listen of podcasts that I like. The way I set the playlist is a bit convoluted, but it utilizes each app's best features and obscures each apps worst features.

So on my iOS mobile app:

• Clear out any items from the previous day that had already played or aged from relevance
• Browse through podcasts New Episodes selecting the podcasts for today

Then I switch to my Windows 10 desktop app to:

• Set the Order to Custom Order
• Place each podcast in the desired order

I then switch back to the mobile app to verify that my Custom Order is presented and press Play on the top item.

I had noticed in the past that of you press the Play on the Playlist it ill always play Shuffle and since the icon for the Playlist Play contains the Shuffle icon it would make sense.

So I press Play on the top podcast episode in my Custom Order.

This morning I thought that I may have prematurely filed this support question since the first four (4) items played in my Custom Order. Then they started shuffling. If I used the iOS mobile to restart at the first missed podcast it would continue shuffling after that episode.

When I saw your response I decided to try several methods of building and playing podcast playlists to see if I could derive a pattern.

Here are some of the options I tried:

• Cleared my playlist and rebuilt from fresh as described above
• Created a new playlist and built my playlist from there
• Rebooted my iOS device and repeated the above steps

In my frustration I tried all of the same on the Windows 10 app. The Windows 10 app acted identical to the iOS. I even tried several other Sort options such as Title, Artist, etc. and these options also played in shuffle mode on the Windows 10 app.

I thought I had discovered that Shuffle is the only Sort Order that a podcast playlist will play.

So I responded to this to let you know what I found. I also continued trying other ways of setting it up.

First I created a new playlist with three music albums. I attempted all the Sort options and both Windows 10 and iOS apps played in the selected order including Custom Order.

Then I create a new playlist with one album and added a bunch of podcasts. I then Custom Ordered all the podcasts to top of this playlist and sorted them as I desired. When I played the playlist it played in Custom Order. So I deleted the music album from the playlist it continued to play in Custom Order. So I deleted all the podcasts and added new podcasts. Still works as it should I create another playlist of only podcasts and it plays in any order I select from the Windows 10 app.

Not sure if this is a permanent fix or if tomorrow the Shuffle mode is going to come back. We shall see ...

[CarlosE]

Hey @hdb4720,

Thanks for keeping in touch and for all that info.

Maybe there was a temporary hiccup with the syncing which hopefully was already sorted out. We appreciate you taking the time to share what you tried and all your findings.

If the issue comes back, feel free to reach out again so we can further investigate.

Cheers!