Podcast play order cannot be changed even if the sort order is what I want

[PlayPauseNext]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

iPhone 7

Operating System

iOS 13

My Question or Issue

When I play podcasts, I usually want to play the latest episode first and want Spotify to autoplay the second-latest episode automatically. After googling for this, the suggested solution is to change the sort order for that podcast to "Newest to Oldest". My sort order is already this. Also, changing to a different sort order does not affect the play order. Spotify still plays the older episodes first and then the newer episodes.

How do I fix this?

[17steps]

Hi Mihail,

This is what I get when I hit the Sort button - I can’t find the sort by date option. 

[Novy]

Hi @17steps, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us and will make sure to pass it onto the right team, as we always strive to improve your experience.

You can also have a look in our Idea Exchange to see if someone else has already made a similar suggestion. If there isn't one, you can give these steps a go and submit your idea so that other users can also support it. The higher the number of votes an idea gets, the more likely it is for it to be implemented.

In the meantime, we'd recommend adding these episodes to a playlist so you can sort them correctly.

We'll be right here if you have any other questions. 

Have a good one.

[TaticalPT]

same here..

[Alex]

Hey @TaticalPT,

Thanks for the post.

Could you let us know what troubleshooting you've already gone through?

Cheers.

[TaticalPT]

i'm using windows 10. spotify version: 1.1.60.672.g6ad9c215-a

i tried changing the podcast order to "Oldest to Newest" but when i press the Next button it goes to the older episode instead of the newer.

[Alex]

Hey @TaticalPT,

Thanks for the reply.

Can you try to run a clean reinstall of the app. Follow this exact guide and try using the app from our Website if you've installed it from the MS store previously and vice versa.

Keep us posted if that fixes the issue and whether it's happening on all podcasts or just a particular show.

Cheers.

[TaticalPT]

thank you for the help.
I dont know why but suddenly it started working fine. 🤷‍♀️

Now when i press Next or the episode ends , the episode that starts its the newer.

[Alex]

Hey @TaticalPT,

Thanks for getting back to us.

Glad to hear that the issue was resolved.

Don't hesitate to get back in touch if you have questions or another issue.

Cheers.

[evilgiraff3]

Hello,

I found this page and I am also having the same issue (podcasts will only play from oldest to newest on mobile regardless of how it is sorted by date, up or down). This happens regardless of the podcast being played and has been happening for a long time. I've tried the clean reinstall as suggested before. It does play the next episode properly when playing through the windows desktop app, but not on mobile. Is this something Spotify is still working on?

[MafeG]

Hi @evilgiraff3,

Welcome to the Community and thank you for posting.

We can confirm that it's expected that the episodes will play from oldest to newest in the mobile app disregarding the sorting selected.

However, you can choose the order of the episodes you want to listen to by manually adding them to the Queue from the 3-dot menu > Add to Queue. This way, the episodes will be played in the order you added them to the Queue.

Hope this clears things up. We'll be right here in case you need anything else.

[thorank]

Same issue here, and very frustrating. I hope and expect that the team on Spotify will resolve this issue so that we will be able to play podcasts in the sorting order that we want (and so in an effortless manner, no workarounds with queuing) 

[freaksuk]

Hello having the same problem podcast always play older already played episodes intead of new ones. Nothing i tried works to fix this, it works normal in the webplayer but on phone and desktop it doesnt.

[B-Rex]

I tried this on Windows 11 and on Android 12. Sadly the player still suggests previous episodes when I want it to play the next episode and there's nothing I can do to change it other than making a custom que every time, which then is annoying if I later listen to music and forget to clear the que.

[Yordan]

Hi @freaksuk, @B-Rex!

Thanks for reaching out to the Community!

Could you provide us with the URLs for the podcasts that are affected by this, so we can test if we experience the same on our end? A short screen recording which shows this in action would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

[petesaari123]

I am having this same issue. This issue only occurs in my desktop with two different computers application (Win 11 - Spotify for Windows 1.1.81.604.gccacfc8c). I have done all the troubleshoot and possible fixes brought up in this discussion and none of them fixes the issue (clean install etc..)

How ever i have found a work around to solve this issue by playing the episodes from my phone and then choosing to playback via my computer. This is due the fact that phone sets up the play queue correctly (by date, no matter the sort order). But if i choose another podcast via the computer desktop app (even while the phone app is still running) the episode queue once again gets set up in wrong order (always older episode no matter the sort order). I have tested this several times and the issue replicates every time. So this seems to be an issue with the desktop application. The issue is within the core functionality and therefore would be most greeted if fixed in short order. 

[thegingerbreadc]

I have the same issue, did a clean reinstall of the latest spotfiy version on Windows 10 today, did not change anything. Order is set to "Oldest to Newest" and displays correctly on the podcast page, but the order is reversed in the Queue (playing backwards to older), no matter what I do. 

Apart from that, I've also repeatedly had problems with podcasts playing in completely random orders, jumping over several episodes regardlesss of wether I played them before or not etc... (And yes, these issues also happen on Android)

These problems have been going on for years. I get that you customer service people here don't have any direct influence and don't deserve to be the shield for people's frustration, but these issues are getting kind of ridiculous. I'm looking through these forum threads every few months hoping for bugfixes or solution, instead countless peoples are asked time and again to send you the same screenshots or to add episodes to their queue manually. Which is not an appropriate fix for a core function of a paid app, for a problem that many users have! I don't know what to say apart from pleeease Spotfiy, get it together and do some proper QA on your end and fix this basic issue.  

[yjfs]

Also having this issue: I am listening to a language podcast, so I want to listen Oldest to Newest. The play order is always Newest to Oldest no matter how I sort the episodes, however. Screen recording attached.

I also don't see a way to add an entire podcast to a playlist from the Desktop app.

[AndresM]

Hey @yjfs,

Thanks for posting on the Community and welcome.

We're currently investigating a similar issue here that could be related to the one you mention. Feel free to add your +Vote and subscribe to it. 

Remember that any updates will be posted there.

Lastly, don't forget the Community is here in case you need anything else

Cheers!

[cmaree]

I have the same problem and found this page trying to fix it - everything works fine on my phone, but not on my desktop

It's a bit disappointing to see this issue has been ongoing for years and hasn't been fixed yet... absolutely will not be adding hundreds of episodes of podcasts to a playlist

[AndresM]

Hey @cmaree,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community and welcome.

We recommend that you follow the link posted on my last reply in this thread and add you vote to it. 

At this moment, the team in charge is investigating it, for this reason, we suggest that you subscribe to it as any new updates will be posted there. 

If anything else comes up, just give us a shout.