iOs 16 has made a wreck of my playlists, can anyone help?

By Donna, 1 October, 2022

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

For reasons I can't begin to guess, iOs 16 has taken it upon itself to re-sort several of my playlists. I would very much like to get the songs back into the order in which I had them. Is there a way to do this? I've read that there is a new Sort option that one accesses by tapping three dots at the top of the playlist, but I do not see those three dots. Neither tapping More nor Edit bring up this purported sorting option. Moreover, whereas you used to be able to drag songs to where you wanted them, that doesn't even seem to work anymore. Does anyone here know of a way for me to get my playlists sorted back the way I want them?
Thanks,
Donna

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Comments

By Holger Fiallo on Monday, October 24, 2022 - 12:26

On your play list, go to it, slide until you hear more, open that and slide. You probably see by author, songs and so on.

By Donna on Monday, October 24, 2022 - 12:26

Hi,

When I tap More, I see Edit, Delete From Playlist, Play Next, Play Last, something called SharePlay, but I don't see anything about artist author, etc.

By Holger Fiallo on Monday, October 24, 2022 - 12:26

Open the play list you want, more, slide until you see sore by. Is there.

By Donna on Monday, October 24, 2022 - 12:26

Hi,

I'm a little confused because you keep talking about sliding. I'm assuming from that that you navigate the screen by swiping? I can get to the More button without swiping, but I don't see anything about Author, artist, etc. I tried putting my finger on the More button and sliding my finger up, just to cover all my bases, but nothing happened.
thanks,
Donna

By Holger Fiallo on Monday, October 24, 2022 - 12:26

OK. Sorry. Here we go. When you open a play list, and open more, you should see sort by. Open that. The more button is on top left.

By Brian Giles on Monday, October 24, 2022 - 12:26

I'm on 16, and this hasn't happened to any of mine. But it would be annoying because I specifically set most of them up to play in a certain order, like an old school mix tape. Find my profile on Apple Music and judge all you want. lol

After you select one of your playlists you want to edit, the "three dots" icon is in the top right of your screen. VO calls this the more button. It should be right under the battery percent in the status bar.

After you tap that, you'll see all the editting options along with all the options to share and things like that. Near the top is the edit button, which lets you name your playlist and add music to it. You can also reorder songs by dragging here. I find this easiest to do using explore by touch instead of flicking.

If you flick past that edit button, you'll see the option for sorting, which is collapsed. If you expand it, you'll see all the options to sort by artist, album, release year etc. I think some of these are new but I don't use them.

HTH

By Donna on Monday, October 24, 2022 - 12:26

Hi all,

First, thanks to everyone who responded. To Brian, I wouldn't laugh at you at all. I have some playlists that are just all music by a certain artist, but others that are curated to capture a certain mood, experience, theme, etc. For the last group, I spend a lot of time paying attention to song order, which is why I was so thoroughly ticked off that IOS 16 decided that it could do a better job.

After reading everyone's comments, I have come to the conclusion that this must be a bug in 16 on the 12 mini. I hope I'm right, because I'm going to order one of the new 14 pros sometime soon. When I click on More, there is no sort button. The button next to the edit button is the Delete from library button. At Vash, I have emailed Apple accessibility about the issue. I've had very mixed results calling them, so thought that most people paying attention to this forum probably know more than many of them do. So I thought I'd try here first.
Cheers,
Donna

By Roxann Pollard on Monday, October 24, 2022 - 12:26

Hello Donna. Perhaps I can clear it up for you. I am running iOS16.0.2 on iPhone SE 2021 edition. I, too, completely understand the theme with playlists, as I have a multitude. Here is what I see.

Open a playlist, then open more. Here you can click Edit, which will allow you to sort your lists as you like. To do this, do a one finger double tap and hold on the reorder button to the right of the song title you wish to relocate. This will give you beep feedback as you slide your finger up or down the list. Once you think it's in the proper order then release your finger and check its location.

If you don't wish to sort manually, then instead of opening up the editing function, click the sort by instead. Here you will be able to sort by playlist order, (I'm assuming this is probably the default order that the songs were added), or you can select from other options such as artist, album, date, etc.

Here's hoping you are able to get your lists back into good working order, without too much more fuss. All controls seem to work fine for me.

I don't think it is an iPhone model that would cause you to have issues.

Let me know if I may be of further assistance.

By Donna on Monday, October 24, 2022 - 12:26

Hi Roxann and all,

Roxann, I still don't have the buttons you describe, but am making some headway with figuring out what's going on. Here's what I've got so far:
The playlists that have been messed with by iOs 16 and which appear to be unsortable, appear at the top of my list of playlists. They are separated from other playlists that I’ve created by Apple’s auto-generated playlists—recently played, recently added, top 25, etc. That suggests that these playlists have a characteristic that is different from the other playlists I’ve created. For example, I’m wondering if the unsortable ones are smart playlists? I don’t think I set them up that way, but it’s been a while since I set them up, so I suppose it’s possible. So here’s my question: how can I view a playlist’s properties either on my phone or on the Mac, so that I can hopefully get at why these playlists are being created differently?
Thanks,
Donna

By Holger Fiallo on Monday, October 24, 2022 - 12:26

In your Mac you have music app? Do not know due to fact use Windows iTunes. Check your list there.

By Donna on Monday, October 24, 2022 - 12:26

I've done that and no luck. I think I'm just going to have to delete them, and re-create them. *sigh* However, at this point, I think it's ceased to be a Voiceover issue, so it would probably be best to wrap up this thread.
Cheers,
Donna