Automatically play next episode of a podcast

[brianrhyolite]

Plan: Spotify Premium Family
Country: USA
Device: iPhone 8
Operating System: iOS 14.4.2
Spotify app version: 8.6.28.690

Up until a few days ago, whenever I played an episode of a podcast, it would automatically play the next episode afterwards. Now it either just stops, when an episode is done, or it plays the same episode again.

How do I make it so the next episode of a podcast will automatically play, once the current episode is done?

[Brunelicia]

Hi @brianrhyolite ,

I hope you're doing well. Please follow the steps in this article. This should ensure that the next podcast episode is automatically played. 

In case that doesn't work, I'd suggest that you try a clean reinstall of the Spotify app and make sure it's updated to the most recent version. You can find the next steps here.

Please let me know how it goes. 🙂

[brianrhyolite]

Hi Brunelicia,

Thank you for the reply. I verified that Autoplay is turned on. Then I
deleted the Spotify app from my iPhone. I reinstalled it. I have version
8.6.28.690 of the iOS Spotify app on my iPhone 8.

I went into a podcast I had not listened to before. Started playing it.
Fast forwarded to one minute from the end. Let it play. At the end, I
expected it to start the next episode. However, it just stopped playing.

Is this the expected behavior? Prior to about one week ago, it always used
to play the next episode of the podcast I was listening to.

Thank you again for any tips or pointers.

[Mihail]

Hey @brianrhyolite,

Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

We tried this at our end and with Autoplay turned on  the next episode of a podcast would start. We feel that this is most likely caused by damaged app files. To that end, could you perform a clean reinstall and letting us know if the issue persists?  

If it does we'd appreciate screenshots of how your queue looks like when you start a podcast from the episodes list. Also, does this happen on other devices as well?

Keep us posted, we'll keep an eye out for your reply.

[brianrhyolite · Accepted solution]

Hi Mihail,

Thank you for your reply. We figured it out! Your suggestion about looking at the queue was very helpful. I am able to reproduce this behavior across all devices.

There are two different situations:

1. If I go into a particular episode of a podcast and hit play, only that single episode is added to the queue.
2. However, if I go into the podcast itself, and click play from there, that episode and all newer episodes are added to the queue. This is the functionality I was looking for!

I am not sure if something changes recently in the queuing behavior for podcasts--i.e., pressing play from a single episode vs pressing play from the podcast itself. Regardless, I now know that if I want all future episodes to be added to the queue, I need to press play from the podcast itself, not from a single episode.

Thank you again for your help. This issue is resolved.

[Mihail]

Hey @brianrhyolite,

Thanks for getting back to us and for keeping us in the loop.

We're happy to hear that this got resolved for you. If you have any suggestions on how we could improve the queue, we'd be really happy if you post an Idea about it on our Exchange. That way other users will be able to vote for it and we'll be able to track the popularity of the request more easily.

If anything else comes up -you know where to find us 🙂

Happy listening! 

[CCP79]

I am having this same issue And I have tried all of the solutions that were mentioned above including the clean re-install. When I go to the queue while the podcast is playing the next episodes are there but they do not automatically play when the current episode finishes. This only seems to happen with podcasts and not music.

[MafeG]

Hi @CCP79,

Thank you for posting on this thread. 

Please do the following test: 

1. Add a song to the queue, then a podcast episode and then another song. 
2. Play the first song and wait until it finishes.

Let us know if the playback stops altogether after the first song, or if the queue skips the podcast and keeps playing the last song you added. 

We'll be on the lookout!

[Me471]

Hey ,

I tried this and it skipped the episode and played the next song.

It was working before, giving issue from last week.

[shinousagi]

I've also been having this issues since the last update.

I have tried every "solution" here and nothing works.

The thing I want to add to this, is if I add a podcast to my queue from the original podcast page and then go into my queue to click play on the first item on the list it won't play, nothing happens, and trying to double click on the individual items in the queue don't do anything, it's like they're frozen. If I add the podcasts to my queue from a playlist I've already added them into, then it'll allow me to click play on them in the queue and play them. But they still, no matter what I do or how I add them to the queue, will not auto-play. This is so frustrating that I'm considering cancelling my subscription until this issue gets fixed.

[Xenia]

Hey folks,

We'd like to take a closer look at what's happening, as it seems that other users are experiencing the same issue. There's another thread here where we keep everyone updated, which sounds similar to what you're describing - is that what you're experiencing? If yes, please head over there to add your details, so we have all the info in one place.

Cheers 🙂

[Peach88]

I’ve tried this as well, but even when I go to the podcast front page and start playing episodes from there, the queue will not show the next episodes to be played. Do the episodes have to be sorted a certain way? Unplayed episodes used to autoplay one right after another, and stopped doing this a few weeks ago. Any other ways to troubleshoot??

[Jeremy]

Hi there @Peach88,

Thank you for your reply in this thread. Thank you for trying the troubleshooting that's been provided! We'd like to take a closer look into this.

To start with, can you let us know which device/devices this occurs on and which version of the app you're having?

It would also be great if you can provide us a screen recording so that we can have a closer look directly from your end.

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Take care!

[VintagedRed]

Hey all!

I had the same issue for weeks! Searched forums and whatnot... Come to find out, my android needed an update.

Hope this helps some of you! 🥰

[john218]

Why is so difficult to play podcast episodes continuously? I have used Apple Podcasts for over a decade without any difficulty. Spotify team make it EASY - and add "All Play" button.

[FixShuffleFFS]

There is no play button on the podcast currently. Only for individual episodes. 

Ideas anyone?

[1214807020]

Unfortunately, to do this method for an older episode, I have to note the year and episode number, go to the podcast page, then scroll usually through hundreds of episodes to find its location in the list. The fastest way is always to search "podcast name - topic - episode number" for every single individual episode, but this is an oddly cumbersome method for such a well-funded app in 2023. What I used to be able to do was select "see all episodes" and it would bring me to that episode's location in the full list. Now it just brings me to the latest episode. There should be one of two options: 1) the old option to let you go to the podcast's location in the episode list, or 2) add another function to the skip button, so you can either skip to the next song/episode in the queue or playlist as usual, or skip linearly through the podcast episode list directly from the episode you started playing. It could either be a toggle button in the playback bar, or an option in settings like "skip to next episode if listening to a podcast" to remove a few steps in the process. The way it works now makes sense for a 10-20 song album, but not for a podcast, many of which already have hundreds of episodes spanning multiple years. Another very helpful feature would be the ability to search within a podcast rather than only being able to search through all of Spotify.