“Next up” in the queue keeps emptying on Apple Podcasts

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Level 1

7 points

“Next up” in the queue keeps emptying on Apple Podcasts

Please help me troubleshoot an iPhone podcasts problem where my “next up” queue keeps emptying. I load it up with a variety of about 10 approximately one hour long episodes. I start the first episode, setting the timer for sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes one hour, and sometimes for "when this episode ends." The podcasts stop at the appointed time. When I go to resume playing what’s in the queue about two hours later, the queue is empty.

I have an iPhone 11 Pro running iOS 18.6.

Here are the steps, in order, which I've taken to try to resolve the issue over the past several days. After each step I tried the process of loading the queue and playing the queued up podcasts again with the same result: the queue just empties itself.

+I closed all apps, including the podcasts app. Same result.

+I closed all my apps, shut my phone down completely, restarted my phone. Same result.

+Having read a suggestion that it might be related to shortcuts, I confirmed that I have no shortcuts running. In fact, I have not created any shortcuts.

+I have two other Apple devices using the same Apple account, an iPhone 6s running iOS 13.3.1, an iPad Pro (3rd generation) running iOS 18.5. I've turned off the option to sync library in settings on all of these devices. Same result.

+I deleted the podcasts app from my 11 Pro, shut down my phone completely, restarted the phone and re-downloaded the podcasts app. I again turned off syncing the library in settings. Same result.

+I quit all apps on all three devices, shut down all three devices completely, restarted them and confirmed that the option to sync the library in settings was turned off on all three devices. Same result.

In each of the above steps, the next time I tried loading my queue with about 10 hours of podcast episodes, the queue would be empty after just a couple of hours.

Is there anything else I can try?

Is this a known issue?

Thanks.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Podcasts: "Your Queue is Empty"

iPhone 6s, iOS 13

Posted on Aug 13, 2025 06:14 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 16, 2025 08:02 PM in response to Indecisive1

Hi @indecisive1 -

There are a few aspects about your issue that I’m unclear about, so my suggestions depend on your answer to the clarifying questions.

Are you manually creating your queue using Play Next and Add to Queue functions to add podcast episodes? Or do you begin with an empty queue, adjust the Up Next list (from the Home tab), and auto-fill your queue from there?

If the latter, try the former. See upper screenshot. I wasn’t able to recreate your issue when I set the sleep timer from my queue, which was manually created.
Fwiw: The Up Next list, which is algorithmically derived, is probably downstream of Apple Intelligence integration efforts, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s experiencing a temporary bug or two. These should get resolved in a future iOS iteration.
On that note, check to see if your phone has a iOS update available. I’m running 18.6.1.

Do you only observe this only after setting the in-app sleep timer?

If so, then you could try setting a timer in the clock app instead. From the list of options for When Timer Ends, select Stop Playing. See lower screenshot.
I tested this on my (manually created) queue, and it also appears to be working.

Hope this helps! Lmk if anything is unclear. And if my guesses about the specifics of your issue are off the mark, feel free to add more details.

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Answer 2

Indecisive1 Author

Level 1

7 points

Aug 18, 2025 07:54 PM in response to lukairure46

Thank you for these helpful suggestions.

One other thing I'm becoming suspicious about is if this might only be happening when I am adding the same podcast episode to the queue (it sounds crazy but I queue episodes up before I go to sleep at night to play overnight, and sometimes I tell the same episode to play over and over again).

I'm exploring to see if it's only when I add the same episode over and over again that the queue empties out vs. when I add different episodes.

Thanks again!

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Answer 3

Aug 18, 2025 10:04 PM in response to Indecisive1

Indecisive1 wrote:

I'm exploring to see if it's only when I add the same episode over and over again that the queue empties out vs. when I add different episodes.

Hi @Indecisive1 -

Oh, wow. i’m so glad you mentioned your theory, because I’m absolutely sure I can help you out with it! Yes, that is the cause of your issue! (Funny enough, I actually recently investigated that exact Q for someone else. Lol.)

For some reason, having the same episode currently playing also at the very top of your queue causes the queued episode to clear when the current ep ends. However, if it’s in the second position, there’s no problem.

There’s a workaround that achieves a very similar result in principle. Try selecting two episodes to fill your queue (pattern = ABABAB), so the top queue ep is always different. I tested this out and it worked for me.

Also, thank you so much for the kind words! It’s kinda rare to receive any feedback at all (and usually when I do, it’s not very nice). It really means a lot . 🙂

luka

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Answer 4

Indecisive1 Author

Level 1

7 points

Aug 19, 2025 02:56 PM in response to lukairure46

YES!!! ABABAB works for me too!!!

Thank you so much!

And I hope this helps others who might be searching for help with the same issue!

Thanks again.

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