Where did Up Next go in Apple Podcasts iOS 27.2? Full guide

If the Up Next section vanished from Apple Podcasts after updating to iOS 27.2, nothing broke. Apple split it into two sections instead of removing it. The update shipped yesterday and reorganizes the Podcasts Home tab into New Episodes and Continue Playing, 9to5Mac reported.

The update is live now for compatible iPhones through Settings > General > Software Update (9to5Mac, yesterday). Anyone who installs it will see the new Home tab layout immediately, with no separate toggle to find or enable.

9to5Mac tested this same redesign during the iOS 27.2 beta earlier this month, well before the public release, and the layout that shipped yesterday matches what showed up in testing (9to5Mac, earlier this month). What that reporting doesn't settle is whether a separate, older feature, the active playback queue tucked inside Now Playing, changed along with the Home tab. That distinction matters for anyone who manually sequences episodes, and it gets its own section below.

Where to find episodes now on the iOS 27.2 Apple Podcasts Home tab

Open Podcasts after updating and New Episodes sits at the top of Home. It shows only the most recent episode from each show a listener follows, according to 9to5Mac's hands-on testing of the beta. That phrase, "only the latest episode," implies older unplayed episodes from the same show might not show up here, though neither the beta testing nor the release-day coverage spells out what happens to that backlog. If an expected episode is missing, check that show's own page or its entry in Library.

Continue Playing sits directly below New Episodes, working as a central hub for anything a listener has started but hasn't finished (9to5Mac, earlier this month).

The split exists to fix a specific complaint about the old single-queue design: it was genuinely difficult to tell at a glance which shows had posted something new, and episodes already in progress could get buried in the mix, 9to5Mac found after living with the beta for several weeks. With the two sections separated, new releases and unfinished episodes each get their own dedicated spot instead of competing in one combined feed, according to that same testing.

Where each type of episode lives now

The Now Playing queue is a separate feature, and it's unverified on iOS 27.2

Don't confuse the Home tab redesign with the playback queue buried inside Now Playing. That queue controls the actual order episodes play in, and it's documented in an AppleMagazine guide to queue management published earlier this year, well before iOS 27.2 existed (AppleMagazine, earlier this year).

According to that guide, the queue lives at Podcasts > Now Playing > Up Next, where episodes can be reordered by dragging, removed with a swipe, or cleared entirely. Anything placed in that queue plays sequentially unless manually changed. Adding an episode through its three-dot menu offers Play Next, which inserts it immediately after the current episode, or Play Last, which sends it to the bottom (AppleMagazine, earlier this year). Episodes added directly from a show page or the Library join that same queue automatically unless playback settings say otherwise, and clearing it removes what's lined up without touching anything saved or downloaded.

A separate setting under Settings > Podcasts controls continuous playback and whether finished episodes automatically drop out of that queue, per the same guide (AppleMagazine, earlier this year). For anyone syncing across an iPhone, iPad, and Mac, that same documentation notes queue order, playback position, and saved episodes stay consistent across devices as long as iCloud syncing for Podcasts is turned on under Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud (AppleMagazine, earlier this year).

That queue-management guidance predates iOS 27.2 by roughly seven months, and the release-day reporting on 27.2 covers only the Home tab redesign. It does not confirm whether reorder, remove, clear, Play Next, and Play Last still behave identically on the shipping build. Anyone who manually sequences playback should open Now Playing after updating and check those controls directly rather than assume nothing changed underneath the new Home layout.

Saved episodes sit in a separate layer from both the Home tab feeds and the playback queue, and they stay in Library regardless of whether they've been played. For anything deliberately saved rather than just started, Library > Saved remains the documented location (AppleMagazine, earlier this year).

Following a show automatically downloads its newest episode, according to Apple's own support documentation, which predates iOS 27.2 and isn't tied to this redesign (Apple Support, earlier this year). That page confirms the download behavior itself; it doesn't address whether a downloaded episode's appearance in Library > Downloaded has any connection to whether that same episode shows up in New Episodes, so treat those two sections as independent until reporting says otherwise. Downloaded episodes also delete automatically 24 hours after playback unless Remove Played Downloads is switched off under Settings > Apps > Podcasts (Apple Support, earlier this year). Per-show download limits and notification preferences for new releases can both be adjusted under Podcasts > select show > three dots > Settings, including an option to get alerted about new episodes without having them automatically added to the queue (AppleMagazine, earlier this year).

What to do now

Most listeners don't need to change anything beyond learning the new map: check New Episodes for the latest release from a followed show, and check Continue Playing for anything already started but unfinished. If either section looks empty or wrong, confirm iOS 27.2 is fully installed via Settings > General > Software Update before assuming something is broken.

Anyone who manually builds a play order should open Podcasts > Now Playing > Up Next after installing the update and confirm reorder, remove, clear, Play Next, and Play Last still work as described. That specific piece of the old system hasn't been verified on the shipping build, and it's worth five minutes to check rather than find out mid-episode that a queue didn't carry over the way expected.