How to use Up Next in Apple's new Music app

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

In the old days, if you were in the midst of a killer mix, but one track led you to remember another not in the mix, you could either forget about it and keep going, or play the serendipitous song and kill you killer mix. Now Playing put an end to that. With Now Play, and Apple's new Music app, even if you're in the middle of playlist or album, you can quickly stack other tracks—even another playlist or album—to listen to immediately, and then seamlessly merge back right back into your playlist or album when you're done.

Note: To use Apple's new Music app, you need to be running iOS 8.4 or later.

How to quickly add music to Up Next from anywhere

You can quickly and easily add a track to Up Next at any time.

  1. Browse to the track, album, or playlist you want to add to Up Next
  2. Tap the More button (Looks like •••) to the right.
  3. Tap on Play Next to add the music to the front of your Up Next queue, or Add to Up Next to add the music to the end of the queue.


How to quickly play other music while preserving Up Next

If you find a track, album, or playlist you want to listen to immediately, you can start playing it right away without losing your existing Up Next queue.

  1. Find the track, album, or playlist you want to listen to immediately.
  2. Tap the track, album, or playlist to start playing it.
  3. Tap Keep Up Next to preserve your existing queue.


When the song, album, or playlist finishes, your Up Next queue will resume without interruption.

How to quickly clear Up Next from anywhere

If you want to remove everything from your Up Next list all at once, you can easily do that too.

  1. Find a track, album, or playlist—anything will do.
  2. Tap the track, album, or playlist to start playing it.
  3. Tap Clear Up Next from the menu.


The track, album, or playlist will start and your Up Next list will be completely cleared at the same time.

How to view your Up Next queue

You can see what's queued in Up Next at any time via the Now Playing screen.

  1. Locate the mini player at the bottom of the screen, just above the tab bar.
  2. Tap the track information button on the mini player to bring up the Now Playing screen. (Or touch and hold on the mini player and drag up.)
  3. Tap on the Up Next button.
  4. Tap the Done button to return to Now Playing.


From here you can fully manage your Up Next list. To exit the Up Next screen, tap Done at the top right.

How to view your Up Next history

Whether you simply want to remember what you player, or you want to play something again, Up Next's history list makes it easy.

  1. Go to the Up Next screen.
  2. Swipe down to reveal your Up Next history.
  3. Tap a track if you want to play it again.
  4. Tap Done.


Your current Up Next queue will continue to play when your replay is done.

How to add music to Up Next

If you're on the Up Next screen, you can add more music right from and to the queue.

  1. Go to the Up Next screen.
  2. Tap on Add.
  3. Search or browse for the music you want to add.
  4. Tap the + button on the right to add a track, album, or playlist.


You can keep adding music this way just as long as you remain on the Up Next screen.

How to re-arrange what's Up Next

Whether you added tracks to Up Next as fast as you could find them, or your mood has changed since you added them, you can easily rearrange their order so you hear exactly what you want, when you want.

  1. Go to the Up Next screen.
  2. Touch and hold the grabber button to the right of the track you want to move.
  3. Drag the track to the desired position.


You can reorder tracks as often as you want, and any time the mood strikes you.

How to remove a track from Up Next

If you add a track to Up Next and later change your mind, it's easy to delete it.

  1. Go to the Up Next screen.
  2. Swipe left on the track to reveal the red Remove button.
  3. Tap the red Remove button.


Repeat the same steps to remove additional tracks; as many as you want.

How to clear music from Up Next

If you're on the Up Next screen, you can add more music right from and to the queue.

  1. Go to the Up Next screen.
  2. Tap on Clear at the top.
  3. Tap Clear Up Next at the bottom to confirm.


You can keep adding music this way just as long as you remain on the Up Next screen.

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

17 Comments
  • There's a bug in the option to play a song while maintaining your Up Next playlist in tact. If I select Keep Up Next when interrupting a playlist, it will play the same song multiple times instead of the rest of the playlist.
  • Nice! Assuming it works (updating to iOS 8.4 now), it solves a pain-point I've had for about three years - how to temporarily switch to another playlist (vocal learning tracks) and when done resume my main playlist where I left off.
  • How do you clear your Apple Music "previously played" music from your iPhone?
  • Again this morning I started up iTunes and Apple Music beats1 radio and clicked on listen now, but it does nothing. So then I look at Account in the iTunes menu bar and see Apple Music isn't enabled again. So I have to click on that and agree to the trial to get it to work. I've lost track of how many times I have to do this. A bug I'm sure and not the end of the world. Very frustrating though. I don't know if its because of some other issue or me not running as admin. Even yesterday I had hide apple music and unchecked the iCloud music thing in the iTunes settings but when I started it today it had show apple music checked in settings, so its changing settings on me without me doing anything. Another way I found is when I start iTunes to log out and log in then it will remember how things were the last time I used it and beats1 will play without having to agree to the trial again.
  • Oddly, the entire Up Next feature is disabled for me when my phone is plugged in (via Lightning/USB) to my car — "Your accessory does not support Up Next." Works fine when connected via Bluetooth, and all the other parts of the app work over USB.
  • It is giving me the same error on my USB port on my receiver. I use the audio port on my car since I don't have USB though. This seems stupid because it is hard to imagine how this could be a technical limitation with any good design.
  • Same here. What the...? So annoying.
  • I always get scared that a new update will break my connection between my iphone and kenwood car stereo. Everything else works but I'm getting this error too - I would imagine this will be fixed in iOS 9?
  • Same here. I get the error message when connected via usb and Bluetooth. It is so frustrating. If I do a brand new connection I can get it to work, but only until the car shuts off. When it reconnects it's back to error messages. I want to use Apple Music in the car but bound to Spotify because of this.
  • Update: it only works correctly when my phone is connected to wifi (aka, in the garage) once I leave a wifi range i get the error message.
  • Also: Any theories as to why the Back control is disabled while listening to radio stations? I get it on Beats1, as it's live, but all the other stations can be skipped forward and back arbitrarily by other means (like the Up Next list), so why not with the Back button? Maddening in the car...
  • For the life of me I cannot figure out the Up Next feature. Here's what's getting me:
    I start playing an album and then add another album to Up Next. The second album I just added jumps to the top of the Up Next queue. I want to finish playing the first album AND THEN play the second album.
    I know I can drag songs to reorder them in the Up Next queue but there's got to be a better way than dragging each song on the second album to the bottom of my Up Next queue.
    Anyone able to figure out how to do this?
  • I'm having the exact same problem. For a long car ride I'd like to be able to cue up a few albums to play continuously but with this bug it makes more sense to just use Siri when an album/playlist ends. Rene/Serenity, are we just doing something wrong?
  • I want to undo the up next feature, I don't like how it's more cluttered on the screen. Plus, when I choose an artist and say I have more than one album from that artist, it only plays songs from that one album. It doesn't just go through all the albums and songs anymore. Sent from the iMore App
  • As pdxjasmine said, the Up Next feature just isn't working as described for me or anyone else I know in the UK (perhaps its a regional bug?) I created a video of the feature breaking here https://youtu.be/6Iym_YqhOm0 Add to up next doesn't work as described here.. Also when interrupting playback I'm never asked if i want to preserve up next.. what i was listening to is just deleted without asking me.. If the feature DID work as described here it'd be quite nice... hopefully apple can fix it! I've logged a radar bug about it...
  • Shuffle Your Own Music in the new app: I figured out how to play my own music and shuffle. In the middle of the screen when the app comes to my music it says "ARTIST" That is a drop down menu click the down arrow to the right of the word and you get a list. Click on Songs choose a song to play as the song is playing bring up the controls and at the bottom of the controls under the pause button there is a shuffle button.
  • Same problem here. I want to add an album so it plays after the current album has finished playing - it should add to the end of the up next list, otherwise what's the difference between "add to up next" and "play next"?!