How to Automatically Sort Apple Music Playlists by Title or Added Date

As you build a library of carefully curated playlists in Apple Music, keeping them organised can become a nightmare. By default, Apple Music sorts the songs within a playlist manually, meaning every new song you add is simply dumped at the very bottom of the list. If you have a playlist with 500 songs and you want to find a specific track by your favourite artist, you are forced to scroll endlessly or use the search bar.

Fortunately, you do not have to drag and drop songs manually to keep things tidy. Both the iPhone app and the Mac desktop application allow you to automatically sort your playlists by Title, Artist, Album, or Release Date, ensuring your music is always perfectly organised the moment you open the app.

Sorting Playlists on an iPhone or iPad

If you primarily listen to music on the go, you can change the sorting method directly within the iOS Apple Music app. This change only affects the specific playlist you are currently viewing, allowing you to have different sorting rules for different moods.

1. Open the Apple Music app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on the Library tab at the bottom of the screen.
3. Select Playlists and tap on the specific playlist you want to organise.
4. In the top right corner of the screen, tap the More button (the circle containing three horizontal dots).
5. From the pop-up menu, tap on Sort By.
6. You will be presented with a list of options. Select Title to sort the songs alphabetically by their name, or Artist to group songs by the band or singer. (Selecting “Playlist Order” returns it to the default manual sorting).

Your playlist will instantly rearrange itself. From now on, any new song you add to this specific playlist will automatically slot into its correct alphabetical position, rather than dropping to the bottom.

Sorting Playlists on a Mac (macOS)

The desktop version of Apple Music (formerly iTunes) offers slightly more granular control over how your playlists are displayed.

1. Open the Music application on your Mac.
2. Look at the left-hand sidebar and click on the specific playlist you wish to organise under the “Playlists” header.
3. Click on the View menu in the top menu bar (next to the Apple logo).
4. Hover your mouse over Sort By.
5. A sub-menu will appear offering several sorting criteria. You can choose to sort by Name (the song title), Artist, Album, or even Time (the length of the track).
6. You can also click on the column headers directly within the playlist view. For example, clicking the word “Artist” at the top of the tracklist will instantly sort the entire playlist alphabetically by artist name. Clicking it a second time will reverse the alphabetical order (Z to A).

Important Note on Syncing

If you subscribe to Apple Music or use iCloud Music Library, changing the sort order on your iPhone will typically sync to your Mac, and vice versa. However, if you are manually syncing your music via a USB cable and do not use iCloud, you must set the sorting preference on the device you actually use to listen to the music.