How to Sort a YouTube Playlist (and Why Some Won't Reorder)

YouTube playlists play from top to bottom, so the order you set is the order your viewers, or you, will watch in. The good news is that rearranging is quick once you know there are two different kinds of reorder: a permanent one in the playlist itself, and a temporary one while you're watching.

Reorder a playlist permanently

Device	How to do it
Computer	Open the playlist, click and hold near a video's thumbnail, then drag it up or down
Android, iPhone or iPad	Open the playlist, then drag a video up or down the list

This changes the playlist for everyone who watches it, which matters if it's public or shared. You can only do it on playlists you own.

Reorder just for this viewing

Watching a playlist and want to skip ahead to something later? On the watch page, the playlist panel sits beside or below the video. Drag a video up or down in that panel and the order changes for your current session, without touching the saved playlist. You can also hide a video temporarily: swipe left on it in the panel, or tap the More menu and choose Hide.

Filter a long playlist

Mixed playlists of Shorts and long videos get messy. Use the chips at the top of the playlist to show All, just Videos, or just Shorts. It doesn't reorder anything, but it makes a big playlist far easier to scan when you're looking for one video.

Why you can't reorder a playlist

• It only contains Shorts. YouTube says reordering isn't available for playlists made up entirely of Shorts.
• It isn't yours. You can't change the order of someone else's playlist. Save the videos to a new playlist of your own instead.
• You're on a supervised account. Playlist editing may not be available.
• You're on an old version of YouTube. If the steps don't match what you see, update your browser or app.

Want someone else's playlist in a different order?

You can't rearrange a playlist that belongs to another channel, but you can build your own copy in the order you want:

1. Create a new playlist of your own and give it a clear name.
2. Open the other playlist and, for each video you want, use Save to add it to your new playlist.
3. Open your new playlist and drag the videos into your preferred order.
4. Set it to private if it's just for you, or public if you want to share your version.

It takes a few minutes for a long playlist, but you end up with something you fully control. It's the best way to turn a creator's jumbled uploads into a tidy course you can work through from start to finish.

Why the order looks different on another device

If you dragged videos into a new order on the watch page panel, that was a temporary change for your session. Open the same playlist on another device and you'll see the saved order again. Make permanent changes from the playlist page itself, not from the panel beside a playing video.

Creators: playlists vs shows

If you've turned a playlist into a show in YouTube Studio, the ordering rules change a little. YouTube says non-serial shows, the most common kind, list episodes newest to oldest, while serial shows list them oldest to newest so they're watched in sequence. When you convert a playlist, the episode numbers follow the order you set by hand. If you never set one, they follow publish date, oldest first.

Type	Order	Use it for
Standard playlist	Whatever order you drag it into	Collections, favourites, learning paths
Non-serial show	Newest to oldest	Episodes you can watch in any order
Serial show	Oldest to newest	Series that must be watched in sequence

How to order a playlist for viewers

For your own channel's playlists, order is a quiet way to keep people watching. A few rules I'd follow:

1. Put your strongest video first. It's the one most people will start with.
2. For a course or series, go in learning order, not upload order, so beginners don't hit an advanced video first.
3. Keep related videos next to each other so the next one feels like the obvious click.
4. Move outdated videos to the bottom, or remove them, rather than leaving them in the middle.
5. Check the order on your phone too, since that's where most people watch.

To remove a video, open the playlist, click the More menu next to it and choose Remove from the playlist name.

Related playlist jobs

If you're tidying up, you might also want to know how to make a playlist on YouTube, how to share a YouTube playlist and how to delete a YouTube playlist.

My verdict

Sorting a YouTube playlist is drag and drop: open it, hold the video and move it. Use the playlist panel on the watch page when you only want a different order for one session, and remember that Shorts-only playlists can't be reordered at all. If you run a channel, order your playlists by what a new viewer should see first, not by when you happened to upload.

Frequently asked questions

How do I change the order of a YouTube playlist?

Open the playlist and drag videos up or down. On a computer, click and hold near the thumbnail first.

Can I reorder a YouTube playlist without changing it?

Yes. Drag videos in the playlist panel on the watch page to change the order for that viewing only.

Why can't I reorder my YouTube playlist?

Playlists made only of Shorts can't be reordered, you can't reorder someone else's playlist, and supervised accounts may not allow editing.

How are YouTube shows ordered?

Non-serial shows list episodes newest to oldest and serial shows list them oldest to newest.