How to Sort Playlists on iPad

By William Pullman

Arrange your iPad music in the play order you want by manually sorting playlists.
i Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images News/Getty Images

The Music application on the Apple iPad allows you to create playlists of the songs stored on the device or import playlists from iTunes. Playlists in the Music app have limited sorting options; you cannot automatically sort songs in individual playlists by artist, title or other criteria. The only method for sorting playlists in the Music app is manually, by moving each track to the position you want it on the list.

Step 1

Tap "Music" on the iPad home screen and then tap the "Playlists" tab. A screen displaying your playlists appears.

Step 2

Touch the name of the playlist you want to sort to view the song list.

Step 3

Tap "Edit." You'll see three horizontal lines -- known as grip strips -- appear next to each of the songs.

Step 4

Touch and hold the grip strip of the first song you want to sort and then slide the song to the position you want it in the playlist.

Step 5

Sort the remaining songs using the grip strips.

Step 6

Tap "Done" to save the sorted playlist.

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