One of the many great things about YouTube is that you can have a group of related videos or tracks grouped together in a playlist. The videos or tracks may be related in terms of genre, author, purpose, and so on.
For YouTube uploaders, this is a great way to gain more views, reactions, and subscribers because you are grouping several videos into one playlist as opposed to uploading the videos separately and hoping they get found individually.
For YouTube users, playlists make it easier for you to access several, related videos and enjoy them all together as opposed to having to search for one after the other and play them individually.
Can You Play YouTube In Reverse Order
When you open a playlist, the videos may play in an order that you do not like. Perhaps, they play from oldest to newest or from newest to oldest and you want it in the reverse order.
Unfortunately, there is no native feature on YouTube to make such changes when playing playlists on YouTube. However, it is still possible to make changes to the playlist order, and the method to use depends on whether you are the owner of the playlist or a user trying to enjoy the playlist on your phone or PC.
In this article, we are going to present a comprehensive list of the different methods you can use to reverse the order of a YouTube playlist whether you are the uploader or the end-user.
Before going into how to reverse YouTube playlist, you may want to know how to create a playlist on YouTube in the first place. Please find a guide below:
On PC or Mobile Browser:
1. Open YouTube on your browser
2. Find the video you want to add to your playlist
3. Under the video, you should see functions Like, Dislike, Share, Clip, Save, Report, Show Transcript.
4. Click on Save
5. You will be prompted to either add to it to your Watch Later playlist or create a new playlist
6. Select Create New Playlist and enter the playlist name
7. Click on the Privacy settings dropdown under the playlist name to select either of Public, Unlisted, or Private.
For Public, anyone can search and view the playlist. For Unlisted, anyone with the playlist link can view it. For Private, only you can view the playlist.
Once created, you can then find and save other videos to the playlist.
Now that you understand how to create a playlist on YouTube, let’s take a look at how to put the playlist in reverse order whether as the playlist owner or as a user playing the playlist.
How to Reverse YouTube Playlist
1. Sort Playlist By Date Added
One way to sort playlists out on YouTube is to order them according to the date they were added. You could set the newest added videos to be first and or you could set the oldest added ones to be first. To do this, please follow the steps below:
On Browser:
1. Click on the Menu button (or Guide button as Google calls it) on YouTube. It is the 3 horizontal lines at the top left of the YouTube page
2. From the options that pop up, select Library
3. When the Library page opens, scroll down to the Playlists section and select the playlist you want to order by clicking on View Full Playlist beneath the playlist
4. When the playlist opens, click on Sort
5. From the pop up that opens, select Date Added (Newest) or Date Added (Oldest), depending on what you want
7. Your playlist refreshes and gets ordered according to your new setting
On Android or iOS device:
1. Open the YouTube app on your device
2. Tap on the Library tab at the bottom right of the screen
3. Scroll down to the playlists section and select the playlist you want to order
4. At the top, select Sort
5. Then select either Date Added (Newest) or Date Added (Oldest), depending on what you want
6. Your playlist refreshes and gets ordered according to your new setting
Note: You can only use this method if the playlist belongs to you. If you are watching someone else’s playlist, you would need one of the third-party tools detailed later in this article.
2. Sort Playlist By Date Published
Another, and more common way to reverse the playlist order on your YouTube playlist is to sort it according to the date it was published. This usually means that you are able to play songs by their age, and is often used for moving chronologically over decades or release dates.
Note: Just as with the Date Added option above, this method also requires that you be the owner of the playlist.
To order according to date published, please follow the steps below:
On Browser:
1. Click on the Menu button (or Guide button as Google calls it) on YouTube. It is the 3 horizontal lines at the top left of the YouTube page
2. From the options that pop up, select Library
3. When the Library page opens, scroll down to the Playlists section and select the playlist you want to order by clicking on View Full Playlist beneath the playlist
4. When the playlist opens, click on Sort
5. From the pop up that opens, select Date Published (Newest) or Date Published (Oldest), depending on what you want
6. Your playlist refreshes and gets ordered according to your new setting
On Android or iOS device:
1. Open the YouTube app on your device
2. Tap on the Library tab at the bottom right of the screen
3. Scroll down to the playlists section and select the playlist you want to order
4. At the top, select Sort
5. Then select either Date Published (Newest) or Date Published (Oldest), depending on what you want
6. Your playlist refreshes and gets ordered according to your new setting
Third Option – Most Popular
Another great way to sort YouTube playlists that you own is to use the Most Popular order option. If you are making the playlist public, then this is a good way to retain user engagement by presenting the most popular videos first and then winding down to the least popular ones.
To sort according to most popular, simply follow the steps listed above for date published or date added, but select Most Popular as the sorting method instead.
Setting For Adding New Videos to Your Playlist
Another important feature that determines how videos are added to your playlist is the Playlist Settings feature. This setting determines whether new videos added to the playlist appear at the top automatically. To do this:
1. Click on the Menu button (or Guide button as Google calls it) on YouTube
2. From the options that pop up, select Library
3. When the Library page opens, scroll down to the Playlists section and select the playlist you want to order by clicking on View Full Playlist beneath the playlist
4. On the left side of the window, you will find details of the playlist such as the name, number of views, last updated and privacy setting.
5. Under these you will see the shuffle icon and 3 dots beside the shuffle icon. Click on the 3 dots and select Playlist settings from the menu that appears
6. At Add New Videos to Top of Playlist, toggle to turn it on if you wish
3. Iridium For YouTube Extension
For all the options listed so far, you are only able to make those changes if you are the creator of the playlist. However, if you are looking to reverse the playlist order as an end user and not the creator, you will need to use third-party apps, services or extensions. And one of the most popular of these is the Iridium extension for web browsers.
Iridium is an extension that, when installed on your browser, gets embedded on the YouTube page to enable you to make changes to how YouTube videos are played on your web browser. And one great feature on Iridium is the Enable Reverse Playlist Control feature.
To install Iridium and enable the reverse playlist feature, please follow the steps below:
1. Open the web browser on your PC (Chrom, Edge, Firefox, Brave, and similar browsers)
2. Click on the Menu button (3 horizontal lines or 3 dots at the top right of the browser)
3. Select Extensions from the options
4. On the Extensions page, use the search option to search for Iridium
5. You will be told that it was not found. Then you will be advised to search the Web Store instead.
6. Click on the Web Store link to open the Chrom store
7. Then search for Iridium from the store and select Iridium for YouTube from the results
8. Select to install the extension on your browser
9. If prompted, click to enable the Iridium extension
After installing and enabling Iridium for YouTube:
1. Click on the Menu button (3 horizontal lines or 3 dots at the top right of the browser)
2. Select Extensions from the options
3. On the Extensions page, select Iridium to open the settings
4. On the Settings page, click on the Video pane on the left side of the screen
5. Scroll down to Playlist, then toggle to turn on Enable Reverse Playlist Control. And you’re done!
6. Now, go back and refresh the YouTube playlist you wanted to play in reverse order
7. At the top right of the playlist screen, select the Reverse Playlist button.
8. Your playlist will now be played in reverse order
4. Improve YouTube for YouTube Extension
Another popular extension for reversing the playlist order on YouTube is Improve YouTube. In fact, for many users, Improve YouTube is more reliable than Iridium as it seems that Iridium no longer works on some browsers. Some users even report that YouTube videos no longer play when Iridium is enabled.
If you have issues using Iridium, then Improve YouTube is a great alternative for managing playlists and other features on YouTube.
To enable and use Improve YouTube, please follow the steps below:
1. Open the web browser on your PC (Chrom, Edge, Firefox, Brave, and similar browsers)
2. Click on the Menu button (3 horizontal lines or 3 dots at the top right of the browser)
3. Select Extensions from the options
4. On the Extensions page, use the search option to search for Improve YouTube
5. You will be told that it was not found. Then you will be advised to search the Web Store instead.
6. Click on the Web Store link to open the Chrome store
7. Then search for Improve from the store and select Improve YouTube from the results
8. Select to install the extension on your browser
9. If prompted, click to enable the Improve YouTube extension
After installing and enabling Improve YouTube:
1. Click on the Menu button (3 horizontal lines or 3 dots at the top right of the browser)
2. Select Extensions from the options
3. On the Extensions page, select Improve YouTube to open the settings
4. Click on Playlist from the options
5. At Reverse, toggle to turn it on, then close the window
6. Go back and load the playlist you want to watch in reverse
7. Then, click on the reverse icon at the top right of the playlist. It is the icon of 2 small arrows facing opposite directions.
8. Your playlist will now play in reverse
If you were having issues with Iridium and wish to use Improve YouTube, please remove the Iridium extension first using the steps below:
1. Click on the Menu button (3 horizontal lines or 3 dots at the top right of the browser)
2. Select Extensions from the options
4. On the Extensions page, click on the menu icon (3 dots or lines) beside Iridium and select Remove
5. Then confirm to remove Iridium from your browser
5. Use Playlist.tools
Playlist.tools allows you to order and play YouTube playlists outside of YouTube, and in a variety of playing order options. The options available for playing from YouTube playlists include:
- The original sequence on YouTube
- By upload date
- By video title
To use this service, simply follow the steps below:
1. Copy the URL of the playlist you want to reorder from YouTube
2. Go to playlist.tool on your web browser
3. You will see an address bar with YouTube Playlist URL on it. Paste the YouTube playlist URL in that bar
4. You do not need to click Enter. The site will process the playlist automatically and immediately
5. At the top right of the playlist, you will see a menu bar. Click on Original Sequence
6. A pop up will appear with different options like Upload Date, Video Title and Original Sequence
7. Select the order you want to play in
8. Your playlist will refresh
9. Select the first video to start playing in the new order
6. Remove Everything From the Playlist and Re-add It in the Order You Want It to Play In
If you are the owner of the playlist, another method you could try to reorder the playlist is simply to delete every video in the playlist and add them again but this time, in the order that you want them to play.
To make these changes, please follow the steps below:
1. Click on the Menu button (or Guide button as Google calls it) on YouTube. It is the 3 horizontal lines at the top left of the YouTube page.
2. From the options that pop up, select Library
3. When the Library page opens, scroll down to the Playlists section and select the playlist you want to order by clicking on View Full Playlist beneath the playlist
4. When the playlist window opens, click the 3 horizontal dots beside each video in the playlist to open the menu
5. Select Remove from Playlist to remove the video from the playlist
6. Then go back to the videos again to start adding them in the order you want them to play.
Note, this is where the Playlist Settings we described earlier comes in handy, where you can choose to put the newly added videos at the top.
7. Choose the Video You Want to Play Next Manually
If you do not want to go through the hassle of installing extensions or using websites to play YouTube externally, you could simply choose which video you want to play next rather than let YouTube select the next title to play.
This makes the most sense when you do not necessarily want to listen to all the songs or play all the videos on the playlist but rather play according to your preferences.
However, this means that you would have to be around to constantly choose the next video you want to play because YouTube plays the next title on the playlist automatically.
Another option is to use the shuffle option to change the order in which the videos play. This would make the video play in an order other than that fixed by the playlist owner.
To use the shuffle icon:
1. Open the playlist that you want to re-order on YouTube
2. At the top right of the playlist, you will see the Loop and Shuffle icons
3. Select Shuffle to play the videos in random order.