iOS 26: Use Folders to Manage Playlists in Apple Music

[MacRumors]

In iOS 26, Apple Music introduces playlist folders, bringing the same organizational power that's long been available for photos and notes to your music collection. Whether you're juggling workout mixes, seasonal soundtracks, or genre-specific selections, folders should be a welcome management tool for your most favored collections.

The feature works exactly as you'd expect – simply create the folder, rename it to suit the intended content, and you'll be navigating your music library with newfound efficiency in no time. You can even nest playlist folders by mood, activity, artist, or whatever system that makes sense for how you actually listen to music.

How to Create a New Folder

Here's how to create a playlist folder in the Music app:

1. In the Playlist section, tap the + icon at the top.
2. Choose New Folder... from the popup menu.
3. Give your new folder a name, then tap Create.

Move Playlists into a Folder

With your folder created, move in some playlists like so:

1. Long press on a playlist.
2. Choose Move to... from the popup menu.
3. Select the folder from All Playlists.
4. Tap the red Move button.

That's all there is to it. Finally, iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 bring a little more feature parity with the Music app on Mac.

Don't forget, iOS 26 also introduces Music pins, allowing you to pin your most frequently accessed songs, playlists, albums, and artists directly to the top of your Library tab. iOS 26 is currently in beta, with a general release expected in September.

Article Link: iOS 26: Use Folders to Manage Playlists in Apple Music

 

[yeahtyeaht]

You can already do this prior the 26 updates on your Mac. The folders will also be visible on your iPhone.

 

[Justin Cymbal]

In iOS 26, Apple Music introduces playlist folders, bringing the same organizational power that's long been available for photos and notes to your music collection

It would be nice if Apple added this capability to both the Wallet app (and the messages app as well)

So that you would be able to put different credit cards within folders (within the Wallet app) such as retail store credit cards in one folder and regular everyday 2-3% cashback cards another folders - airline (and travel credit cards) in a separate folder as well

Within the messages app, it would be nice to be able to put different contacts within separate folders so your family or friends text threads could be organized and separated into different sections of the messages app

 

[phuklok1]

said it before but please add a real system wide graphic eq (no more presets) and allow it to remember and automatically use individual settings for each individual device a user might own (car, bluetooth earbuds,headphones,speaker,etc). to expect someone to have to mess with settings each time they connect to a different device is just silly at this point.

 

[Arran]

You can already do this prior the 26 updates on your Mac. The folders will also be visible on your iPhone.

Yes. I started using playlist folders back in the iPod/iTunes days.

The new features for iOS 26 are the ability to create a new folder and move playlists between folders on the phone.

 

[mannyvel]

Music on iPadOS opens folder playlists expanded by default, and doesn't remember your settings. Annoying and it shows that Apple engineers don't use their products.

 

[Slix]

Really happy that iOS is finally getting parity with the Music app on the Mac, but this is crazy that it took this long to create folder on iOS. iTunes had folder support with version 5 in 2005, and iOS got playlist creation in iOS 4 in 2010.

Still hoping we'll get the ability to make and edit Smart Playlists on the go eventually...

 

[funandblindness]

Music on iPadOS opens folder playlists expanded by default, and doesn't remember your settings. Annoying and it shows that Apple engineers don't use their products.

I really dislike when the app does this on my iPad. Music app should be sticky at all times, when I go back to it I want to be in the same place I was. Same for playlists always going back to the top. Very annoying.

 

[roland.g]

Oooooh. Folders.

How about allowing Apple Music subscribers to make Playlists with music from Apple Music combined with their own libraries without forcing Apple Music Library Match upon the user. Just because I might have the same song in my library as in the Apple Music catalog, the Library Match is broken and flawed.

 

[Gathomblipoob]

A nice feature. It would be nice to be able to move multiple playlists at the same time.

 

[iFanaddic]

Smart Playlist on iPhone is the feature I really want tho 🫤 I used to create them on mac, but it stopped syncing properly at some point and I just gave up. This could be a true Spotify-killer feature if done properly

 

[GlassFingers]

Now if only they can make Music on macOS stop forgetting where my songs are located on disk, every other week.

 

[iDento]

Smart Playlist on iPhone is the feature I really want tho 🙄🫤 I used to create them on mac, but never stopped syncing properly at some point and I just gave up. This could be a true Spotify-killer feature if done properly

This. I still create them on Mac and they work, but having the option in iPhone is even better.

 

[gimmesomemo]

Huh, still Got the same folder system I set up 20 years ago, never bothered to look if I could do it on the phone, just presumed there was parity

 

[GtrDude]

This is good news and is one more step towards dropping Spotify.
This was one of the major things Spotify always had on Apple Music.
Now it’s almost gone.

 

[applefan8254]

Is there the ability to remove a playlist from a folder when mobile? Spotify has folders but you cannot remove playlists from a folder unless you're using the desktop which is quite annoying. Also can we get music playback speed adjustment? Thank you

 

[svish]

Nice. Will definitely have a use for this and will try it out once I update my phone.

 

[attila]

I wish, in the Music app on macOS, that when clicking a folder, it shows a list of the playlists instead of one list of all the tracks in all playlists.

 

[slyronit]

Nice. I’ll be able to folderize all my running playlists. Hope the watch will have an option to sync entire folders at once.