How to Reorder a YouTube Playlist, and Why Won't It Drag?
Dragging videos is the official way to change a playlist's order. Here are the steps from YouTube Help, where to find them in YouTube Studio, and the cases where reordering will not work.
3 min read
Summary
How to reorder a YouTube playlist: open the playlist on YouTube, then click and hold near a video's thumbnail and drag it up or down to its new spot. From YouTube Studio, go to Content, then Playlists, open the playlist's menu and choose Edit on YouTube to reach the same drag-and-drop view.
How do you reorder a playlist on a computer?
- Find the playlist in the Guide (go to You to see all of your playlists).
- Open the playlist.
- Click and hold near the thumbnail of the video or Short you want to move.
- Drag it up or down the playlist and drop it in place.
YouTube Help also describes a temporary reorder: on the watch page's playlist panel, you can drag a video up or down the playlist while you are watching.
How do you get there from YouTube Studio?
- Sign in to YouTube Studio.
- From the left menu, select Content.
- Click the Playlists tab.
- Hover over the playlist and click Menu.
- Select Edit on YouTube. The playlist opens in a new tab.
- Drag and drop videos up and down to reorder them.
Can you reorder a playlist in the YouTube app?
Yes. YouTube Help for Android gives the same instruction: open the playlist and drag a video up or down. On the watch page's playlist panel you can reorder temporarily, and you can also hide a video for now by swiping left on it or tapping More, then Hide. YouTube Help says playlists can be edited in the YouTube Studio app as well.
Why can't you reorder a playlist?
Check these cases from YouTube Help:
- Reordering is not available for playlists that only contain YouTube Shorts.
- Playlist editing may not be available with supervised accounts.
- If the steps do not match what you see, YouTube says you are likely on an old version of YouTube and should update to the current version.
Can you choose the order when you create a playlist?
Yes. When you create a playlist in YouTube Studio (Create, then New playlist), you enter a title and description, set visibility, and choose how videos are going to be arranged from the drop-down menu next to it, then add videos and click Create. That saves reordering later if you know the order you want.
What limits apply to playlist titles and descriptions?
YouTube Studio Help lists a 150-character limit for playlist titles and a 5,000-character limit for descriptions. Neither can include "<", ">" or the line separator character. There is also a daily limit on how many public playlists a channel can create, which goes up with access to advanced features. <br />
Lab evidence
What I found running this
Facts checked on 28 Oct 2026 against the YouTube Help pages listed in Sources (Create and manage playlists for computer and Android, Edit playlists, and Manage playlists in YouTube Studio). We did not reorder a playlist on a real channel for this post or measure whether playlist order changes watch time; the steps and limits are quoted from YouTube Help.
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