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iTunes 11.1: a podcast downloads; I don't want to listen to it and delete it; it downloads again. Help me break the cycle!

My routine for years: download all new episodes of all the podcasts I subscribe to (a pretty big list!). I then delete the new episodes that don't particularly interest me. But now, with iTunes 11.1, any podcast episodes that I delete will download again - and if I delete them, they download again. And so on. I don't mean they're just appearing in the list with the little cloud icon: I mean they're moving on to my computer. (Note that this only seems to be happening with podcast episodes that have been added since the update to 11.1 - thank goodness it's not happening to all of them!)


Probably related: if I want to keep a podcast episode, I've always just changed the tags to "Audiobook" or "Music", so I can get it out of the Podcast panes. But now, if I do that, the episode downloads again (despite the retagged version existing elsewhere in iTunes), and I delete it again, and back into that loop.


What seems to fix this: I can mark the redundantly downloaded episode as played, and then delete. This requires a lot of clicks with my current workflow: mark as played in the "Unplayed" list, at which point they of course disappear from the list; then find the episodes somewhere else (no longer easy with the obnoxious "Show us EVERYTHING!" podcast list view), and erase them once again. If need be, I guess I could set up a smart playlist to make this easier, but this looks like a pretty obnoxious kludge for something that used to be quite straightforward.


But am I missing something? How can I easily delete a podcast episode that I don't want, without it redownloading again later? For episodes that I want to retag and keep, is there a way to stop them from redownloading?


EDIT: Oops. No, I was wrong. If I mark it as played, and then delete it, the episode STILL comes back. It downloads yet again. What on earth am I doing wrong?!

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), Late 2009

Posted on Sep 18, 2013 5:06 PM

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Posted on Sep 18, 2013 5:32 PM

More on getting rid of old podcasts: what I need to seem to do to get them off my computer is...

  1. Mark as played.
  2. Do NOT delete. If you manually delete, they'll reappear.
  3. Re-sync podcasts - this apparently makes the episode disappear off my computer itself, and in the Podcasts List it is indicated instead by the little cloud icon. (Leaving aside the infuriating issue of seeing EVERY episode in that now-useless list view!)


So, to keep episodes of This American Life as Audiobooks, what I used to do:

Change the tag to Audiobook. And that was it.


And now what I apparently have to do:

  1. Change the tag to Audiobook.
  2. Download a duplicate copy, because that's just what iTunes is going to do.
  3. Mark the duplicate as played.
  4. Sync podcasts once again.
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Sep 18, 2013 5:32 PM in response to Lost in Asia

More on getting rid of old podcasts: what I need to seem to do to get them off my computer is...

  1. Mark as played.
  2. Do NOT delete. If you manually delete, they'll reappear.
  3. Re-sync podcasts - this apparently makes the episode disappear off my computer itself, and in the Podcasts List it is indicated instead by the little cloud icon. (Leaving aside the infuriating issue of seeing EVERY episode in that now-useless list view!)


So, to keep episodes of This American Life as Audiobooks, what I used to do:

Change the tag to Audiobook. And that was it.


And now what I apparently have to do:

  1. Change the tag to Audiobook.
  2. Download a duplicate copy, because that's just what iTunes is going to do.
  3. Mark the duplicate as played.
  4. Sync podcasts once again.
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Sep 19, 2013 4:03 PM in response to Lost in Asia

I was just looking for an answer to the mess the podcast has become in iTunes, I hate seeing old episodes, been there done those why are they still visible? Now the list view is totally unussable to me. Is there another software out there to replace iTunes for podcasts?

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Sep 19, 2013 6:21 PM in response to Lost in Asia

and to make matters worse, there is no option to delete the podcast before it's downloaded. the only options on the menu (rt-click with PC) include an option "uncheck selection" which does not seem to do anything.


how to delete an item in a list of podcasts that are not yet downloaded?

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Sep 20, 2013 6:38 AM in response to Andre Vandal

Things just got worst this morning, I deleted podcasts that appereared on my list that I don't remember ever listening too, turns out these are my wife's podcast on her computer, we both share the same account, and deleting them at my end I deleted her podcasts on her computer and this morning she just realiszed she has no podcasts to listened to. What a major mess! APPLE WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!!

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Sep 20, 2013 8:54 AM in response to Lost in Asia

per your recommendation, I have sent the feedback below to apple...



For my Podcasts, I have exclusively used the "List" view to manage my podcast library... which one to download, save, or delete. The new update to iTunes has made the "List" view unusable in completing these tasks.


Can you address this issue? Right now my list view is filled with previously heard & deleted podcasts. I like to use this view rather than going to a different sheet for each podcast to which I've subscribed to manage.


Please help. Please revert the "List" view to be managed as before. Thank you.



Hopefully Apple will be responsive.

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Sep 20, 2013 7:48 PM in response to Lost in Asia

In iTunes 11.0.5 there was an option in the Store Preferences to uncheck "Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases." This use to work to hide everything from the cloud that you don't want to see. The function no longer works in iTunes 11.1 even though the option is there in the Store Preferences for some reason.

IN the video App in iOS 7 it will show every movie & TV show you purchased or rented making it imposable to find the one movie you may have downloaded to your iPhone. Luckily though, in iOS 7 System Preferences, can have the option to turn off viewing cloud stuff by unchecking "Show All Videos." This needs to be put into iTunes 11.1

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iTunes 11.1: a podcast downloads; I don't want to listen to it and delete it; it downloads again. Help me break the cycle!

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