Nota DK

Q: How podcast works with "unplayed" and "feed" in regards to automatic download

Hello, I asked this question on the Producing Podcast forum, but I will try my luck here

 

"I have a question, which I haven't been able to get answered by searching with Google.

 

We are producing and making available audio books, and one of the ways to listen is to use the Podcast app on an iPad or iPhone.. there are several other ways, but it is one of options that are available.

 

The problem is that when you subscribe to the podcast (which is a specific audio book), you only ever get one track/episode as unplayed, which mean that only one track of the audio book is automatically downloaded. You then have to go to "Feed" and manually select every track for download, which can be quite tedious for our users to do, as there can be up to several hundreds of tracks.

 

Is it possible to somehow make the tracks/episodes all marked as unplayed/new when it is subscribed to? Another option could be to have a setting that makes it download all the episodes, unplayed or not, but unfortunately the Podcast app doesn't have that option, only unplayed or new episodes can be automatically downloaded.

 

Thanks in advance!"

 

This was a response I got:

 

"When someone subscribes to a podcast in iTunes they see all the episodes but only the latest one is automatically downloaded. They can play any other episode simply by clicking on it, whereupon it streams; or they can click the download icon to actually download it. They can download all the episodes by control-clicking (Mac) or right-clicking (Windows) on the name of the podcast (rather than an episode) and choosing 'Download all'.

 

There's no way of changing that: someone who subscribes to a podcast with a large number of previous episodes isn't going to want them all downloaded automatically. I'm not familiar with the Podcasts app but given the relatively limited storage on iOS devices I wouldn't have thought downloading everything was a likely option - however I don't know about that."

 

To which I responded:

 

"There is no problem with iTunes, as you say, it's quite easy to download all with just right-clicking and selecting Download all. There seems to be no such action however in the Podcast app, so it's quite a hassle for an user to select each and every track to download them.

 

So is it correct that in all circumstances, only the latest episode in any Podcast is marked unplayed when it is just downloaded?"

 

Also, am I correct with that there is really no other way to download all the episodes in a podcast than selecting each and every episode to mark it, and then download them after they are all marked? There is no "mark all" option right?

 

Hopefully there is an expert on the Podcast app that can answer my questions.

Posted on Jun 28, 2016 7:19 AM

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Q: How podcast works with "unplayed" and "feed" in regards to automatic download

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  • by Ben_Andy,

    Ben_Andy Ben_Andy Jun 28, 2016 12:00 PM in response to Nota DK
    Level 1 (20 points)
    iCloud
    Jun 28, 2016 12:00 PM in response to Nota DK

    (iOS related, unsure with macOS). Users can set how many unplayed podcasts to be automatically downloaded in the settings, under podcasts. I am not sure if this can help you though as each listener would have to set the amount - and the amount of podcasts to be automatically downloaded are for all podcasts, not for each individual subscription, but if a user only listens to your podcast - this will work.

  • by mahtia,

    mahtia mahtia Jul 13, 2016 5:28 PM in response to Nota DK
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 13, 2016 5:28 PM in response to Nota DK

    This is a problem on Max OS too. Only the latest episode is marked unplayed and available to download when you subscribe. I have to go to a different view to even see if there are more. I may not want to download all, but usually I download some. It did not use to be this difficult before feeds came along. How very unintuitive it is to have podcasts marked as played when they are not.

     

    It is a big hassle to either go to show "feed," or to change view as "list" from my normally used "classic list," as it takes several minutes with the beach ball spinning, each way. These are the only ways I can find the missing episodes to mark them as unplayed.

     

    In Mac OS, you can right click/two finger tap on the podcast name to mark all as played or download all. But in "classic list,” while seeing your unplayed/my episodes, until you have done the above, you will not be able to see them to do so. I do not own an iOS device, but many who do own one organize their iTunes on a Mac OS.

     

    I use "classic list" view almost exclusively, because on "list" view, I can only see a maximum of 13 podcasts at a time on my 13" MacBook. It also does not list the sizes, which I like to see before I download, or the bit rates, which I sometimes need to differentiate two pods of the same name, along with numerous other reasons. I only use "list view" to fix the settings on newly subscribed podcasts because it shows them at the top, and "classic list" cannot be set to show in that order.

     

    I am going to submit this to Apple Feedback, http://www.apple.com/feedback/, and I suggest you do too, in order to get this problem fixed.

     

    It would be lovely to have a setting in iTunes to "mark all episodes unplayed" when you subscribe to a podcast.