Podcast Continuously Out of Order in iPhone 2.1

Somewhat relatedly, I've found that podcasts are playing out of order for me in some cases. As in, I finish one and it skips the next 4 and plays one I listened to a week ago. I guess I'll do a restore from backup and see what happens, but this is far more annoying than simple continuous play.

It's frustrating to be listening to the end of the latest episode of a podcast and then have the already-listened-to ones start playing afterwards! I found this thread a few weeks ago, and I thought I'd check back to see if there was a fix. I'm surprised that there isn't one yet. This really is an annoying change to the user interface of the iPhone. I hope Apple is working to rectify the situation.

I'm a bit worried that everyone imagines that someone from Apple is reading this thread and realising their terrible mistake. Is that a safe assumption? Originally I asked if anyone knew how to report bugs to Apple or make requests for product feature changes. I'd still like to do this. Can someone tell me how to? Or should I relax, because Apple monitor Apple Discussions as a source of defect reports? Because THIS IS A (rather large) DEFECT, Apple!!!! Please give us a bug fix release of the iPhone software.

I've got another situation to pose to you all that is just as equally annoying-- multi-part podcasts that are played out of order.

Case in point: a radio show I download from back home is usually split into four parts, one for each hour of the show. Unfortunately, the phone ends up putting part one at the bottom, and part four at the top. This means that I have to manually go back and force the player to go to the one above it to play once it's finished-- only it gets worse, because between the commercial breaks and lack of monitoring, it can go right back to that previous hour and I won't know it unless I recognize something that was already talked about.

So, here's what I'd like to request:
Allow the podcast playlist to be put in whatever order using iTunes, just like the songs, or have a way to manually move them around yourself on the phone, just like the app window on the home screen by holding your finger on the desired track and dragging it up or down your playlist.

Highly frustrating.

I've registered a bug report for the sort order and a feature request for selecting single file play. I hope you all do so too to put some pressure on apple. Use the link supplied in one of the previous post.

I like the change in the 2.1 update regarding podcast playback order. It was inconvenient to have to stop what I was doing to start the next podcast. My podcast lists have most recent at the top and that is how I like to listen to them. I can listen to the most current podcast, then if I have the time, I can catch up on the next newest, and so on. To me it makes perfect sense. I suppose it would be nice if there were a preference you could set so everyone could be happy, but I for one, don't want it changed back to the way it was.

Tech Guy wrote:
I like the change in the 2.1 update regarding podcast playback order. [...] I for one, don't want it changed back to the way it was.

Which begs the question: "Why are you cruising support forums about an bug that you enjoy?"

The only problem with your logic is that it shouldn't start playing an already-played podcast after finishing the newest unplayed one(s). I wouldn't mind it playing all the newest unplayed ones, but it just merrily continues into a previously played one. Then when you stop it, it erroneously reports that podcast as being partially listened to, even though you've already heard the whole thing before.

Not having the ability to play podcasts from older to newer *****. Sort of defeats some of the potential and point of podcasts.

I found a link to share the complaint to apple.

http://www.apple.com/support/feedback/

I hope everyone from this discussion sends them their thoughts. I think if we do it closer together in time that it might jump out at them slightly more.

This is actually one thing they fixed with the 2.1 update. It seems that now if you start a previously played podcast it doesn't remember your new partially played to point. At least when I sync the episode goes away if I have listened to it once. That and the fact that if you drag all the way to the end it now realizes that you meant you were done and didn't want to see that episode again after a sync... finally.

I also love the new continuous play. It drove me insane that after each podcast it would go all the way back to the home screen and I'd have to fight my way through menus to listen to the next one. Fine if you're all caught up, but I am always listening to a backlog and want to keep going while I'm driving or working without stopping. Clearly there are enough people that want it both ways that a little enable/disable feature seems like a good idea. I don't think I should have to muck about making a playlist when my podcasts are already organized into a handy playlist.

The reason then that I am "searching bugs I enjoy" is because the **** thing plays backward! Does no one at Apple actually listen to Podcasts?! They are PODcasts for heavens sakes, why doesn't Apple think a little about how to use the thing they are greatly responsible for creating. I don't want to listen to the latest chapter of my book before I hear the previous one or hear the third segment of the show before the first. Do these people watch the season finale of their favorite TV show and then work their way back to the premiere? Why on earth would "newest first" be the order they give you without any other option?!

Off to leave feedback...

The above is not the correct link. It is for issues about the webpage its self. Go to http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html in order to submit either a bug report or a feature request for the iPhone.

Thanks for the link malyita - feedback sent.

Ditto,

Very very frustarting!

I have just bought an iPhone3G with the expres purpose of using it to listen to my language course "Deutch Warum Nicht" availabe as a free Podcast downloadable from iTunes. BUT, no matter how I order the episodes in iTunes (or re-number them, or whatever) the iPhone displays them in reverse order. So after listening to, say, episode 16, I am then played episode 15, as opposed to episodee 17. As the language course is in the form of a story then this is VERY annoying.

I have sent Apple my comment via the link suggested above, I urge you all to do the same.

Please fix this Apple!!!

Amen. Continuous and in reverse chronological order is as sub-optimal as it gets.

There may be hope!!! The latest beta 2.2 screenshot at tuaw, here:

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/28/rumor-roundup-iphone-2-2-firmware-details/

shows the podcasts in chronological order!

Message was edited by: James Ehrler1

Why hasn't this been fixed????