auto unsubscribe

It's not iTunes which makes the decision, it's a preference set by the Podcast's producer. Producers do this in order to prevent their bandwidth being used up by downloads which are not heard.

I don't think you can "override" this, you simply have to notice the exclamation mark that appears next to the Podcast title (which if you click on it says something like: "iTunes has stopped updating this Podcast because you have not listened to any episodes recently") and say Yes to the question about continuing to download.

I have the same problem!

Phil

I stand corrected - it is iTunes! Here's some information from the "Making a Podcast" page ( http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatson/podcasts/specs.html):

Automatic Unsubscribe.

iTunes automatically unsubscribes from a podcast if the following conditions are both met:

1. The user has not played any episode downloaded in the past 5 updates (there may be more than one episode downloaded per update.
2. More than 5 days have elapsed since an episode was played.

In addition to minimizing unnecessary bandwidth costs for both the user and the podcaster, the unsubscribe logic built into the iTunes client makes it more likely that episode downloads, as reported by a podcaster to a sponsor, are roughly in line with actual plays of the episode.

Another thing you could try is the *Get All* button. If you are subscribed to a Podcast, right-click the programme title and choose *Update Podcast* which creates a greyed-out list of programmes you do not yet have. If there are episodes missing, iTunes will also give you a *Get All* button which will retrieve all the older episodes. (This "Update Podcast" is not shown on the top toolbar menu as far as I can see.) Be aware though, that some Podcast programmes do not keep old episodes available. The BBC here in the UK, and a couple of Dutch music programmes remove each episode after a week. I believe this is due to copyright reasons.

Sorry I cannot be more help.

Phil

This is completely absurd. It's the equivalent of the Seinfeld with the car reservation ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7uvttu8ct0)

Me: "I don't understand, I have a subscription. Do you have my subscription?"

Apple: "Yes we do. Unfortunately we stopped delivering new episodes"

Me: "But the subscription is so you deliver new episodes. That's why you have the subscription!"

Apple: "I know why we have subscriptions."

Me: "I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have the new episodes of the podcast. See, you know how to take the subscription, you just don't know how to deliver the subscription. And that's really the most important part of the subscription. The delivering. Anybody can just take them."

The fact there's no way to turn this "feature" off is symptomatic of the larger issue that Apple software behaves as if it knows what's best for you.

Agreed... most irritating "feature" of every version of iTunes dating back years to my first iPod. Every couple months I Google for a fix, and every couple months I'm disappointed. Your Seinfeld analogy is perfect. I've subscribed to the Podcast. Whether I listen to it in a timely manner is none of iTunes' frigging business. What problem does this even solve?

greeze wrote:
Whether I listen to it in a timely manner is none of iTunes' frigging business. What problem does this even solve?

I can answer that!

On the *Making a Podcast* page ( http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatson/podcasts/specs.html) there is a section on automatic unsubscribe, ( http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatson/podcasts/specs.html#unsubscribe). In addition to explaining when a Podcast will be automatically unsubscribed, the following explanation is also given (my underlining):

In addition to _minimizing unnecessary bandwidth costs for_ both the user and _the podcaster,_ the unsubscribe logic built into the iTunes client makes it more likely that episode downloads, as reported by a podcaster to a sponsor, are roughly in line with actual plays of the episode.

Although you may receive the Podcast without any cost, don't forget that the producer is probably paying a "monthly bandwidth allowance". In other words, each download uses up some of their monthly download allowance and costs them money. So if you aren't listening, it's a waste of their money - the producer, not Apple. Apple is trying to make the producer's Podcasts cost effective. Consider also, that the producer may have sponsors who effectively pay for the Podcast. The sponsor wants to know that the download figures (given by Apple to the producer) actually indicate the number of listeners.

A lot of Podcasts are produced by enthusiasts who either do it at their own cost or on a very small budget. In these cases, they will want to make best use of any money they do spend on your downloads of their Podcasts. Even big business is counting the pennies these days, there's a recession on!

Phil

While the principle of helping reduce producers bandwidth cost is a minor good, I should get to decide whether I want to stop getting episodes, without having to essentially resubscribe every couple of weeks. It'd be like your cable company dropping a channel because you haven't watched in the past 2 weeks, and then making you jump through a hoop to get it back.

I've got no problem that they have this "feature", or even that it's the default behavior, I've got BIG problem with not being able to opt-out of it.

Well I've quoted Apple's standpoint on this, it isn't my idea. However, if I were a Podcaster, it's precisely the feature I would like in order to effectively control my costs for something _you are not paying for._

My knowledge of cable TV (here in the UK) is that the viewer (customer) pays for a package of channels, whether he/she watches them or not. The point being - the end user has paid! So I don't think your analogy is valid, sorry if you disagree with me on this.

As I said previously, you haven't paid for a Podcast, someone else has though and that someone simply wishes to use that money to best effect. I don't blame them!

Phil

I would argue that it doesn't effectively control your costs, because, according to the posts above, you, as a podcaster, don't control when people's auto updates are disabled. Apple makes some unconfigurable, Apple-knows-best hard-coded guess on your behalf.

What if you're a podcaster who only stores one episode on iTunes at a time? Then viewers might miss out on your content completely when Apple disables the auto update.

Example: I watch a TiVo-timeshifted cable broadcast of The Rachel Maddow Show (TRMS), which airs on weekdays. Sometimes I fall behind, and somewhat often I realize (too late to catch a replay) that Time Warner Cable had a cable glitch and TRMS wasn't recorded.

No problem! I go to my trusty iTunes where I am subscribed to TRMS video (and audio) podcast, but iTunes has thoughtfully disabled podcast updates from a few podcasts which I haven't viewed recently, including The Rachel Maddow Show. Grrr.

I right click on the exclamation point and select "Update Podcast" and get the most recent episode. I try to get the back episodes, but inexplicably, The Rachel Maddow Show only keeps ONE episode in iTunes (is that some sort of default as well?) so I have the most recent one, but the others are not available (I've emailed TRMS about this, but they haven't fixed the problem).

Although I think disabling the auto-update for bandwidth purposes is a somewhat antiquated notion (maybe I just live in a city where most people don't pay per downloaded or uploaded byte), from a User Interface design standpoint, disabling the podcast auto-update should really be configurable at both the podcaster AND user levels. Podcasters should be able to limit downloads of unwatched episodes to protect their bandwidth, and end users should be able further limit their individual downloads for the same reason.

Allowing the end user to override the podcaster's wishes on this hypothetical setting could be debated, but given that the user can manually click on all the exclamation points to stay current without actually viewing the episodes, there's an annoying manual override that's already available.

With the exception of providing these clearly-documented (hypothetical) options and sane defaults (howabout an "I pay for my bandwidth" or "my bandwidth is free" question to seed the defaults), Apple should not be involved.

Apple makes cool products (I'm a not only a user, I'm a shareholder!) but they aren't omniscient, and they should stop acting like they are.

This isn't a bad default setting but it's definitely something that needs to be configurable.

We've got a machine here set up to record radio and television broadcasts. We do not go through all of the recordings. They are checked if we hear that there was something broadcast that we should know about. A number of the radio shows we record now release their shows as podcasts. I'd love to set up iTunes to grab these as the streams we record are sometime unreliable. I can't do that as I'd have to check into the machine every 5 days just to keep the podcasts from unsubbing.

Another example: I'm subbed to Tekzilla's HD Quicktime feed. They do one show a week but do daily tips as well. I don't tend to watch the daily tips and I sometimes get behind on watching the show proper. iTunes consistently unsubs me because there are more than 5 'shows' per week.

It is exceedingly annoying.

Thanks Phil,

<rant mode>
unfortunately when I subscribe to podcasts on iTunes and listen to them on my iPhone, this does not register as me listening to the podcasts on iTunes. So when I listen to podcasts I have subscribed to on my iPhone, iTunes automatically unsubscribes them after a while.

Without asking me if that is OK. Without there being any preference to keep subscriptions alive. Oh, and "subscriptions", they're supposed to be automatically ongoing, not automatically terminated. Someone need to get in touch with their inner dictionary.

Teh suckage!
</rant mode>

There is some small comfort in seeing others having the same or at least a similar problem. Again, thanks.

Jansson, are you using the Sync feature on your iPhone to add and monitor your Podcasts? I thought that Podcasts could only be managed using the Sync feature (as opposed to manually managing), but if you are manually managing Podcasts then that could be the problem. (By the way, Sync of Podcasts is separate to Sync of music.)

When you Sync Podcasts the iPhone will "tell" iTunes which episodes you have listened to and that is how iTunes determines whether to un-subscribe you. However, if you manually manage Podcasts, the iPhone does not synchronize information with iTunes, therefore iTunes thinks you haven't listened to any episodes.

Be assured that if you listen to a Podcast on your iPhone (or two iPods - as I do) the next Sync with iTunes removes the "new" mark (the blue spot) from next to an episode (in iTunes). One thing that occurs to me as I type this though, are you letting an episode finish to the end, because if you don't - and the blue spot shows "part-listened", then the iTunes *Play Count* stays at zero, which means (in this situation) you haven't listened to it and therefore you will be un-subscribed. If so, let the episode fully finish, using the X2 play speed (on the Touch and iPhone models) if necessary.

Phil