I've recently noticed that I can't fast forward through podcasts on my iPod touch, specifically with NPR All Songs Considered ones (I don't listen to any other ones, so it may not be specific to these ones). Its annoying because I can't pick up from where I left off listening. Every time I try using the bar to move through the podcast, it starts over from the beginning. Is this intentional? Is it specific to the podcast?
iPod touch (2nd gen),
iPhone OS 3.0,
used with black macbook (OSX 10.4.11)
I am having a similar problem - my ipod doesn't show the top slider/scrub bar when I'm playing tracks, so I can't fast forward, rewind, or skip forward or back. The volume slider is visible and works, but the top one just doesn't show up - not just for podcasts, either, but for every track I've tried it on.
But I have tried to reset with and without using the saved copy of my iphones settings. Neither helped. And as described above, it is all music and podcast, where this bar scroll bar is lost.
But if you have another idea, I would be grateful for any advice.
One tap in the center of the screen should bring up the top menu items (which vary between music and podcasts). If they don't show up, use iTunes to restore your iPod.
A single tap in the center of the screen toggles the scrubber bar and associated items on and off. If that isn't working, then you are going to have to restore your iPhone. You can do a restore with backup settings first but if that doesn't fix it, you are going to have to restore as new. If the problem persists, I would visit the local Apple Genius bar for some help.
No kiddin'! I just started using podcasts and downloaded a bunch of NPR podcasts covering Newport Folk Festival '09 and have this problem on my iPhone.
I can slide/scrub wherever but it snaps to the beginning of SOME of the podcasts. Really ***** when it happens on a 2 hour podcast!
From the "NPR: Live Concerts from All Songs Considered" subscription, I can scrub "Billy Bragg: Newport Folk Festival 2009" but I can't on "Pete Seeger Singalong Saturday..."
At first I thought it might be related to the podcast length but that's not the case. I can scrub "Neko Case" (1:01:13) but not "The Decemberists" (18:22)
The problem seems to be the LAME encoding of the podcasts; however, the following worked for me...
1. Go to the podcast in iTunes, right click and select 'Create MP3 Version'. I only tried this converting to MP3, but I would imagine it'll work if you still have the default 'Create AAC Version'. If not, change this by going to Edit, Preferences, on the 'General' tab click on 'Import Settings' button, and in 'Import Using' drop-down menu select 'MP3 encoder'. Then you can right click on podcast again and 'Create MP3 Version' should be shown.
2. This will then create a new version of the podcast, encoded by iTunes, not LAME. However, it will become a music file, so it won't appear in the 'Podcast' list but in the 'Music' list. This is easily solvable though; you can get it back in the 'Podcast' list by going to the new version in 'Music' list, right click on podcast, select 'Get Info', on 'Options' tab, select 'Podcast' on 'Media Kind' drop down menu, click OK and the new version should pop back up in the 'Podcast' list.
3. Delete the old LAME (such an aptly named encoder!) version, copy the new version over into your iPod, and fast forward and rewind to your heart's content!
Sorry for the lots of words on a relatively simple task, but just wanted to make sure all things that could be different were covered, so no one had to resort to resetting their iPod when that won't solve anything! Hope my solution helps someone!
I don't think this has anything to do with what is used to encode the file.
I have podcast files that have always and still do play fine on my 30gb iPod Video.
I try to play the same podcast back on my iPhone 4 (actually any podcast that I have tried to play) and the time line at the top shows the file as if it is 00:00. So it is impossible to fast forward and the file cannot resume playback from where I left off.
I did download the file directly to the iPhone from the built in iTunes instead of on a computer.
What happens on mine is - if you download a podcast using just the iPod, there are no problems. If you then use iTunes via a computer connected to the iPod, any podcasts on the iPod are "updated" so that you are unable to fast forward.
What I do unfortunately, is delete them and redownload when not connected to the computer.
This is absolutely RUBBISH. (And would never happen with Microsoft software ;-))
How they can get away with this stuff, I don't know.
The only podcast in my collection that I've discovered with this behavior is NPR's "All Songs Considered," and its encoding is LAME3.97 (ID3 Tag v2.3). My contribution to this thread is that, unlike my 2G iPhone running iOS 3.1.3 that does exhibit this behavior, my older 30G Video iPod handles the same NPR podcast without any issue that I've noticed.
