"No episodes exist in your feed" only in iTunes Connect (and Overcast)

Question

"No episodes exist in your feed" only in iTunes Connect (and Overcast)

Hi all, I've got just a hand-written test feed at the moment (which displays the same behavior as my intended real feed). I can't see what I'm doing wrong.

The feed: https://bluecastle.org/casttest_8399abu/feed1.xml

https://podba.se/validate/?url=https://bluecastle.org/casttest_8399abu/feed1.xml

This says all is well.

http://castfeedvalidator.com/?url=https://bluecastle.org/casttest_8399abu/feed1.xml

This says all is well, and it will play my single test episode media, so clearly that media enclosure link is good.

I can add the URL to iTunes on my Mac and it subscribes and plays the one test episode.

However,

https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/new-feed

says: "Failed Validation" and "No episodes exist in your feed."

And Overcast, my preferred player, also can't seem to display any episodes: it just spins and eventually reports "(No Internet Connection)" (the phone is connected to the Internet just fine).

I can see Apple and Overcast requesting data and getting 200 or 206 responses (206 when they ask for a range).

I've been using Apple's docs including Apple's example RSS feed as a model. My earlier feed, with the same behavior, had different image and different enclosures (m4a in that case), but yet had same behavior --- so maybe something unusual about my RSS itself or the server behavior (that the other validators don't have any trouble with)?

Any ideas?

-Travis

Posted on Jul 9, 2019 11:17 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Travis Pouarz Author

Level 1

23 points

Jul 9, 2019 7:55 PM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Thanks Roger. I have been carefully following Apple's "A podcaster’s guide to RSS" at https://help.apple.com/itc/podcasts_connect/#/itcb54353390 with its list of required tags and what not.

I found the problem: those docs say, Required Tag "<itunes:title>" : "You can still specify your raw episode title using the default RSS <title>tag, however Apple does not currently use this information." (And <title> is not listed as a required tag.)

However, I just discovered, that if I specify <title> in my <item>, iTunes Connect says it's valid and recognizes the episode, and without <title> in my <item>, iTunes Connect says I have no episodes. I do see that Apple's RSS feed example in that same documentation does specify <title> for all episodes except one (the "trailer").

So that's all a bit crazy. Unfortunately, Overcast is still not liking my feed, but that's another story.

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Answer 2

Jul 9, 2019 1:57 PM in response to Travis Pouarz

As far as Podcasts Connect is concerned this is likely to be the culprit:

<itunes:block>Yes</itunes:block>

This blocks your feed from the iTunes Store (and so Podcasts Connect, I assume) but nowhere else. Change 'Yes' to 'no' or remove the tag.

You are missing one or two essential tags: you need an 'itunes:duration' tag with the format HH:MM:SS or MM:SS otherwise your episode won't play in the Store. You should have a 'link' tag. You need 'itunes:subtitle' and 'itunes:summary' tags for the overall podcast and for each episode. The 'itunes:summary' in the top section of the feed contains the source of the description on the iTunes Store page and should be two or three lines long. Your image is the correct dimensions but is 516kB - it must be below 500kB or it will be rejected.

This Apple page lists various tags and explanations:

https://help.apple.com/itc/podcasts_***http://wilmut.uk/pc

This page tells you how to structure your 'category' tag: you need to choose from the ones listed, and where a sub-category is listed you should pick one, otherwise one will be picked for you.

My page here includes a sample feed you can use as a template:

http://wilmut.uk/pc

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"No episodes exist in your feed" only in iTunes Connect (and Overcast)

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