I change the media kind of long radio recordings I import into iTunes to 'Podcast', so that I don't lose my place when I stop listening partway though.
I can't do that in the new Music app – 'Music' is the only media kind that appears in the drop down in the track into dialog box.
Is this a bug or a permanent change that's broken this useful feature?
Just spoke to Apple Support about this and, they say, the inability to change media kind is a bug that should be fixed at some point.
"At this time, that does appear to be something within the new software. This should be something that is corrected soon, then something should be announced once any and all issues are fixed!"
Since "music" and "podcasts" are now two seperate apps in Catalina, I suspect what you are trying to do may not work the same way anymore.
Perhaps you can do what you are trying to do in the Podcast app itself.
No I don't have iCloud Music Library enabled. This is still an issue (bug) for me. Apple -- this used to work! You took this feature away -- never do that. Please allow users to change the 'Music Kind' tag to any media type.
I have a similar problem. For years I've downloaded songs as music podcasts from KCRW, KEXP, and the Current. Then I change the media type from podcast to music and listen to them on itunes as normal songs. I love discovering new music this way--way more random and interesting than computer-generated playlists--so I don't want to use Catalina until this gets fixed.
Problem still persists. My computer just did an update last night to the OS, but to no avail...I still can't convert the media kind from music to podcast....kinda dead in the water here now since I just recorded a ton of content using GarageBand. I hope we get a fix soon for this.
Nope, unchanged in 10.15.1. I did see that you can change Genre to 'Podcast' in Music, but that appears to have no practical effect.
BTW, the problem here for me is that iOS Music is unable to remember the playback position in a track, which is a problem for very long (60 minutes or more) tracks – the position is lost if iOS Music is closed as an inactive background task. The 'Remember playback position' option does nothing. Retooling an audio file as a podcast in iTunes (as was) for listening in the Podcast iOS app was an effective workaround, but that clearly didn't last.
I too had this issue after importing from audiobook on CD. I was able to resolve the issue by dragging the imported files into the Books app in Catalina. I have a feeling that this is by design and that audiobook files are being compartmentalized into the Books app. What's goofy about this is that to get the audiobooks files synced to iPhone you have to go back to the Music app.
I can only get two .m4a files into Books this way. If I try to copy more, Books insists that the files are already in the library (they're not) and prompts to replace them. It doesn't seem to matter which two files are already there, or which new ones I copy – Books will only accept two, regardless of unique filename and properties. What a mess.
Important for me also. I'm putting together Podcasts and I can no longer import them into iTunes, errr, Music, and change the 'Media Kind' tag to Podcast. Very, very annoying for me. I can no longer keep track of which Podcast I've already listened to in the Music app.
Apple, please fix this soon!!
Doesn't look like it. The podcasts app picks up existing (pre 10.15) manually categorised and imported iTunes podcasts, but there appears to be no way to manually import a file into the Podcasts app.
I have the same problem...
Does anyone know if this has been fixed?
Have you had this resolved? Do you have iCloud Music Library enabled? If so, I do believe this is the source of the 'media kind' dropdown issues.
Nope, not resolved – and I don't have iCloud music library enabled.
Can't change media kind in Music (Catalina)
