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JaeJennie Author

Level 1

8 points

Podcasts app not deleting played episodes that are synced from iTunes (others delete fine)

In recent updates of the Podcasts app, the app has been downloading podcast episodes both on my computer and on my phone. When I sync between devices, I end up with two copies of the same episode on my phone (one normal set of episodes and one set that is specially earmarked as "synced from iTunes"). If I play both copies of the episode, one will be deleted as per usual, but the other one (the one that was synced from iTunes) sticks around no matter how many times I play it.

I would like these episodes gone. Could someone help me remove them? Thanks!

Some other information that might be helpful:

I do not use the Cloud, I sync with a USB cable.
My "Delete Played Episodes" toggle is ON in Settings.
When I go in to the episodes by show and try to delete them manually, the app won't let me swipe left on the episodes with a "plus" next to them.
The below screenshot shows a few of the episodes that are refusing to delete (for some time!) despite being recognized as played.

iPhone 8

Posted on Oct 14, 2019 2:16 PM

Best reply

reuben_m

Level 1

19 points

Posted on Nov 18, 2019 10:57 AM

I'm having a similar experience. I usually download podcast episodes to iTunes and then sync to get them on my iPhone where they show up under "Synced from iTunes" in the Podcast app. When I've finished with an episode, I delete it from iTunes, and it used to be that syncing would then remove it from the iPhone. Recently, probably since iOS 13, I've noticed that the episodes that I deleted in iTunes stay in the iPhone app after syncing, except that now they have a plus sign (+) next to them (as in the picture above). By trial and error, I found that if I touch the "+" sign, it changes to a download icon. If I then click the download icon, it appears to download. After the download completes, the episode then disappears on its own.

This seems to be a workaround, but it is annoying to have to go thru this process.

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Podcasts app not deleting played episodes that are synced from iTunes (others delete fine)

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