Latest update deleted all older podcast episodes

Not sure if this will help for everyone, but my files were downloaded to my laptodp hard drive - I went through each podcast and turned off "limit episodes" in the settings (which is how it was set before the update), and the older podcasts reappeared. Kind of a pain to go through each podcast to do this, but it seems to have worked for me.

Instead of visiting each podcast in turn to change the "limit episodes" setting, you can change the default to be "off". I found it quite tricky, but switching back and forth between different sections I was able to return to the Podcasts section without any podcast selected. Then when the "Settings..." button is pressed you see a window where the defaults can be changed:

I had this happen to me and I may have blundered into some kind of "fix":

I edited the default Podcast settings and set the Limit Episodes to Off, as suggested. Great. After that I was cleaning up a podcast I no longer listen to and manually deleted an episode (actually deleted a few at once). This seemed to trigger some kind of refresh for all of my podcasts. The list of episodes were updated and it seems to remember the episodes that I have listened to correctly. They are no longer on my hard drive (the have the cloud icon next to them) but at least I can remember where I left off. I was worried I was going to have to go into the store for each podcast and download the older episodes by hand. Hopefully this prevents that.

I had the same problem. The default setting (Keep only the last 3) overwrote my settings.

At least I was able to download the deleted files again.

This is a major fail on Apple's part. I lost years of podcasts I was saving. Luckily, I had a backup. It might be time to find a new podcast app, though.

Sounds like a rerun of this issue: Why did iTunes 11.1 (126) delete all (SEVERAL HUNDRED) Podcasts?

tt2

Works for *some* of the podcasts that were stored on your hard drive. Like asore, this morning I found that hundreds of podcasts were deleted from both iTunes and from my hard drive, and yeah no trace of them in Recycle either. Turning off "limit episodes" helped with a couple podcasts but not all. Stuff I'd been saving for long travels during the upcoming holiday season. Nice *$!*&%! job, Apple! How are you gonna fix this?

What's really sad about this is that it wasn't too long ago that the biggest selling point for the much higher cost of Apple products was that their hardware and software were actually much better quality than the hardware for Windows computers and Windows itself. In the past 5 - 10 years Microsoft and really improved the reliability of Windows and PC makers are using better quality products too.

Apple products (all of them) are now so unreliable that it's just a given that you have to buy the AppleCare extended warranty because you know it'll break on you.

My mid-2015 MacBook Pro had a defective Thunderbolt port from the factory. This port is built into the motherboard and the whole board had to be replaced (see note below).

It seems that Apple is so focused on pushing out new hardware and software that quality has taken a back seat. Getting it out the door is more important than it working right.

Sorry about this slight digression! Now back to the discussion of this iTunes bug.

Thanks,

Larry.

NOTE:

I actually brought my MBP into Apple for them to check it out while it was still under warranty. Their tests did not show any issue so I assumed it was an issue with my monitor that was long out of warranty and on loan from a friend. It was a few months after the warranty expired that I was able to check it on a different monitor and then knew that it was my MBP that was broken, not the monitor.

I brought it back into Apple figuring they would certainly cover the repair costs since I had brought it in while it was still in warranty.

Turns out that since the tests they did while it was in warranty didn't show any issue, they didn't enter this into their systems (even though I was there with an appointment). Since they didn't keep a record of my visit they didn't have any proof that I brought it in under warranty and I had to pay about $800 for a new motherboard when it was just a few months out of warranty. I was lucky that the credit card I used had an extended warranty for products I purchased and they reimbursed me for it.

UGH!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I just went to my podcast listing and saw that most of them (1214 out of 1378) were deleted.

Is this "Limit Episodes" setting new to this version or did they just change the default setting?

Now, I get to go through the 1,214 episodes not downloaded and figure out if I had already listened to it or not. I then get to down load them again!

This once again shows how Apple really does not care at all about there customers. The release untested code monthly to our computers and portable devices as though this is normal.

Oh, and this is the SECOND time I can remember where Apple corrupted my data without so much as even an apology. The first time was back in 2014 when they released iTunes 12. There was a bug that changed the release date of all TV shows to, "June 5, 1905." I never heard any acknowledgment from Apple about this and it took many releases until this was fixed. To thsi date I check the release date field on the TV shows right after I update because I know I can't trust Apple. Of course, I backup the full iTunes library right before I update.

Thanks again!

Larry.

What happened to testing before a release to production? The irony is that the team at Apple may have also hurt many of their own family and friends with this issue. After all the other "bugs" and issues with iTunes over the past few years, it may at long last be time to switch to another product to manage my music library. I still prefer to use separate iPods for music playback, so I have more than one challenge to overcome -- managing my library and managing and syncing my iPods. This is just unbelievable to have to go through.

Thank you thank you thank you, Geoff Hackworth!!

seems to have fixed it.

UGH.

itunes/iOS podcast support is horrific, saved only by virtue of it being orders of magnitude pe better than anything else...despite being horrific.

Its like they’re either incompetent, or have never used their own software.

it STILL of course “helpfully” decides to stop updating podcasts, forcing me to run through my whole library, and more serious issues than that, but at least this seems fixed thanks to you 🤦🏻‍♀️

AceExplorer wrote:

What happened to testing before a release to production? The irony is that the team at Apple may have also hurt many of their own family and friends with this issue. After all the other "bugs" and issues with iTunes over the past few years, it may at long last be time to switch to another product to manage my music library. I still prefer to use separate iPods for music playback, so I have more than one challenge to overcome -- managing my library and managing and syncing my iPods. This is just unbelievable to have to go through.

the problem is, as terrible as iTunes/iOS is, it’s still orders of magnitude better than anything else. If not for this, I’d literally have to switch to the pre 2005 method of manually downloading everything, manually copying them, manually recording playback position, etc.

lschwarcz wrote:

What's really sad about this is that it wasn't too long ago that the biggest selling point for the much higher cost of Apple products was that their hardware and software were actually much better quality than the hardware for Windows computers and Windows itself. In the past 5 - 10 years Microsoft and really improved the reliability of Windows and PC makers are using better quality products too.

Apple products (all of them) are now so unreliable that it's just a given that you have to buy the AppleCare extended warranty because you know it'll break on you.

My mid-2015 MacBook Pro had a defective Thunderbolt port from the factory. This port is built into the motherboard and the whole board had to be replaced (see note below).

It seems that Apple is so focused on pushing out new hardware and software that quality has taken a back seat. Getting it out the door is more important than it working right.

Sorry about this slight digression! Now back to the discussion of this iTunes bug.

Thanks,

Larry.

NOTE:

I actually brought my MBP into Apple for them to check it out while it was still under warranty. Their tests did not show any issue so I assumed it was an issue with my monitor that was long out of warranty and on loan from a friend. It was a few months after the warranty expired that I was able to check it on a different monitor and then knew that it was my MBP that was broken, not the monitor.

I brought it back into Apple figuring they would certainly cover the repair costs since I had brought it in while it was still in warranty.

Turns out that since the tests they did while it was in warranty didn't show any issue, they didn't enter this into their systems (even though I was there with an appointment). Since they didn't keep a record of my visit they didn't have any proof that I brought it in under warranty and I had to pay about $800 for a new motherboard when it was just a few months out of warranty. I was lucky that the credit card I used had an extended warranty for products I purchased and they reimbursed me for it.

UGH!

I’ve had much better luck with Dell and Alienware hardware than Apple. And Windows has always been reliable for me, with occasional weirdness just like Apple’s...though man is itunes/iOS broken for podcasts...it’s just pathetically still by far the best solution. There’s 90 billion podcast programs, and only itunes/iOS lets you download everything to a central pc and sync out to all your devices. Everything else seems to think you’re happy with having access to a few of the most recent podcasts, streaming, on a phone 🤦🏻‍♀️

Oh, and literally 100% of lightning ports have failed on me. Literally 100%.

Both my iPad and iPhone can only charge by leaning the entire weight of the device on the cable itself, to force it against the connector...and that’s GOOD compared with older lightning devices like my iPhone 5s. (Also means I can’t use either while plugged in, so I’m wrecking the battery to use them.)

I wonder whether the iPad Pro with usb 3/c actually works.

I’ve NEVER had a 30-pin connector, nor a USB connector fail on me, while 100% of lightning connectors fail...and that’s while babying they lightning connector while not worrying much about usb. (I’ve not used usb c much though)

if not for lightning, I mostly like iOS. (Though I’ve found 13 shockingly buggy on my iPad. It’s got some good tweaks, but a lot of bugs)