Podcasts not updating on watch

I have struggled for months with the same Podcast to Watch sync issues that everyone else here seems to have. I love Apple since I bought Quadro something or other but as of the last 12 months or so, I'd say the user interfaces and user experience of Apple's iOS apps have become complete garbage.

Bottom line on THIS particular issue IMHO:

The Podcast app for sync to Watch is completely useless (why Bluetooth? That's a completely brain dead way to transfer media when wifi is present almost everywhere). TBH, the Podcast app interface basically ***** to begin with. Littered with confusing icons and a counterintuitive workflow.

Overcast might be the BEST podcast app for playback on the iPhone. Clean and user friendly. But I can't sort out how to sync to Watch over anything but Bluetooth (maybe it can't) so I ditched if for syncing podcasts to the Watch

Now be careful. The next bit is about the unfortunately similarly named Outcast:

Outcast syncs over WiFi. Praise Allah. But it quit working maybe 60 days ago and I bailed back to the Podcast app. After a few weeks of that useless and frustrating garbage, I couldn't take it anymore. As of today, I'm back to Outcast on the Watch. New interface, wifi-fast downloads and 100% satisfaction.

So:

1. Overcast for podcast playback on the Phone
2. Outcast for offline podcast playback on the Watch
3. Apple Podcast app - nvmd!

And as soon as Spotify releases an offline playback version for the Watch, I'm back to that and dropping Apple Music like a bag of hammers. Because Apple Music might be the biggest UI/UX catastrophe I've ever experienced.

Sorry Apple. You need to get your head back into the software game. Your hardware's mostly great; your iOS software is a disaster.

Go to podcast app on phone, then library, delete from phone all individual downloaded podcast. Do not unsubscribe yet. Make sure there is not a podcast qued up to play. Once each podcast is deleted, unsubscribe from the podcast on the library page. Close podcast app and make sure it is closed on watch also.

On phone, Go to settings >general >iPhone storage >podcast. Delete the app from there including all documents and data.

Unpair watch and when completed, pair it back to phone. Finally, install podcast app back to phone and subscribe to podcast.

you should get podcast on watch now.

Here's something else: I can't find it documented and it might not be applicable to everyone with a syncing problem but I have wifi at home transmitting on 5G and 2.4. I usually leave my phone hooked to the 5G for better performance but my watch only supports 2.4 so it's hooked to the 2.4 signal.

With bluetooth on the phone off, the watch WILL NOT SYNC, in fact, it completely drops offline, unless I switch my phone over to the 2.4 signal beforehand.

So, for example, if you're using outcast as the podcast app on your watch, before you try downloading content on the watch via Outcast, make sure your watch and phone are set to the same 2.4 band on your wifi.

@gdog1961

Thanks for the advice! I downloaded OutKast and have been using it for past 2 days - it’s great. Interface is a little clunky but the ability to download individual episodes directly to the watch is exactly what’s missing from Apple’s native app.

Even simple stuff like displaying the download progress as a percentage as opposed to Apple’s annoying “updating” message on the Watch App display.

Apple’s Podcasts app is at its worst when you’re trying to sync Series 1 of a podcast that has 2 or 3 series!!! No matter what I tried, it kept prioritizing the newest episodes from Series 3. Really frustrating. Anyway, I’ve deleted “Podcasts” app and will stick to OutKast for now!

OK. I have a partial fix.

When you charge your Watch at night and want to download some podcasts. Put your iPhone into Airplane Mode - and also switch off Bluetooth.

This then forces the watch to connect to the WiFi - and when I tried it first time last night - I successfully downloaded 5 podcasts to my watch - the most yet.

There are still two other shows which have not downloaded - but this is a definite improvement!

Hi all. I was in the same boat as many of you and tried everything what people suggest on here to no avail for months.

But I did come across a post and followed those steps and included a few of my own too.

Open podcast app on phone. Unsubscribe to all podcasts. Then delete all podcasts. Then delete podcast app.

Shut down both phone and watch and restart them.

Download the podcast app and subscribe to you podcasts.

in the Iwatch app in podcasts, I selected custom but only picked three podcasts to upload instead of my usual 15-20...

Put both phone and watch on chargers and in the morning I had 4 new podcast downloaded on my watch.

And that’s where I’m up-to now. Hopefully they keep uploading automatically now.

Good luck all.

I have found that if you use outcast, putting the phone in airplane mode (Bluetooth and WiFi off), and turn on WiFi on the Apple watch, a hour long podcast downloads in seconds. I’ve given up on the Apple’s native podcast app. Even when it worked, it would not download as fast.

Sounds so easy. The problem is you will waste 2 hours with this and then it will work for a week and then your back doing this again and again. I downloaded Outkast for my podcasts and it works great. You select the podcasts you want then turn you phone onto airplane mode to kill the Bluetooth. Go to the app on your watch and download the episodes to your watch. Once done switch off airplane mode and your ready to go. It's fast because it is using WIFI rather than Bluetooth. Something Apple should look into. My other suggestion to to any apple developer on this is get the guy who figured out apple music. That works great. Slow but it works. Plus the guy that developed the App for Podcasts, get him a watch and have him try is own work. Or fire him and hire somebody else! It's a shame that so many people are having this issue and no fix from Apple. Maybe we have to pay $2000 for a phone to get it right?

I had the same issue and tried everything - re-syncing my watch, restarting my phone and watch, deleting the podcast app and re-downloading it, etc. Nothing worked so I decided I was done with the Podcast App and decided to switch to Overcast.

While in the process, I started deleting all my downloaded podcasts in the Podcast App, as well as old podcasts that had been on my phone for the past year.

I have no idea why, but after deleting all those old podcasts, I noticed that my watch started to sync up to podcasts in the Podcast app the way that it was supposed to.

I have no solid explanation for this, but it worked and solved my issue. Now it syncs up fine and I can listen to podcasts in my Podcast library on my watch when I go for runs without my phone on me.

@owl2hoot, In my world, outcast works great as you've described as long as the watch and the phone are on the identical Wi-Fi network, ie both my phone and watch need to be on the 2.4G band. Which blows because I generally run on phone of the 5G band for better performance.

I've had the same problem, and I ended up making it work by taking of bluetooth from my phone, connecting it to the same wifi as my watch, and then the i choose in 'custom' through my phone, magically started downloading to my watch.

4.3.2021

seems like Apple is discriminating against us runners or at the very least has a software manager that “sleeps in

“ on this one. (Pun intended)

so this is what I do now to get the podcasts to synchronize before my runs (it worked this morning)

Setup

-make the podcast app keep 1 episode (less apps means shorter downloading times)

i have 16 shows in my app all set to keep most recent

daily

wake up

leave watch on charger

pick up phone, open watch app

stare at the podcast synchronization symbol (spinners) (the harder you stare the faster the spinners go!)

go to the bathroom- keep watch app open

do my business, keep the watch app open

check spinners, some should go away after completing download. They take a long time.(I tried turning off Bluetooth but was then forced by the app to turn it back on doh!)

finish up in bathroom go back to watch.

Put on watch, say a little prayer to Steve Jobs and Woz.

Open podcast app and check for cloud icons on the watch show images, if no cloud icons it was a success!

if not, go back to top and start over ****** off damming Apple coders iPhones to turn into Newton’s.

today I only had one show that updated because it’s saturday so it worked.

i have partially or unplayed podcasts from Friday or before

11 downloaded but I think some were downloaded while on WiFi by streaming to watch partially and then later the watch downloaded while in the charging station

I think the problem is several things:

1. Podcasts are long and take a long time to down load
2. they download only when watch is on charger and the watch app is open (I could be wrong about the app having to be open but it is satisfying to see progress spinners disappear)
3. New podcasts download to phone in the morning right before I want them on my watch which means the watch being on the charger for a full minute is not enough

by allowing a 5-15 minute period between podcast download to phone and over to watch enabled success for 1 show

therefore going forward watch will need more time on charger as more new apps are available for download.

so I have purchased another watch charger that I can place in my tv room so I can charge the watch the evening before.

my guess is it will need to be connected to remove played podcasts thus decreasing the chances of a bottleneck in the short period of time I have in the morning.

Apple could do better by improving the display of downloading progress. Since we want it to happen fast the usual status shenanigans is not sufficient

Hi, had this annoying issue and tried to solve it for about an hour. Tried everything, suddenly I turned off my watch and phone, then turn both on and everything was working silky smooth like used to be. Hope this work.

Strangely. I had to reinstall iOS 14.2 and all apps for another issue I was having. After the reinstallation I can listen to podcasts on my Apple Watch. I found rebuilding my I phone software stack was more painful than the benefit of listening to my podcasts from my watch.

I actually found this worked last night - just power cycled the watch and boom, podcasts were downloading again. Going to give this a try over the next couple of weeks and see if it's consistent.