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.

Hi, i’m here again for an update. After a lot of unsuccessful talks with apple support, unpairing watch and reseting iphone, i found an answer. Well, actually that one senior adviser i talked to recently solved that mystery, like he said that is from his experience.

So what you need to do is just wait a loooot more or just left it for a night.

To make syncing faster - you need to put your iphone and watch far from each other so that bluetooth starts breaking and it will use WiFi instead. (You can’t turn it off cause it kinda doesn’t work, idk. That’s that he said, you just can’t.)

At first i didn’t believed him and was really sceptical and hopeless but it worked and today i was listening to podcast in the gym! Try it and update if it really works for everyone.

Thanks for that unknown adviser!!

The ONLY thing I’ve found that works, and it works consistently, is to download and use a third party app. The app is “Outcast” and it’s a $0.99 download from the App Store

It’s not as clean as the native Apple Podcast app, and it takes a couple of steps, but you can tap a podcast episode right on the watch and download it over WiFi. You can see the download progress and track in General - Usage and see that it does indeed download to the phone right away.

it’s clunky and it’s a pain, and I would expect more from Apple developers for their own app, but it works for me.

UPDATE: I used to use PocketCasts (I think it is an NPR product) but switched to Apple Podcasts to listen on the watch. Apple really dropped the ball on this and it was hit or miss (usually miss) if I could listen a podcast without my phone.

BUT, PocketCasts has been busy and developed a watch feature that really works. I have been running it for a week and so far it does what it says. There is a free version that does NOT support the watch (via cellular, but if you have your phone, you are good to go), but the paid version ($9.99 year) does. It is called PocketCasts Plus and I just bought it with an in-app purchase.

It is ridiculous that I need to spend $10 a year to make a $500 product work correctly, but this did it for me. And I am still holding out hope with the new iOS, OS, and WatchOS coming out in September that the synch may work!

I had the same issue and called Apple Support yesterday. I had tried many of the steps you laid out and didn’t have any luck. They had me check a few other things and walked through what I had already done. The final recommendation was unpairing my watch and setting it up as new. As of this morning, it appears to have done the trick; my watch’s podcast app is populated with several downloaded episodes. I will say that this solution wasn’t a big deal for me because I’ve had the watch for less than a month; setting it back up from scratch and risking losing 2-3 weeks of data in some apps wasn’t a huge deal for me. This solution may not work for others who have had their watches for longer.

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.

UPDATE FOR ME:

Seems to be working.

Currently in iOS 14.2 and WatchOS 7

I deleted all of my other Podcast apps and unsubscribed from all of my podcasts on Apple Podcasts because I cannot delete the app.

I re-subscribed to the podcasts on my iPhone. It also populated the phone with many recent episodes that I had already heard.

I programmed the watch via the Watch app on the phone using custom and selected the podcasts I wanted. I culled this list down from before.

It appears to be working now.

The watch and the phone had unwanted (listened to) podcasts, so I took time on the PHONE and deleted the episodes manally (pain in the *** for daily podcasts) leaving the phone with only unlistened to episodes.

Overnight, my watch synched and populated with only the unlistened to episodes from the phone that were specified to be on the watch. It also drew in two daily podcasts that released in the middle of the night.

So far so good. I do notice that as I leave my house to run, the podcasts drop out for a few seconds over a few minutes and I assume that is the watch trying to decide if it wants WiFi or cellular.

For the watch to synch, you do need to have the watch and phone on the same Wifi network and the watch must be in the charger.

I do think that part of my problem was the number of podcasts subscribed on the phone. Initially I had selected them all to go to the watch. By selecting fewer, it seems to be working as desired.

Had the same issue. Unsubscribe from podcast in your library. Delete the podcast app from Settings- General- iPhone storage. Choose delete all documents and data. Restart the iPhone and Apple Watch. Reinstall the podcast app. Worked for me !

@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.

After many painful efforts, here is a workaround that works for me...

(1) Buy "Outcast for Watch" app (well worth $0.99 to solve this issue).

(2) When I want to add a specific podcast episode, I put my phone in Airplane mode + turn off Bluetooth. This forces the watch to download via my home wifi network (make sure watch is connected to wifi).

(3) Search and download a specific pod episode (Outcast is great for manually downloading/deleting specific episodes).

(4) It typically downloads super quick (< 1 minute).

This is my routine to get podcasts on my watch, so I can play them on runs without my iPhone.

Hope it helps!

I'd like to add one note to this: I have two flavors of the same WiFi network in my house: 2.4G and 5G bands. I run my phone on the 5G band by default because it's got better bandwidth and range. Unfortunately, my Series 5 watch is only 2.4G. The only way I can get Outcast to download directly to the watch via WiFi is to first switch my phone to the 2.4G band and then sync Outcast and the watch. If this is also true for you then beware: if your phone is set to autoselect to your 5G band, it will disconnect an Outcast sync as soon as it autoselects back to 5G (example, phone goes into lock/password protect mode). FWIW.