CKR83 wrote:
For some reason, the link used to download 46 episodes of this podcast <...> simply stopped working. Old episodes couldn't be downloaded and neither could newer ones. Someone in a reddit forum discovered that there's a NEW link -- listed unhelpfully as Critical Role (unknown). That link contains ALL of the Campaign 1 (Vox Machina) and Campaign 2 (Mighty Nein) episodes. They are downloadable and they work.
It seems that for some reason the old link was disabled.
My (educated) guess, just from what you've told us now, is that Critical Role (the name of the business creating the Podcast, perhaps?) have changed their Podcast host (the place on the internet where the Podcast episodes are downloaded from).
Podcasts are not stored on Apple's servers. In fact, they're nothing to do with Apple really, despite the fact that everyone thinks Apple is the be-all-and-end-all of Podcasting. So everyone blames Apple when Podcasts go wrong. (Serves Apple right then!)
All iTunes does is list the Podcasts and their episodes. When you choose to download (or subscribe) to a particular Podcast, your iTunes is directed to the Podcast Feed URL for that Podcast. In other words, the address for that Podcast.
I suspect - again, my educated guess, this time from checking a few extra things, is that at some stage Critical Role have changed their Podcast host, possibly from Libsyn to Podbean and it was that change that caused the issues you and Micky1218 had. In theory, such changes should be invisible to listeners, but perhaps Critical Role didn't get it right. There are a lot of complex details that Podcasters need to get right when setting up their Podcast Feed URL and if they make one little mistake, it can cause big problems.
I think most (but not all) of their shows can be downloaded from their website - but - and this is a big but...
"Podcasts" (or podcasting) is a delivery method - an automatic delivery method. To download a show from Critical Role's website, you have to visit that site, find the episode you want, manually download it to your computer and then add it to your iTunes Library, where it will show up as "music", not a Podcast. And that's for each episode!
Isn't Podcasting great? (Yes, it is - is the correct answer.)
It's a shame that Micky1218 didn't post back about his experience. If he had done, it would have given PsyDye the opportunity to explore other possible causes.
Glad you've got it sorted now.