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Unable to download podcast that I have before.

On Windows, I am trying to download the Critical Role Podcast Campaign 1, however when I click "Get" it doesnt download to my computer. I have downloaded more than 50 episodes from this podcast but it just started to not work. I have tried re-installing Itunes but it didn't help. When I go to any other podcast it works the way I want it to, but not this one in particular. Last time it worked correctly was about a week ago.

Posted on Jun 25, 2020 12:59 PM

Reply
7 replies

Jul 10, 2020 1:51 PM in response to CKR83

You're not making this easy. Unless you already know about these things (which I don't) Critical Role - Campaign 1 is not the same as Vox Machina -- Campaign 1.


So - my research has come up with this:


Is this the Podcast you are referring to?


If it is:

  • as you can see, my iTunes is in the process of downloading the latest available episode, released on 9th July 2020
  • now that is has downloaded, it is playable in my iTunes Library, although I won't be spending long listening to it
  • episodes are marked as Explicit. Is your iTunes set to allow explicit content?
  • I clicked on the "website" link that you can see in the screenshot, which took me to a page on their Podcast host's site. Crucially, on there is a link to their own website and on that site is a "Contact Us" link


If this Podcast is not the one you are interested in, then please supply more information that might help us to help you. This isn't a battlefield.

Jul 10, 2020 1:06 PM in response to CKR83

CKR83 wrote:

So that was completely useless. It didn't work. AS USUAL. I

That's not something the original poster has said.


To begin with:

  • are you having trouble with the same Podcast series as originally discussed?
  • are you having the same issue, that is, you click on the Get box but nothing happens?
  • have you contacted the Podcasts series' producers?
  • is there anything else that you could mention that might help us ehere?

Jul 10, 2020 6:51 PM in response to the fiend

Actually, Critical Role - Campaign 1 is EXACTLY the same as Vox Machina -- Campaign 1 -- at least as far as content goes. Critical Role Campaign 1 is called Vox Machina and there are well over 100 episodes. The latest ep is for the second campaign -- that's the one you're downloading. If you're not into D&D and/or Critical Role, I wouldn't bother listening to it. The eps are long and wouldn't make sense unless you've been following the campaign.

Anyway, I did find the problem, although I didn't find the reason why it occurred.

For some reason, the link used to download 46 episodes of this podcast ( and that STILL lists all 134 eps) 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. Don't know by who or why it was done. I'd started listening to ep 46 from the old link. Mind you this was already on my phone - and when I checked to make sure ep 47 worked -- Apple helpfully deleted ep 46. Things like this are why people don't like apple -- they think they own your data.

In any event, things seem to be working from the new link -- at least until they get deleted again.


Anyway, I do thank you for trying to help.

Jul 11, 2020 7:07 AM in response to CKR83

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.

Unable to download podcast that I have before.

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