Podcast app doesn't hide played episodes

After a few weeks I think I may have a solution for some. I have been listening to podcasts for quite some time, and it seems with the latest update (iOS 14.5 maybe?, I am on 14.7.1 now) Apple Podcasts seems to now sync your un-played history with iTunes and if you have any episodes that weren't completely listened to, it will keep the latest episode of that podcast in your Up Next/Listen Now, even if the latest episode is already played. This un-played list seems to be saved to the cloud somewhere, as I never use iTunes but had to download it in order to fix this. Easiest way I found to fix this is:

1) Go to iTunes on your MAC/PC.

2) Go to Podcasts (drop down menu on PC)

3) Click on "Unplayed" near the top middle

4) Select all the old un-played podcasts that you no longer need near the bottom

5) Command Click / Right Click "Mark as Played"

5) On your iOS device, go to Up Next/ Listen Now and pull down to sync

There were still a few episodes on my iOS device that I had to "Mark as Unplayed" and then right away "Mark as Played", but after doing that, all my unwanted played episodes have disappeared!

Hopefully that helps some of you!

It worked for me. Try turning the phone all the way off. Also, when you have played an episode, it doesn't delete for 24 hours now. Infinite wisdom of 14.5.

Apple, you have ruined podcasting for me. I don't have the time to always listen to every podcast I subscribe to. Nor do I listen to them in order. Why the **** have you changed the podcast app to show me podcasts that I've already heard?? I can't find anything now. I'm so mad!

And I didn't think about this until later; but I've invested a lot of time deleting episodes that I didn't want to listen to. And now they're all back, clogging my my feed. And since I can only see the top eight or ten podcasts, going back in time and catching up on one of the episodes that I was saving for later is impossible because they're needles in a haystack! Why did you make the delete episode "swipe left" go away?? I just don't get it...

I am furious. Listening to podcasts is a huge part of my life. I listen for 7 hours a day while working, and it really helps with my depression. I was subscribed to over 200 shows, with thousands of episodes queued up to listen to, and now I have to go through the recovered library and save every. single. episode by hand, while the app is constantly freezing and crashing.

I have this exact problem as well. Was wondering of you ever found a solution?

I'm having the exact same problems. Is it a Russian hack?