Podcasts on iOS 14.6, serious loading issues

iOS 14.7 has solved all my issues with the functionality of the podcast app. All works as I expect it to.

I have only used to so far 2 times. Once for about 5 minutes. The 2nd time for about 30 minutes. The first time after 5 minutes the back of my iPhone 8 Plus was hot. Battery usage was listed at 30 something percent. After several hours I used the podcast app again for about 30 minutes. Flawless performance. The back of my iPhone 8 Plus DID NOT get hot this time. Battery usage still shows 30 something percent. From the time I started using the podcast app until now, my charge percent went from 91 to 75. Not unusual for regular use of this phone over this time period. I’m hopeful this 14.7 update has corrected the problem with the podcast app. So far so good!

Hi everyone!

Seems to be a poor experience for a lot of consumers, so I hope Apple is on this and trying to fix it.

I'm now using the Acast App in the short term, recommended by another user and the experience has been good, with the option of all your shows to be transferred across. Whatever way you go you'll lose some time mucking around. Lots of money spent with Apple along the journey. I'm still trying to work out the costs associated with the subscription business, hopefully not lost. iHeartRadio App was another one recommended. Spotify did the trick too for a quick Podcast fix.

This was from another post: The best bet is for all to submit problems and suggestions to Apple at Apple Feedback, https://www.apple.com/feedback/apple-podcasts/.

I did this and have not received a reply from Apple yet, I'm not sure if you do get a reply.

I never used Apple Music but used to use iTunes for all podcasts, music and TV/films. I can only speak to the Podcasts app on iPhone, and have on recommendation from users here now tried Pocket Casts, and love it.

It is not only the downloading times that are terrible on iOS 14.6, but also the inability to remove podcasts (other than by selecting 'mark as played') that one does not wish to listen to. The 'follow' instead of 'subscribe' function may be at fault here.

By the way, after I removed almost all my 'follows' from the Apple Podcast app, leaving only a few legacy podcasts there, it is still just a slow to load/change from play to pause, etc., as it was when I hand 50+ podcasts on it. So it's not even the volume that is causing the slowdown. All those podcasts are now on Pocket Casts, and it loads instantly!

On a related note, I notice that when I go to Settings - General - iPhone Storage, and want to see the volume of GB used and the relative 'category sizes' (photos, files, apps..), it shows the no. of GB right away but no longer loads the colour-coded bar that shows the proportions of types of usage. This suggests that the problem is something to do with most reload/refresh functions.

I have an iPhone SE (1 year old), but all these apps worked perfectly until 10 days ago when iOS updated to 14.6.

As a few others have mentioned, I've seen a marked improvement since updating to 14.7. Still some problems getting a podcast to actually PLAY once loaded, but the delays on initial launch, refreshes of each screen, etc. are gone.

IOS 14.7 has cured the problem, at least for the first 12 hours

Yep I agree the iOS 14.7 update has seemed to cure the hiccups and functionality of the app. Since the new update has been installed, It works fine thus far with no issues 🙌🏾🤞🏾👏🏾

Apple Discussions is a user-to-use your knowledge sharing forum and, as you can see, we are all sharing some of the pain with the Podcasts app upgrade. The best bet is for all to submit problems and suggestions to Apple at Apple Feedback, https://www.apple.com/feedback/apple-podcasts/

The iOS 14.5 & 14.6 Apple Podcasts app upgrades are still bug-ridden. I’m sorry podcast users have had to serve as guinea pigs for such a flawed versions, it doesn’t make sense to invest time trying to answer questions about such an unpredictable piece of software.

On the Apple Podcasts Server side new episodes for some Shows are listed three days after they are available on TuneIn, Stitcher, SoundCloud, etc.

On the Apple Podcasts app side:

• the app gets stuck in loading mode with some users when first opened,

• Episodes sometimes mark themselves as played after just a few seconds,

• some Shows do not list the most recent unplayed episodes even when the Show settings are chosen to do so.

• Station lists sometimes do not list unplayed episodes available in Show lists, even though the Station settings do not limit episodes,

• some users experience difficulty deleting episodes from lists,

• some episodes download once in Show lists, others simply do not, even the toggle for Automatic Downloads in Show settings is On,

• the app causes a heating problem and excessive battery draining, particularly when select other apps are open in the background or foreground,

• a change in key default settings in the iOS 14.5 Podcasts app upgrade caused numerous unwanted automatic downloads in Shows with tens or hundreds of episodes.

Hopefully, some heads have rolled for those responsible, clearer thinking people have replaced them and the bugs will be straightened out soon. Apple is an excellent company which has made this experience frustrate us more.

I have had the same issues since the 14.6 update. It takes a long time (around 10 seconds sometimes more) for the different sections of the main podcast screen to load. Sometimes the podcast that is currently playing at the bottom of the screen does not show up. The bottom section just shows “not playing.”

what I have found usually gets things straightened up is to open the library (this can take awhile to complete- sometimes 10sec, sometimes 2 min).

once the library open an I can view my “shows,” (which can have another delay), I then will see the currently playing podcast at the bottom of the screen and every thing seems to work fine after that.

I definitely saw a frustrating change in the podcast app since the 14.6 update.

Has anyone tried deleting the podcast app and reinstalling it? I was thinking of doing that, but I didn’t want to possibly lose the information as to which podcasts I have already played.

I switched to Pocket Casts, upon recommendation of some users here, after a few days of the new Apple Podcast app.

People here have complained mainly about slow loading, which I certainly had, and also the loss of the feature where you could remove an episode you were not interested in just by swiping left!

I first tried Castro but didn't like its look and feel, but Pocket Casts is perfect. There's just one little quirky thing - if you download any episodes, these are listed under your Profile icon, not under the 'Filters', where you can see all the New Releases, In Progress, or Starred. You have to create a new filter yourself, and select 'Download status' and then 'Downloaded' to have those show up as another list under Filters.

Monica

Really enjoying Pocket Cast and the colour customisation is class too.

I’m super happy with pocket cast it looks great and the layout and the customisation of the colour scheme and the app icon is sleek. I’ve gone for the little cat…and I’m not even a cat fan : )

i finally installed another podcast app works like a charm no more waiting load content

Try Google Podcasts. I switched over and it is great. It took me a while to subscribe to all the podcasts and I had to find the RSS feed for some but it was worth it! I couldn’t stomach that app any longer and I have used it for a lonnnngggggg time!

Based on some recommendations on this forum, I've switched to Pocket Casts, which I love. I had first tried Castro, which I didn't like, but this one is similar enough to the look and feel and functionalities to the formerly good Apple Podcast app that the transition was very smooth! Apple should learn ... if it ain't broke...

Hi @sharkfluffer,

There are plenty of apps that seem to do the trick for your podcast fix. Lots of suggestions on this thread. I jumped on Acast from an earlier suggestion, which allowed me to transfer my library (in part) across, a bit of time needed to tidy up. I also used Spotify so that I could a least listen to a podcast until this mess was sorted out.

I'm a little dumbfounded with Apple that there doesn't seem to be any urgency to fix it, as this thread continues to grow. Not my style, but I'm now starting to think there may be another reason for Apple to push people to other Podcast Apps. Credit where credit due to them, it has worked, at the expense to customer experience! I also wonder if podcast show providers (at a cost for some subscriptions) are aware of this issue. I hope this helps.