Podcasts on iOS 14.6, serious loading issues

Glad to hear I'm not alone.

It's definitely the app, not Wifi or router issues (on the same iPhone, at the same time and same location, the podcasts I subscribe to on BBC Sounds, for example, appear instantly, as they used to on the Podcasts app.

Apart from the complaint that you can't really delete a podcast that you are not interested in listening to (only mark it 'played' and select hide played podcasts, which is bothersome but not insurmountable, the slowness of the load is terrible.

I'm not even talking about how many days after a podcast drops does it show up in the feed - it's that when you open 'Latest Episodes' or even 'Downloads' (which are of course already local on the device), it takes over 2 minutes to load just the titles (and then I haven't even started to listen to one or download it).

I hope this gets fixed soon, I've used Apple (first iTunes, then Podcast app) since 2005, the earliest days of podcasting, and I'm about to give up and go to another app for listening to podcasts. It's infuriating that something that used to work well should become unusuable due to an iOS update.

Also, when you move from one podcast to the next, it takes the visual over 20 seconds to change over to show the new one, even though the new one is already playing. This is also the case if you paused or resumed, so effectively you can't do anything such as rewind or fast forward during that period when the player is still showing the previous status of the podcast.

Exactly the same thing has been happening to me. I’m back to using overcast since podcasts are now impossible to use. This is not only annoying but so disappointing to think Apple could get this so so wrong.

Been using Pocket Cast 3 days and I’m not going back to Apple Podcast even if they sort it out (highly unlikely).

I’m just waiting for them to destroy Apple Music next and I will promptly be cancelling that and going back to Spotify.

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.

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.

The performance is sooo bad. I decided to upgrade to the latest iPad Air and it was no better, so it’s definitely not the theory my husband had that Apple degrades performance purposely to get you to upgrade your device lol.

anyway it drives me bananas, how long I have to wait for the app to load, for the library to display, for the queue list to display, for the play/pause to respond.

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!

Thanks to cyberbiker for the link. I lodged a complaint. Listening to podcasts is so important to me and the latest version of Apple podcasts is unusable. Takes forever to load and I can't find my unplayed episodes I've painstakingly selected to listen to, among other things.

Have any of you had luck with another podcast app? I'd love your advice which one to switch to. I've had trouble with the Apple podcast app off and on over the years which made me consider switching, but I invested in my library the switching costs are so high I never did.

But this time the Apple messed it up so badly and I lost all my data on unplayed episodes so I don't have much to lose anymore. I thunk it's time to find another app. I welcome your input!

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.

I waited more than 2 minutes to load library this morning. And then even longer to load shows. I don’t know why it forces me back home opening podcast anyway. Just let me open back up where I was without loading whatever it is it’s loading. I’ve used it for years and it’s never been this not useable. There are plenty of apps out there that are better I’m sure but I don’t want to have to change but I guess I will

Library takes up to a minute to load, and if even if I leave the app open in the background it has to load like this again. It’s heating up my phone and VERY quickly draining my battery, even when it’s the only app running. It goes from 100% charged to 20% in just an hour. Hope this gets a patch SOON, because I use Podcasts heavily.

Has this been resolved? Cause it’s been a month now and the app is so slow. It takes 5mins for a podcast to play after I clicked on it😫 Also my phone gets super hot when I’m listening to a podcast and it sucks the life out of my battery.