Podcasts on iOS 14.6, serious loading issues

Bit of a workaround to get a podcast show playing:- search in “All podcasts” and select the pod ep you want.

But geez, what a disappointing phase for my favourite app 🙁

Good work.

I would never use Apple podcast app again.

There’s a whole world of podcast apps that I never knew existed 👍🏻.

The 14.6 update has destroyed the podcast app . Many issues but one to note . I select and episode and it plays another title episode while showing it is playing the correct episode . Apple support is zero help and after 40 + phone calls I’ve gotten nothing but garbage for help . I have spoke to over 40 senior Apple advisors and not one who was familiar with the podcast app and how it used to operate not to mention. How it currently works . Also every Apple advisor acts as if I’m the first person with the problem . It’s a known issue !!!

I've had ALL the same issues others have described above.

These annoyances have been occurring for a week or two now, but actually seem to be getting *worse*? As of today, my library isnt just very very slow to load, it hasn't loaded AT ALL with 15 minutes of waiting.

I sent feedback via the link cyberbiker provided.

Does anyone have insight on how to pressure Apple to fix this? I've invested a lot of time into organizing my library and am slightly reluctant to learn a new app. But I am a podcasts addict and have many that are a daily habit. So if it's not fixed in a couple days, I'll have to start moving. Other than migrating to Stitcher or other podcast options, is there anything that can be done? Would the biggest content creators/most popular podcasters (Rogan, Shapiro, various Earwolf comedies, various Crooked Media shows, etc.) ever stop using Apple podcasts to host their shows? If those folks said "from here on out, I will only be on xyz platform," I'm sure it would take a lot of listeners with them. Would this affect Apple in any significant way?

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.

I’ve had the same issues for over a year, not just this version. Load times for the library on the order of minutes, similar response delays to clicking add or subscribe. Absolutely unusable at this point.

Previous versions also removed a time filtering feature in smart playlists, which I’d found very useful. This and many other changes make me wonder whether anyone in the team even uses this app. Perhaps Apple has given up and decided to let 3rd parties own the space? Why even keep the app of its not going to be usable?

My background is as a 20+ year UX expert and agency director, which doesn’t make my feedback any more valid than anyone else’s but does give me the perspective to say that this app and its product management are fundamentally broken. I’m not so sure about Apple’s feedback mechanism either.

Agree! I received a warning message to let my phone cool down and the temperature was high. The phone was warm to hot and I could not access any features. Only podcasts app was open and in use. Using Spotify mostly now and no warm to hot touch as I experience with Podcasts or the warning message!

This has been an issue prior but has gotten worse with the new operating system. It’s extremely inefficient and frustrating. It take more than 2 minutes to load my ‘downloaded’ podcasts. Makes no sense. I am in the process of switching to another podcast app because I can’t take the annoyance any longer.

Yep same here. Took 58 seconds to load podcast library this morning… I’ve been using Spotify for pods now. They have all of the major shows I listen to. So may as well migrate music there too. Will be cancelling subscription on this and as Apple TV is pretty poor may as well cancel the one plan. Sick of my loyalty being taken for granted with this substandard product.

I've had the exact same experience since upgrading to 14.6 (which Apple urged to close serious security issues). The Podcasts app is complete garbage now - almost entirely unusable - and is completely unpredictable. One moment it will load halfway normally, the next it takes 5-10 minutes to load a SINGLE EPISODE. That's if it doesn't error out with some lame "oops - something went wrong" message. The experience carries over to Apple CarPlay, as well. I'm shocked Apple let this get out the door, and worse yet - have done NOTHING about it! Literally the worst experience I've had in the 10+ years I've owned an iPhone. FIX THIS CRAP, APPLE!!

Pocket Cast is perfect. I was on Pandora but I couldn’t listen at 1.5 or 2.0. Regular speed was killing me. Thanks!!!

Google Podcasts app is excellent. I just switched.