Podcasts on iOS 14.6, serious loading issues

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.

Any updates on the issue? Looks like at least 1500 of us users are having the same apple podcast issues with slow loading and/or no playback of podcasts. period. There has to be a fix by now, right? We can’t go on for weeks not able to listen to our precious podcasts…

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 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

I agree with others on this forum. The podcast app is now useless. Mine no longer displays updates, even after I get notifications of updated podcasts. I have already gone to another app for some of my 'base' podcasts. Between this and other issues (my carplay stopped working midway through a 12 hour trip), I am definitely looking at other phones after having many Iphones starting with Iphone2. I had been planning on updating my phone with the next Iphone release, now I am unsure.

The one thing Apple has been good at has been ease of use, and they have completely failed on these last two updates.

Concur completely, he main reason I switched to Apple products was that their seamless hardware / software integration provided unmatched ease of use, sadly I must now look for other providers. How is it even possible that a 3rd party podcast app can load faster than Apple’s native app?

I listen to podcasts all of the time and the app update is awful! It is just full of bugs and the usability has been killed.

I have no idea which podcasts have been downloaded now and cant see which is even playing.

Come on Apple!!!

I’ve been having the same issues with the podcast app! It takes nearly forever (5+ minutes or so) when it used to take only a matter of seconds for a podcast to load up and play immediately for my listening pleasure. Is there a remedy to fix this issue?

The Apple podcast app is horrendous after the update. I have found that to listen to a podcast I have to subscribe, download it and then save it. It seems that there is less delay with saved episodes. I also need to get out of every other app to get it to work. So I’ve pared my library way back and I plan to subscribe to these podcasts using another app.

Question for the community: What alternative app do you recommend?

I'm experiencing the same issues and my phone physically gets warm when listening to Podcasts. On my Mac, I have the same load and response time issues, as well as, my Mac heats up and the fans run continuously. Did anyone at Apple test this version or just push it out?

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!!

I’ve had the same experience. If you google “ios14.6 podcast problems,” it’s not really addressed in any direct way. Lots of battery issues, and the solution is to delete the podcast app!

I have moved on- I now use the google podcast app. It has all the features I’m used to, although the interface is not as polished as the Apple podcast app. I really liked the changes Apple made to the podcast app, but it is completely unusable!

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!