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Level 1

46 points

Podcasts on iOS 14.6, serious loading issues

I've waited 24 hours to lodge a complaint, just in case the performance issues cleared up after the first day.

Many parts of the Podcasts app are loading very, very slowly. I have been testing the app in the same room as my router, so I am fairly certain that the bad performance is definitely the fault of the app itself and not a poor internet connection. I have force closed all other apps except Podcasts, and I've power cycled the phone.

When navigating to Library, I've found myself counting just to get a rough estimate of the load times. Just now after power cycling my phone, it took at least 12-13 seconds to display the Podcast Library page. This is not the only slow load time, either. Sometimes, I'll tap a downloaded episode that I had previously paused, and it can take somewhere between 15-30 seconds just to begin playing. The app provides no indication that audio is loading. Even when it plays, sometimes the UI doesn't update so I can't see how far into the podcast I am. After playing begins, sometimes it is unresponsive to other presses so I've also gotten stuck listening to the wrong podcast while waiting for the 'pause' to take effect, which again can take somewhere in the 10-30 second range. Even the page that loads the individual episodes for a particular podcast also has some significant load time in the vicinity of 5-10 seconds, which seems strange because I would assume a lot of these lists should be cached by now.

iPhone 8

Posted on Jun 6, 2021 9:40 AM

Best reply

cyberbiker

Level 3

736 points

Posted on Jun 6, 2021 1:40 PM

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.

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Podcasts on iOS 14.6, serious loading issues

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