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

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 21, 2021 3:56 PM

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!

113 replies

Jul 31, 2021 7:21 PM in response to brhonda44

So I thought that the 14.7 iOS update fixed my problems with the podcast app. I used it for a few days. I play a lot of podcasts during the day. Things seemed ok, but then various podcast episodes would give no indication that they had finished downloading. Some of the episodes were only 10 minutes in length, so they should have downloaded almost instantly. After waiting for 5 minutes or so, I just assumed they must have downloaded. I don’t allow the podcast app to use cellular data, so the episodes have to be downloaded so I can listen to them away from home. When I would try to play the episodes when away from home, I would get a message telling me the episode could not be found.

I had no problem downloading and playing the same episodes on the google podcast app. This was the last straw. I deleted the Apple podcast app and am now using google podcast app. It’s really a shame, but oh well. I have not read anything where Apple has acknowledged a problem with the podcast app, and maybe it is an iOS issue more than a problem just with the app, who knows. But I am done.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Podcasts on iOS 14.6, serious loading issues

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.