Can I force download a podcast to Apple Watch?

I would like to listed to a news podcast when I run in the morning, without my iPhone. The podcast is released early in the morning, around the time I wake up, so my watch doesn’t have time to auto-download it. After I wake up and have my watch on, is there a way that I can force my watch to download the podcast? It would be a pain to have to take my watch off, go back upstairs, put it on the charger and wait for it to download (as I have no control over exactly when the watch will download it).


When I tap on the podcast (it has the little empty cloud symbol) it begins to play immediately, which I assume starts the download process, though there is no progress bar or indication if it completely downloaded. The last time I tried this, the podcast stopped about half way when I was listening to it.


I wish Apple considered a situation like mine where a podcast is released after regular overnight charging and a person then wants to listed to it from their watch. A simple “Download now” option would address this. I’d be happy to manually download the podcast if Apple gave me a means to do so, and to know it’s been fully downloaded. Giving the watch the ability to play podcasts and music without a phone is great, but not giving us more control over that process, when we need it, is a failure on Apple’s part.

Apple Watch Series 5

Posted on Aug 10, 2023 4:52 AM

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Posted on Oct 15, 2023 7:42 AM

This is a horrible process. I select a podcast that clearly is in the 'downloads' list on the Apple watch. I start walking away from home or phone. After a minute it stops. Then when you select it, it just flashes then goes to another podcast you don't want to listen to. And it does that over and over. Eventually, with good cellular, it will play but who wants to fool around with it while running/biking/walking dog etc? It says 'downloads' but it is DEFINITELY not a download.


I also think there is some weird connection between phone and watch. Even if you put phone on airplane, and put watch on cellular, you walk away a hundred feet and podcast stops. There is something going on there.


It's diabolical. And I don't have an answer.

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Question marked as Best reply

Oct 15, 2023 7:42 AM in response to Ukiman0714

This is a horrible process. I select a podcast that clearly is in the 'downloads' list on the Apple watch. I start walking away from home or phone. After a minute it stops. Then when you select it, it just flashes then goes to another podcast you don't want to listen to. And it does that over and over. Eventually, with good cellular, it will play but who wants to fool around with it while running/biking/walking dog etc? It says 'downloads' but it is DEFINITELY not a download.


I also think there is some weird connection between phone and watch. Even if you put phone on airplane, and put watch on cellular, you walk away a hundred feet and podcast stops. There is something going on there.


It's diabolical. And I don't have an answer.

Can I force download a podcast to Apple Watch?

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