Resubmitting to apple podcast after rss feed link was broken

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Level 1

4 points

Resubmitting to apple podcast after rss feed link was broken

Hello,

Recently some of our podcasts that had been available for many years on Apple suddenly disappeared, so I was trying to hunt down the issue and it seems like the rss feed links (for those missing podcasts) were broken at the last automatic refresh which I believe is why the podcasts were taken down.

I have now fixed these broken rss feed links to permanently redirect (301) to valid rss feed links. I have also created new drafts of these podcasts to resubmit to Apple. One thing I want to confirm before I do this is, should the apple podcast ids for the resubmissions be the same as the apple podcast ids from their previously taken down counterparts (referring to the apple podcast id in the metadata section of each podcast’s settings page in Apple Podcasts connect)? Creating new drafts of these podcasts (to resubmit) attaches new apple podcast ids and I just want to make sure that we don’t lose any subscribers or reviews if the apple podcast ids change.

thanks in advance!

Posted on Dec 10, 2023 12:40 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 10, 2023 1:42 PM in response to jcs312

Do your podcasts still have their pages in Podcasts Connect? If so you could try re-enabling them there and see what happens - remember that they won't appear for a few days except for subscribers on a Mac (you could try subscribing - of course the feeds are read directly so this is only a partial confimation.

If you submit them as new podcasts they will get new ID numbers and from every pint of view will be new podcasts. If you can't re-enable them you could try Podcasts Support and see if they can re-enable them for you: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/contact-us

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Answer 2

jcs312 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 11, 2023 2:44 PM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Archiving and then restoring the podcasts worked!! We were able to retain our reviews and subscribers!

Leaving a write up of what happened for anyone else who may run into this issue in the future:

RSS feed links for a few of our podcasts break
an update was made to said podcasts, triggering a refresh on apple podcasts
apple sees that the rss feed urls are broken links, does not communicate that with us and proceeds to take down our shows from the consumer side (although they still appear on the Apple Podcasts Connect dashboard as "published")
we realize the rss feed links are broken and fix the issue
we try to manually refresh via Apple Podcasts Connect podcast page
the manual refresh does not fix the problem and our podcasts are still missing
we reach out to apple support
apple support says they cannot do anything because the shows were removed (see below: 8*) and the only way to fix the issue is by resubmitting the shows from scratch
we ask for assistance in helping us retain ratings, reviews and subscribers because we understand we will lose our ratings, reviews and subscribers/followers by resubmitting the podcasts, but the response we got was (see below: 9*)
we are devastated 😣😞😔
we prepare to resubmit the podcasts from scratch....
lightbulb moment💡 after reading this doc (specifically this bit: see below 11*). I wonder if we can simply archive the missing shows (since they are still technically in published state on the Apple Podcasts Connect dashboard), restore them and if this might restore all other data connected to the podcasts.
IT WORKED! archiving and then restoring the podcasts fixes the issue
we get an email from apple support (below 13*).... (😑 I thought you said it couldn't be fixed..)

I hope this write up serves other developers / podcast creators in the future the pain of trying to troubleshoot an issue that was as simple as archiving and restoring...

[excerpts]

8*

As the original show was removed and since we are unable to refresh or modify the original show, to move forward, a new version of the show must be submitted.

9*

We currently don’t have a way to merge podcasts, subscribers, ratings and reviews

11*

You can restore archived content to a Draft state. Restoring content brings back most information and settings, and historical data is restored to Analytics. If you want to make the content available on Apple Podcasts, submit it for review.

13*

The version under show ID **** is the original submission and is currently the only instance that is live on Apple Podcasts after being restored and resubmitted. This means that historical data, reviews, and followers will also be restored within 24 hours.

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Answer 3

jcs312 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 10, 2023 2:13 PM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Hey Roger, thanks for your response!

Yes, the pages for these missing podcasts still exist on Podcasts Connect (in published state). After fixing the rss feed urls, I did try the manual refresh, but that didn't seem to help in making the podcasts reappear (I hit the refresh button on Thursday night, but still do not see them now on Sunday). I also did reach out to apple podcasts support asking them about these missing podcasts and got a response saying:

Rejection Reason: Difficulty downloading or playing

We’re having trouble downloading the artwork, metadata, or episodes associated with your show. The cause could be an issue with the RSS feed URL or an issue with the information in Apple Podcasts Connect.

Please correct the issue and resubmit your podcast in Apple Podcasts Connect.

I will say that I didn't mention in my support request to Apple that the feed links were now 301 redirects so maybe I need to let them know about this so that they can re-enable the podcasts as you suggested, instead of me resubmitting them?

Thanks again!

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Answer 4

Dec 10, 2023 2:50 PM in response to jcs312

I don't know whether the 301 is likely to be an issue: it should be invisible to the client. You said 'podcasts' originally: but are we in fact talking about one podcast feed and you were thinking of episodes? In any event, since they are complaining about the feed, if you care to post its URL I will have a look and see if it contains any errors (this won't be until tomorrow, it's late here).

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Answer 5

jcs312 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 10, 2023 4:27 PM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Ah so maybe it's helpful to give you some backstory. So basically, there are three podcasts that went missing. The podcasts have the following feed links:

https://rss.prod.firstlook.media/missingrichardsimmons/podcast.rss

https://rss.prod.firstlook.media/headlong-cops/podcast.rss

https://rss.prod.firstlook.media/headlong-surviving-y2k/podcast.rss

You'll see that these links now redirect to their corresponding art19 rss feed (these are the 301 redirects that I set up last week), but previously, they used to be their own pages housing valid rss feeds. But these "rss.prod.firstlook.media" links broke some time ago because we stopped hosting those pages, and I think what happened was that apple must have done an auto refresh on the broken links (before I fixed it with redirects last week) and then took down the podcasts because they were not getting back any data from the broken links.

Our goal is to not lose any subscribers or reviews in fixing this issue. In this case, do you think we just have to ask Apple to re-enable our podcasts (now that the links are fixed) instead of us resubmitting?

Thank you so much, really appreciate it!

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Answer 6

Dec 11, 2023 12:11 AM in response to jcs312

Since you set upp the 301 you presumably have access to the server - can you re-upload the feeds to that server temporarily? Then you could include this tag in each feed:

<itunes:new-feed-url>NEW URL OF YOUR FEED</itunes:new-feed-url>

If this works you should leave it there for two weeks. This will permanently redirect Apple Podcasts and subscribers to the new feed. For more details see https://rfwilmut.net/notes/podcast.html#move

You can change the feed URL on your Podcasts Connect page though this will not update subscribers on a Mac.

If all this fails contact Podcasts Support.

I checked the first feed at Podbase ant it threw up a couple of errors:

https://podba.se/validate/?url=https://rss.prod.firstlook.media/missingrichardsimmons/podcast.rss

You aren't showing 'head requests' - this may be because of the 301: it applies to the media rather than the feed. And though you have an 'itunes:explicit' tag in your episodes you don't have one in your top section - this is required. Strictly this tag hould say 'false' rather than 'no' though I don't know if the latter is still acceptable.

You should try to avoid resubmitting as this will lose you your subscribers and reviews.

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Answer 7

jcs312 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 11, 2023 5:55 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Hey Roger, thanks again!

If I were to re-upload the feeds to their rss.prod.firstlook.media links, would I have to remove the redirect I have in place at the moment? or can i leave the redirect in there?

As for the feed validation errors, are these two errors that you mentioned specific to Apple? I ask just because we aren't having issues with these same feeds in any of our other platforms (spotify, iheardradio etc) -- all of these platforms are using the same feed and not having giving us any problems. Happy to fix the errors of course, just curious if these are specific to apple.

Thanks again!

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Answer 8

jcs312 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 11, 2023 8:23 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Ha, so we got a response from Apple:

As the original show was removed and since we are unable to refresh or modify the original show, to move forward, a new version of the show must be submitted.

Do you know if there is a way we can maintain subscribers and reviews from the original show? Perhaps they can hook something up from their end, especially since the actual rss feed url hasnt changed?

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Answer 9

Dec 11, 2023 8:51 AM in response to jcs312

People who have subscribed on a Mac should continue to get new episodes because they read the feed directly and Apple Podcasts is not involved. However I suspect that other devices subscribe via Apple Podcasts and there your podcast will have a new ID number which means that people who originally subscribed that way won't see it. The same goes for your reviews which I'm afraid can't be restored.

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Answer 10

jcs312 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 11, 2023 9:29 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Just a thought I had now -- do you think archiving the show (since it is still technically in published state on the apple connect dashboard) and then restoring the archived show would be any different and give us the outcome we want? (as in being able to retain subscribers and reviews)

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