Podcasts on iPhone but don't display

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Podcasts on iPhone but don't display

I've got an iPhone 3G running iOS 4.2.1 and use iTunes 10.1.0.54. There's one particular podcast (the Clark Howard show) that I subscribe to that downloads and syncs to my iPhone, but it doesn't show up under the Podcasts section of the iPod part of the iPhone. Other podcasts show up on the phone and play normally. Here's the weird part: In iTunes, when my phone is connected, it shows the "missing" podcast under the Podcasts section beneath my phone. I can navigate to it in iTunes and even play the Podcast via iTunes from the file that is on my phone. But, I can't play the file when the phone is disconnected from iTunes.

I've unsubscribed and deleted the podcast from iTunes, synced so that it would be removed from the phone, and then re-subscribed & synced again. I get the same behavior. Can anyone help?

iPhone 3G, iOS 4

Posted on Dec 6, 2010 12:13 PM

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Answer 1

BTLMN

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Dec 7, 2010 11:13 AM in response to srfsde

I have the SAME problem with the SAME podcast. I've only had the Ipod a few weeks, and all software is current. Got the upgrades when I first set it up fresh. Clark Howard had been working but dissappeared Sunday with a sink in the afternoon. Noticed Sat night. Shows in ipod search, but when chosen jumps to podcast screen and its not there?

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Answer 2

srfsde Author

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Dec 9, 2010 7:49 AM in response to BTLMN

I hadn't tried the search function on my iPhone before - good idea. When I tried that, it listed the missing Clark Howard podcasts in the search. But if I tap that podcast the phone seems to try to launch it but then returns to my home screen as if the iPod app crashed. Hopefully someone has an idea about this!

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Answer 3

BTLMN

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Dec 9, 2010 9:34 AM in response to srfsde

I even tried downloading directly from the itunes store app to my ipod and not trying to get the podcast through syncing. To see if it was a snyc podcast problem. That did not work either. It's odd that two people are having the same problem with the same podcast at the same time. It must be bigger than you and me. I sent the Clark Howard people a note on Sunday night prior to realizing this was bigger than just me, but have not heard back from them. Guess I'll take a wait and see approach for now. I do want Clark back. I thought about copying files of MP3's to a playlist and seeing if they'll sync that way but that does not fix the real problem either.

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Answer 4

the fiend

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Dec 14, 2010 12:23 PM in response to srfsde

srfsde:
There does appear to be a problem, see this thread http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2673758 which BTLMN joined.

I've not experienced this problem myself, so it's up to you guys. I suggest you submit a bug report at http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html so that Apple know there's a problem. Make sure you include the detail of the Podcast title as this may help Apple.

When Apple can reproduce the problem themsleves, they can work on fixing it, but they need to know about it first.

Phil

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Answer 5

Dec 15, 2010 3:21 AM in response to srfsde

I have also had this problem with one particular podcast, Marathon Talk. It only appeared after I'd updated the OS and had all audio disappear from my ipod app (later restored). I've tried all the fixes as above, and same result. It shows up on my phone within itunes on computer, but does not appear in the index list when the phone is disconnected from computer.

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Answer 6

BTLMN

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Dec 15, 2010 9:46 AM in response to Linda Barwick

Used feedback link for ipod touch and sent the below message. We'll see where this goes:

There are two support threads I'm part of:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2674948
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2673758

Podcasts are not syncing. Appear to in the sync process, but do not show on the ipod. They show under the search function but are not playable. One podcast "The Clark Howard Show" is my problem and on other person as well. They have an iphone and me an ipod. My ipod is two weeks old, was upon first sync updated to the new software from the get go. The Podcast worked for the first week and then started acting funny on 12/5. I encourage you to read the threads I gave for all the specific user details. My posts are BTLMN. Thank You.

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Answer 7

srfsde Author

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Dec 16, 2010 1:50 PM in response to BTLMN

Thanks everyone for your replies on this thread. I will submit a bug report to Apple and try to include your experiences as well. Hopefully this will be fixed soon!

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Answer 8

BTLMN

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Dec 27, 2010 11:05 AM in response to srfsde

Has anyone heard anything on this or experienced any change in the status of their personal issue? I have not. Any other ideas or a feel of how long this may go on? Seems like owners of these podcasts would have heard or more people would be speaking up? If this is a real problem are we just 'whizzing in the wind' on this or what?

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Answer 9

the fiend

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Dec 27, 2010 11:49 AM in response to BTLMN

Apple are unlikely to give any feedback on the progress of this. That doesn't mean they're not working on it.

My own experience after I reported a bug was that an Apple employee contacted me for more information. (Don't expect anyone to contact you - the Apple guy contacted me because it wasn't clear from my posts and others exactly what we were experiencing and he wanted me to supply some log information from my PC.) Our dialogue continued for a while and it seemed to me as though no progress was being made. However, in the end, the problem "just went away". Of course, what actually happened is Apple fixed the bug with a software update.

I'm sure your problem will be resolved, but sometimes these things can take time.

Phil

Message was edited by: the fiend

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Answer 10

Dec 30, 2010 4:01 AM in response to BTLMN

Further to this, the only workaround I've been able to find is to open the downloaded files in a sound editor, copy and paste the information into a new sound file, save it to itunes (where it ends up in the music section rather than podcast) and then manually add it to the iphone.

Unsuccessful attempts:
*changing the name and directory structure of the original files
*re-saving the files by manually downloading from podcast website as mp3, adding to library etc
*converting the original downloaded mp3s to AAC format

My conclusion is that it's something to do with the indexing of the original files, maybe the ID3 header information?

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Answer 11

the fiend

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Dec 30, 2010 8:07 AM in response to Linda Barwick

Linda Barwick wrote:
My conclusion is that it's something to do with the indexing of the original files, maybe the ID3 header information?

That could be, there are often posts from Podcasters having problems with tagging their programmes. Have you contacted the Podcast's producers to let them know you have a problem? They may not know until you tell them.

Phil

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Answer 12

srfsde Author

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Dec 30, 2010 9:48 AM in response to the fiend

I sent an email to the Clark Howard Show producers today. No reply yet, but I will let you know what they say. Thanks for everyone's help on this. By the way, I also tried using an ID3 tag editor to clean up any odd tag entries, but that didn't help. I also used an audio editor to convert the file to a different bitrate, since I noticed that the Clark Howard Show files are all at 56kbps and are the only podcasts I have at that bitrate. That didn't help either. I'm at a loss as to why this is happening.

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Answer 13

Dec 30, 2010 11:26 AM in response to the fiend

Yes I've written to the show's producers. They say nobody else has reported the problem but they're going to mention it on their next show (though of course if someone is having the problem they likely won't be listening to the show!).

I suspect either iTunes or the iPhone software updates, as the problem appeared immediately after the most recent updates (I had November's 'disappearing music' issue after the iOS 4 update, on applying fixes everything except Marathon Talk reappeared). I wonder if it could be something to do with how they handle text encoding (Unicode UTF-8 vs Western). That might explain why it's only some podcasters that are having the problem.

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Answer 14

Dec 31, 2010 7:08 AM in response to srfsde

I am experiencing this same problem on one of the many podcasts that I sync to my iPhone 4, "The Cricket and Seagull Fireside Chat". I have the exact problem of the original poster of this topic:

The podcast "downloads and syncs to my iPhone, but it doesn't show up under the Podcasts section of the iPod part of the iPhone. Other podcasts show up on the phone and play normally. Here's the weird part: In iTunes, when my phone is connected, it shows the "missing" podcast under the Podcasts section beneath my phone. I can navigate to it in iTunes and even play the Podcast via iTunes from the file that is on my phone. But, I can't play the file when the phone is disconnected from iTunes."

I can also see the episodes when I search my iPhone but when selected, they do not play.

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Answer 15

Dec 31, 2010 1:06 PM in response to Rich Kotter

Rich, yep that problem sounds exactly the same. I have had some further correspondence with my podcast producer. Their server is http://libsyn.com/ Libsyn. An mp3 supplied directly by the producer loads ok, but downloaded from the libsyn server does not work, so whatever is causing the glitch is introduced somewhere on the server side. I don't know if there's a way anyone else can find out which podcast server your show is downloaded from?

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