Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 1

0 points

Link to ping iTunes now redirects to the iTunes store

iTunes provided a link when it accepted my podcast feed in order to ping it when I've added a new episode. I've been using it for the last 35 episodes with little trouble, usually a few hours to a day after I ping it my episode will show up in iTunes. Usually when I follow the link I get a page acknowledging that iTunes has received the ping, but now when I follow it it redirects me to the itunes store loading page and then opens iTunes to a seemingly random page (ex: Bob Marley's page, not one I navigated to).

My latest episode has shown up in iTunes, but does that mean the ping worked? Do we no longer need to ping iTunes? Has there been a policy change?

I have not received anything from iTunes and haven't found anything on the site referencing it.

iTunes URL: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-friendhat-podcast/id363325467
Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheFriendHatPodcast

Message was edited by: FriendHat

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Feb 5, 2011 6:31 PM

Best reply

Roger Wilmut1

Level 10

131,158 points

Posted on Feb 6, 2011 12:10 AM

The Podcast Tech Specs page used to provide instructions on pinging, but these have been removed. Supposedly pinging would get your feed immediate attention, but I'm not convinced that this was ever the case - at least not in the last few years. It may have worked initially but possibly the designers didn't anticipate having to deal with thousands of podcasts. When I was running my podcast (2006-9) the program I used pinged the Store automatically when uploading a new episode but it still took 1-2 days to appear. Possibly the entire pinging system has been discontinued: there's no easy way of knowing.

View in context

27 replies

Feb 10, 2011 2:53 PM in response to jonroach13

That comes from the Podcast Tech Specs page. That's where there used until recently to be pinging instructions, claiming that this would get the Store to check the feed immediately. This hasn't been true for several years: and 'checking the feed daily' is optimistic - it's more like 2 days if your lucky and rather more if you're not. I suspect the original instructions and the pinging facility were set up in the early days when there were a manageable number of podcasts - possibly they never anticipated the thousands that now exist.

Feb 10, 2011 5:03 PM in response to FriendHat

Same problem here. Please Apple answer us

Feb 10, 2011 5:09 PM in response to FriendHat

I use *Garage Band* to create the Podcasts and then iWeb to submit then. Shouldn't be some kind of automatic integration between posting and pinging?

It seams quite odd to me that Apple made us play around with tags and URLs for pinging and update the feeds.

There is something fishy here.

FriendHat Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 10, 2011 6:26 PM in response to FriendHat

Thank you for clearing up the confusion with your very detailed email. I understand when you say "ping" you simply mean to "alert" the iTunes Store of your newly added episode.

I went above me on this one and it seems probable that the link feature you were provided may no longer be available to podcast publishers. This isn't anything to worry about, iTunes still handles podcast entries the same way and you are correct in your understanding that by default, the iTunes Store directory reads every feed once per day. The subscriber's iTunes client picks up new episodes based on the preferences set by the user.

So essentially you just need to update your feed, and the iTunes Store directory will display it automatically.

Thanks again for the clarification and I apologize for the seemingly defunct link that you were using, but rest assured your new episodes should be recognized by the iTunes Store without the use of this "ping". Have a great evening!

Looks like we have an answer. It bothers me that they made the change without notifying podcast owners, or even their own tech support staff. It also bothers me that we are completely taken out of the loop in terms of when our episodes will show up in iTunes.

As I mentioned in my support email, I know users who are subscribed to my podcast will receive any episode on my rss automatically, so I'm not concerned about that. But making sure the most current episode is listed in iTunes is important to me so that I can link to it in the store via social media, and so that anyone searching for my podcast in iTunes or on an iOS device will get the most current listing.

Yes, the podcast directory is a free service that is the way most people get podcasts, and I know Jobs isn't a fan of "Amateur Hour." But as someone who creates and maintains my podcast with GarageBand and iWeb I think Apple really should have done better with this. From the looks of it I'm not alone.

Feb 11, 2011 3:12 AM in response to FriendHat

Great!... and agree, a little more clarification about it, would had been welcomed.

Feb 11, 2011 7:41 AM in response to Watanabe Carcass

This is very very bad news that they have removed the ability to ping. For shows that have time sensitive content you could be 24hrs or more before they update the listing.

This is going to affect show downloads etc while having the show id has been preferable way of being subscribed I wonder now if the rss feed way will be the better option.

This is really a negative setback for all of us. We will be sharing this with our communities today at RawVoice and hopefully the public outcry will be loud enough that Apple will put the system back in place.

Once again apple has done nearly nothing to enhance the podcast listings on iTunes since July 2005 when they first introduced podcast to itunes.

FriendHat Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 11, 2011 10:59 AM in response to FriendHat

Just anecdotally, I updated my feed at 4AM this morning and it has shown up in iTunes. Thus is the first time since the change that it has shown up this quickly and it could be I managed to do it right before the 24 hour sweep. But thus is on par with, if not better than the update speed before the change.

We'll see what happens as we go forward.

Feb 12, 2011 7:08 AM in response to FriendHat

I am very new to all of this.
But so frustrated that my iTunes podcast is not updating
Nor is my category accurate
I received confirmation email from itunes that podcast was confirmed
I got email link to iTunes page w/id number
I can subscribe via iTunes and my subscription is up to date
But the actual iTunes page contains only my first episode

Feb 12, 2011 8:23 AM in response to newbiepodcaster

newbiepodcaster: It's not really possible to comment unless you would like to publish the URLs of both your feed and the Store page - this can be found by control-clicking on the podcast image and choosing 'Copy link'. Please include the http:// in both cases to make the links clickable. Please start a new thread to ask about this - it doesn't really have anything to do with the subject of this thread.

Mar 29, 2011 12:44 PM in response to FriendHat

Just came across this issue today when I was trying to ping the server for an updated Podcast. Apple should at least have a re-direct when you ping to explain that the service is no longer available.

I find this very frustrating because now I have to wait until this updates automatically to make sure that my rss.xml feed is correct (no typos, etc) and that my video uploaded correctly.

Mar 29, 2011 2:51 PM in response to AmyMargrat

You can always check your feed - and indeed it's a good idea to do so rather than wait for the Store. If you subscribe from the Store page, or from the 'Advanced' menu in iTunes, you will see iTunes read the feed directly and whether it displays all the episodes. Also you can submit your feed at
http://www.feedvalidator.com.

My page here goes into more detail about how to diagnose a podcast feed:

http://homepage.mac.com/rfwilmut/notes/diagnose.html

Mar 30, 2011 8:26 PM in response to AmyMargrat

It doesn't appear to be an issue though. When we could - I always pinged, but I just did an update w/o pinging and it took less than 30 minutes to show up.

Link to ping iTunes now redirects to the iTunes store