Podcasts App... Not Syncing Correctly.

This whole Podcast thing is a nightmare. It works fairly well on my iMac syncing to an older Nano. But syncing to my iPhone is BEYOND hosed. Different podcasts thrown in one folder, played in strnage orders, sorted poorly. It's absolutely amazingly bad, and Apple should be ashamed.

I'm only still using it because I switch between the Nano and the iPhone, and I'm not aware of any other way to do so since the Nano isn't an iOS device.

While I'm inclined to blame the podcast app I thnk some of the problem is in iTunes. I've got it set to keep all podcasts (threby allowing me to keep what I want to keep) and have the same settings in the podcasts app. Well it works in the podcasts app but iTunes deleted my Marketplace podcasts when I refreshed the podcasts list in iTunes. It even downloaded duplicate copies of podcasts that were already played. This is pretty dismaying considering I started a the company I work for as a software test engineer. This isn't hard to test. You don't suppose they hired some Miscrosoft guys to do their testing for them do you? Or maybe just the manager - test it - screw that we'll let the cusotmers do that for us!

I too am astounded at how bad the podcast experience has been. Apple either doesn't test it–at all–or just doesn't care. Either way, I'm dumbfounded.

I think iTunes has been a big part of the problem. I find that as soon as I download a podcast to my Macs, that's it. No updating of iTunes when I play it locally. If I leave them in the cloud however, it all seems to work pretty well... although not 100%.

Ahh but it's fiendishly clever. You see if everything's in the cloud then your cellular carrier gets higher useage rates for data downloaded over 4G or LTE which means some poor souls will actually succumb and get a larger data plan. More $$ for your poor carrier.

I've now deleted the Podcasts App from my iPad (4th Gen) and figured out my own work around; All the podcasts I was subscribed to I've removed and resubscribed from my old iMac G4. This runs iTunes 9 and syncs with my iPod Touch (1st Gen). Because both of these devices are so old they work the old way, they've never even heard of the cloud, which is great and wonderful because it's like turning back the clock to when Podcasts worked!

For other 'stuff' which were what you might call home-made Podcasts (shows I've recorded from iPlayer or collected from various other sources) I've re-classified them from Podcasts to Music and set the Genre as 'Radio'. I've then created two Smart Playlists, one of which lists everything in the Radio genre and one called 'Podcasts' which takes 10 unplayed items from the Radio playlist and syncs them onto my iPad.

The downside is the Smart Playlist version of Podcasts lumps everything together instead of having individual shows, but I find that having it select Randomly gives me the desired selection. Of course the Smart Playlist makes sure played items drop off the list.

So, it feels very good to have finally beaten the evil iTunes 11 and iCloud!

Greetings,

I am running the latest version of iTunes (11.1.1) and I am able to sync wirelessly via iCloud all of my podcasts between OS X and my Podcast app on iOS. When I installed the update to iTunes, this is what I was presented with:

http://i.imgur.com/0APiOSW.png

I then went into the preferences and under "Store" there is an option as well to enable Podcast syncing. This seems to have fixed my problem, I will play with it some more however.

After messing with it some more, it seems that editing podcasts syncs both ways across all iOS devices and OS X computers. Played status, subscriptions etc. When I start listening to one on my Mac, I can resume listening on my iOS device. The only issue I've run into is that it doesn't seem like my iOS play location does not sync back to OS X. My location syncs to iOS, but I can't get it to sync back. Play location is the only thing broken that I've seen thus far.

Ah, it seems like I have figured out a work around to not syncing the play location back to OS X. When you are finished listening on the iOS device, press the refresh button in the Podcast.app "My Podcasts" view. Then on your Mac, quit iTunes (CMD+Q) and re-open it. Then refresh your podcasts. Your play location will be synced back to OS X FINALLY.

It's taken a long time, and I don't think it's as smooth as it could be, but it's finally nice to have my podcast subscriptions, played status and play location synced between all of my Macs and iOS devices.

Edit: Sorry for choppy grammer, it's a bit late for me 🙂

The problem is that I don't want to snv via the cloud. If I already have downloaded the podcasts to my computer, why can't they transfer to my iPhone over the USB cable when I do the iTunes sync? If I turn on th iCloud sync, it transfers the podcasts over the air and asdds to my cellular data usage.

You can disable cellular usage. Go to your iOS devices Settings->Podcast.

If you want to sync via USB, just plug your phone in to your computer and sync. They go into the podcast app with any problem. I used it like that for months.

Yeah but then you get to enjoy a message saying "Hey you need to turn on cellular usage" EVERY TIME you start the app.

Scionwest - The problem is the it does NOT sync through the USB connection, even though iTunes is set to sync the last ten unplayed episodes. When I open podcasts in the Music app, it shows the new episodes as being available and then asks if I want to download them.

It sued to work when there was a separate podcast app but APple took that away and the sync no longer works as desired. That is what a number of us have complained about.

I did use the Apple feedback reporting site but haven't seen any result. Maybe more people need to do that.

I know I'm going to sound like a jerk, but maybe some people in this thread will just take my advice and move on with their lives. DOWNLOAD DOWNCAST! I've said it before and I'll say it again because frankly this thread is getting ridiculous when there is a solution to your problems and you just refuse to use. Apple doesn't care about these problems, they have made that pretty **** clear. So, stop complaining, stop whining, stop tinkering, stop testing, stop being frustrated, stop wasting the little amount of time you have here on Earth and just go download Downcast for your iPhone, iPad, & Mac. It syncs everything perfectly, everytime. Starting points, played, downloaded, playlists, settings, etc. Frankly at this point it is no longer Apple's fault if you are still screwing aroun with their terrible app & customer support on this issue. IT IS YOUR FAULT! There is a solution for your problem, just use it and move on with your life. DOWNLOAD DOWNCAST!

kg4211 - Try re-installing the app? I have cellular disabled on mine and have never once received that message after disabling it. If you continue to get it, you might want to try re-installing the app.

BigBopper - Like I said in my post, up until last night, USB sync worked fine for me. I'm wondering if it's just an issue with iTunes/Podcast needing to be reinstalled to clear out any kinks that might have been caused during the update?

Lock24 - I can't stand Downcast. It was a waste of my money. I bought it for OS X and iOS 5 months ago and used it for two weeks before I had to give up and move over to Instacast which was a lot better. As of last night though, I have fully moved back to Podcast.app and iTunes with the iCloud feature fixed.

This all works on my stuff, which has a fresh OS X install and a fresh iOS 7 install. It's possible that's why it works without an issue on my devices. If podcasts are _this_ important to people, than a re-install of the OS's isn't that big of a heart ache in order to get tham working either through USB sync or iCloud. Which ever is preferred. I just posted to tell everyone that iCloud does work, USB sync never broke for me.

As I've said before, Downcast is not an option for people who share podcasts between iOS devices and an iPod Nano. They just need to fix these issues! It's CRAZY how broken these apps are.