Podcasts App... Not Syncing Correctly.

The problem is that my iPhone is not the only device from which I listen to podcasts! When I mow the lawn or do something else that could put my phone at risk, I instead use my iPod Nano. Which of course, lacking all the new sync "functionality", has always worked perfectly.

I should be able to use both Apple devices in the same manner, and I can't. Not because of limitations in the hardware, but because someone at Apple thought that "cloud sync" was a must-have feature. So I "must-have" this unwanted feature, and as a result have lost functionality I'd had all along.

I too do not sync with anything. I just listen to podcasts on my iphone, but I have found that not all episodes of the podcasts get downloaded to the iphone. I actually like the simplicity of the podcast app as compared to Downcast, but I keep going back to Downcast so that I can get all episodes of my podcasts. I am not sure if anyone else has this issue.

I personally have numerous Podcasts that I listen to. I have them setup in iTunes on my computer and I have my iPhone 5 plugged into my computer via USB most of the time so that it is always charged (battery life is another whole issue in itself). I listen to the podcasts on my computer, and I listen to them on my iPhone in my car as well. They have not synced correctly since the new Podcast option was introduced. Before the podcast option became available, I used playlists for my podcasts, and they worked and synced perfectly every time. I could listen in my car, then plug in via USB on my laptop and pick right up where I left off after the sync was completed. Now I sometimes get the same podcast over and over (even after manually marking them as "played"), sometimes really old ones will download, etc. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to what I will get or not get. Sometimes they sync correctly, sometimes they don't It's very frustrating that something that should have been fixed a long time ago still does not work correctly

If you don't sync with anything, why are you commenting in a discussion thread about sync issues?

For me, many of the podcasts that I follow are actually vidcasts. I would much prefer watching a demonstration of a on a big screen. But some are audio only so my iPhone is fien for that. while my Mac is my primary device for podcasts, I do like having portable access when I am going to be away from home for a while.

But I don't want to use my cell data bandwidth to download something that is already on my Mac. And I would like to have the played/unplayed status be consistent across my devices after a sync.

Don't tell me to play podcasts in only one place or to give up on syncing. It used to work and served my purposes quite well. Now it doesn't.

There is still no solution that works for me, and I'm just trying to use Apple's own ecosystem for podcasts.

I have Macs, iOS devices, iPods and Apple TVs. I consume Podcasts regularly on all of them (office, home, car, gym, running, travel). Syncing of Podcasts across these devices simply does not work. Some scenarios work (sometimes), and some don't, but the bottom line is an unreliable mess that requires time-consuming hand management.

I wish I could meet the design manager at Apple that is responsible for this longstanding debacle, and I wonder if Tim Cook knows what a horrible commercial for Apple these issues are.

I'm in a similar situation. I miss being able to simply sync my podcasts cleanly between my devices and my Mac. I used Downcast on the iPhone, which works pretty well. Unfortunately though syncing between my Mac and the device goes via iCloud, so I'm a bit stuck if I'm traveling away from a good Internet connection. Also, sometimes at airports I'd like to load-up my iPhone with the podcasts stored on my Mac, which is no-longer an option without reinstalling the Apple Podcasts application (not doing that again). I don't like having to repeatedly download episodes (I re-listen to older podcasts), as this is additional cost for podcasts that are often running on very low budgets. Right now I'm considering uploading my podcast collection to my own hosting, and then using the feeds I'll build myself. That still doesn't solve the problem of getting content on to my phone when I can't put the phone on a data connection.

Also, the Downcast application for Mac OS is... interesting. It seems to have long-running stability issues. With some decent QA this will be a good application. For example, I was away from the Internet for a couple of days, so I loaded a bunch of podcasts in to Downcast for Mac OS. When away from a connection, I found Downcast would freeze within a few seconds of launching. I'm now back on an the Internet, and Downcast works. That was annoying to have so much of my entertainment out of bounds. They've recently released the 1.0.7 update, so I'm hoping this clears up the problem. I'm a fairly tolerant customer (tend to log bugs and send feedback before posting reviews), but many are not, and I will reach the end of my patience - as I did with Podcasts for iOS.

tl;dr

Podcasts for iOS remains broken. Downcast for iOS is great, while Downcast (1.0.6) for Mac OS is looking more like a public beta than a polished release. The inbability to sync content from Mac to iOS, without needing an Internet connection, is a pain. Why download a 70mb file on an expensive connection when I already have it stored locally?

My iPod Touch was not syncing with the podcasts already downloaded on iTunes.

I resolved the issue by turning off subscriptions in the Podcast app portion of the iPod device Settings, then syncing with iTunes again.

It allowed me to quickly sync hundreds of old podcast episodes of "new" podcasts I had subscribed to.

Terrible!

Have over a thousand podcasts in my phone. Was able to acces any one up until I plugged in my phone to iTunes for the new security patch.

Now Podcasts lists all the podcasts in the phone, but when I try to click on any of them, the app can't access them anymore. Then when I go back to the list view, the app now shows an icloud download icon next to the podcast i was trying to play.

But in Settings, it clearly shows that podcasts is using 11GB of space on the phone!!!!

Apple, it's been months. And STILL this *****. ***?

Jean-Luc Dinsdale wrote:

the app now shows an icloud download icon next to the podcast i was trying to play.

I noticed the same thing immediately after turning off Subscriptions in the Settings app and syncing with iTunes: all my 1500+ podcasts went to my iPod Touch, but now they were greyed out and had cloud icons.

I restarted my Touch and synced again. And the syncing may not have mattered. I'm sorry now that I wasn't more methodical. But I do know that now all my 1500+ podcasts are on my Touch AND playable offline.

Make sure that the "Sync subscriptions" button on your actual device (ipad, iphone) is turned on.

Go to Settings in your device, scroll down to podcasts, and then make sure sync subscriptions is turned on.

Then sync. I had the same problem and this fixed it.

On your device go to Settings > Podcasts.

make sure the "Sync subscriptions" is turned ON. Then re-sync.

That may work if you sync over the air with iCloud, but it does not fix the problems with a direct syncing over a USB cable.

SpeedUp app will play your podcasts on the iPhone. I've been using it for a couple of months and it works well. Basically, even though the Podcasts rubbish app will not play synced podcasts they are still all in the library of the iPhone. SpeedUp sees them there and will play them.

I use the paid for version but someone earlier commented that the lite version works too.

I've tried the SpeedUp app too -thanks to Xjasper- , but found another app that I like more : " Adiobook & Podcast Player ".

Free.

Hi Jeetje. That app looks interesting but it seems to have a number of negative reviews on iTunes. Also it appears to be not free. If you have time could your let us know what are the positives and negatives in your opinion?

Thanks.