iTunes 10.6.3: Manually added podcasts (with same settings) sort into different groups

Hi, Kimberly. It took me several hours of scouring the Internet and testing solutions on my computer, but I finally have answers for you. This will be a comprehensive answer that includes solutions to some things you may not have asked about. It's so I can copy this answer into several other threads where similar questions are being asked.

Q: How do I add an mp3 podcast file to Mac iTunes 10.6.3 (the latest version as of July 13, 2012)?

1. Open iTunes, go to the FILE menu, select ADD TO LIBRARY, select your mp3 file in the dialog box, and click on Open.

2. The file will most likely have been added to your Music library and not your Podcast library. If this is the case, select the newly-added podcast in your Music library, go to the FILE menu, select GET INFO, click on the OPTIONS tab of the dialog box, change the MEDIA KIND dropdown menu to "Podcast," and click on OK. Your mp3 podcase should move to the Podcasts library.

Q: Now that I've added the mp3 podcast to my Podcasts library in iTunes, how do I change the release date so that it shows up in the proper order with all the other podcasts in that series?

1. Download the program ID3 Editor from http://www.pa-software.com/id3editor/

2. After you've downloaded, extracted, and moved the application to your Applications folder, open ID3 Editor.

3. Go to the FILE menu in ID3 Editor and choose OPEN and select your mp3 file from the iTunes Music folder (not the original mp3 which may be in a different location on your computer). If you don't know where it is, go to iTunes, right-click (or <Control>-click) on the podcast, and select SHOW IN FINDER to see its exact location. The usual path is USER NAME > MUSIC > iTUNES MUSIC > PODCASTS > folder with name of podcast.

4. Your podcast will open in ID3 Editor with the Standard tab active. Click on the EXTENDED tab to see the RELEASED tag field.

5. In the RELEASED tag field, add or change the podcast release date to whatever you want it to be. The format is 2012-07-13 16:30:00 (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS).

6. Click on UPDATE in the lower left and the file will close with your changes saved.

7. Select the newly-updated podcast in your Music library, go to the FILE menu, select GET INFO, and click on OK to update the information in iTunes. The podcast should now move to the proper place in order when sorted by Release Date.

Q: My podcasts are in different folders instead of all being in the same folder. How do I group them back together?

1. To make all your podcasts show up in the same folder, the IDENTIFIER and FEED tags need to match for all podcasts.

2. Open ID3 Editor and open all of the podcasts you want to group in iTunes under one folder. (Remember to open the files from within the iTunes Music > Podcasts folder and not from your desktop or Documents folder where you may have stored originals downloaded from the podcast's website.)

3. For each mp3 file opened in ID3 Editor, switch from the Standard tab to the PODCASTS tab.

4. If you have a podcast that shows up properly in iTunes and should be the default name/location for all the other disparate podcasts in the series, bring that file's window forward and copy the URL from its IDENTIFIER field.

5. For every other mp3 file for that podcast that you have open in ID3 Editor, PASTE that URL in to the respective IDENTIFIER field for each one.

6. From the same file you copied the Identifier URL, now copy the FEED URL.

7. For every other mp3 file for that podcast that you have open in ID3 Editor, PASTE that URL in to the respective FEED field for each one.

8. For every podcast file, make sure ENABLE PODCAST TAG is checked (in the upper left of the Podcast tab).

9. Now you have to number all the files properly. To do that, you need to be in the STANDARD tab in ID3 Editor.

10. Count up the total number of podcasts in the series you're consolidating. That TOTAL# number will go in the second TRACK field in the upper left (i.e., Track # of TOTAL#)

11. In the first TRACK field in the upper left, number your files in the order you want them to be listed (i.e., TRACK# of Total#). Also put the TRACK# in the TRACK field in the upper right (next to "Enable V1 tag").

12. Click on UPDATE in the lower left of each file to close each one with your changes saved.

13. For each of the newly-updated podcast files in your Music library, select it so that it's highlighted, go to the FILE menu, select GET INFO, and click on OK to update the information in iTunes. Once you've done this for every file, all podcasts in the series should be under one folder. (If not, make sure the ALBUM field matches exactly for each file.)

I hope the above resolves all the difficulties you've experienced with Podcasts in iTunes. If not, let me know and I'll add more detail (or correct any inadvertent errors in my instructions).

🙂 No, I don't work for Apple, but I've used Macintosh computers since 1991 and have written technical and procedural manuals before. I can't promise an answer like this on other problems, but this one has been bothering me for almost three years. When I saw how many other people were posting about it on the support forums, I decided to spend as much time as necessary to find the solution. Luckily, other people across the Interwebs discovered pieces and parts to the solution, so a lot of the above answer was putting together the puzzle pieces in one comprehensive answer.

BTW, so far I haven't found a way to do this for mp4 video podcasts. My solution only works for mp3 audio podcasts.

Hi ERosenbrg,

Thanks for posting your instructions! I found them very helpful and everything worked, up to the last question. I found that after I changed the IDENTIFIER and FEED tags as you suggested, I had to delete the podcast from iTunes and add it back to the library. Only then did it put it in the proper folder. Going to the "Get Info" menu item and clicking on "OK" to update didn't do anything. But maybe it depends on the iTunes version? or Mac vs. PC? Who knows... I'm glad I finally got it resolved.

To the first question, adding a file, one last step to add is to manually drag the file from the finder to the podcast in iTunes

Thank you so much, this has been bugging me for years. More so now that Luciano's sublime Cadenza podcast appears to be "Soundcloud only"...

What I found was no amount of tag editing would make iTunes move the podcast/track from Music to Podcasts.

So, for me at least, it's better to edit the track first (in e.g. Downloads, using ID3E) and then add/drop/bring it to iTunes, when it will appear in the correct location straight off.

iTunes 10.7 here.

Only downside now is I'm consigning Very Good Music to the woeful Podcasts.app on my iPhone...

You can also use a free editor like mp3tag (www.mp3tag.de). You only need to add (or fix) the PODCASTURL and RELEASEDATE tags. Other mp3 management software (like mediamonkey) can be used to set the "Album" to the podcast's title.

This was great. Thanks.

Unfortunately I can't find an ID editor that can also do .m4a podcasts - at least not the FEED and IDENTIFIER sections. So any m4a podcast I have is still in some wayward folder. It shouldn't be that hard.

Same problem here, I can get the file to register as a podcast but it won't group with the rest of my podcasts because I can't find out the identifier from the m4a file. I've tried to read the file with id3info but it complains that the m4a files don't have any id3 tags.

I am on the latest version of iTunes, and I don't have the option described in your second step, of changing the MEDIA KIND to PODCAST. MUSIC is the only choice in the dropdown list.