Podcasts for iOS Very Buggy

No I am having allot of issue relating to it and now it's affecting other app. As I trying to download or update other apps and because has hang the download service and\or keep retrying over 3G I am lost the able to download anything. Secondly as it keep trying over 3G, it eat into my data plans. I know I can do a blanket disable 3G download but I do like it on other app\itunes, I prefer not to do this. Apple when a bug fix due ?

I think it is unacceptable that Apple released an application to the general Apple community that has so many issues.

One only has to look at these forums, reviews on iTunes to see the shear volume of issues users are experiencing.

Unbelievably, this is the only application I have ever downloaded out of hundreds that has crashed my iPhone. And consistently. And it's made by Apple!

The UI is really sluggish, confusing (how do you get to the ridiculous tape-recorder section without being told how to) and really, really buggy.

I completely can't understand how Apple could stand behind such an abysmal product and release it to the public in this state.

Agreed! One of my favorite podcasts doesn't even show up in this new app. Not sure what the problem is. And on top of that, the X covers the Library button when you search for something. Half the time it doesn't even download the podcast I select, and it freezes/force closes itself. Or, like now, when I go to download a podcast, it does nothing when I hit View.

I think Apple rushed it out after the iOS 6 beta uncovered that Podcasts would get a standalone app. They should have just left it alone if it's going to be like this. Weeks have gone by and no updates. Fire whoever tested this app.

Please fix the Bugs.

Well, I have all the issues mentioned above. Despite streaming over WIFI, it somehow used up my 500MB data plan with O2. I only ever use half of my allowance each month, mainly because I'm constantly on WIFI, so you can imagine my confusion at getting texts from O2 warning me at 80% and then a final one last night saying I'd maxed it out? This has never happened and I've been with O2 for years.

I went to bed streaming The Verge podcast last night and the internet connection was fine. I think there is a bug that uses 3G regardless of the fact your iPhone is connected via WIFI.

This upsets me because Apple will likely silently fix this bug and there's nothing we can do about the fact we'll have to pay data charges due to the poor performance of this app.

I gave up and uninstalled it. I like the concept of Apple having a built in Podcast app but this one is terrible. My data rate went through the roof, thank goodness I still have an unlimited data plan, but I was pushing into the getting throttled back by AT&T zone and realized it was the Podcast app downloading stuff all the time in the background whether or not if was on Wifi. Some podcasts are less than 50 Mb so they would just keep downloading in the background no matter where I was. There needs to be a setting that allows us to toggle 3G/4G on and off for downloads to this app and force it use WiFi only. I can't think of a podcast that I would need desperately enough to burn up data to get it before I could get home and log into my Wifi network.

I am back to using the Music App (I still can't think of it as anything other then the iPod app really) as my Podcast player. Once iOS 6 comes out, and I agree that this was probably going to be included in 6 and is currently buggy as all get out, hopefully they will have worked out the bugs and it will just work.

The app in its current state is wildly bad. I've used it a lot since the day it was released and I've finally thrown in the towel, unsubscribed from all my podcasts and moved back to Stitcher for the time being. I'm not deleting the app because I'm eager to give it another try when an update is released. I really like the interface and functionality. I can deal with a lot of the interface bugs, but there is something deeply wrong with how the app handles data. In less than a month I blew through my 2GB data plan and two more overages meaning that I paid $30 extra dollars on my last AT&T bill and I really believe it was because of this app. I don;t know exactly what it's doing, because I don't auto-download files. I stream everything, and am almost always on a WiFi network. I haven't changed my listening habits, and I never came close to hitting the data limit when I was using Stitcher.

Aside from the data problems, here are the bugs I encountered (I'm running it on an up to date iPhone4s):

- the interface is frozen for up to a minute on start-up sometimes (but not all the time)

- periodically, duplicates of all new podcast shows are listed in the 'unplayed' list

- frequently, old shows are randomly re-labeled as 'unplayed' (happens all the time)

- I had a few crashes, but this was not a big problem for me

- several times, the app forgot where I stopped playing a show.

Things I'd like to see changed:

- would like to be make 2x playback the default setting

- iCloud syncing of subscriptions and playback states between my phone and mac

- would be cool if I could set it to a default sleep timer between certain hours of the day

- set push notifications for release of some new shows

Apple released an update to the Podcasts app yesterday. Go to the App Store and download it. It seems to have fixed most of the problems you mentioned, though it does not add all of the additional features you would like to see. I am still experiencing some bugs, but it is much better than before.

Podcasts 1.0.1 provides a number of improvements, including:

• Significant improvements to performance and stability

• Podcasts in your library now show the number of unplayed episodes

• Top Stations now show the podcast title if artwork is missing

• Playback speed is now remembered when playing the next episode

• Fix for a problem where the Subscribe button is inactive

• Resolution of an issue where Top Stations artwork may not appear

----

No mention about issues relating to downloading issue I mentioned above? I had to delete it as it wouldn't stop downloading over 3G whilst on WIFI. Unless I hear this is no longer an issue, I simply can't afford to download it, I wouldn't reccomend to anyone else either. This is not a case of moaning about lack of features etc, it's about it doing something you have no control of until it's too late. If anyone knows if this got fixed for sure then I'd like to know. I actually like the app, it's nice and simple (even though it's just a kind of weird front for the 'iTunes' app)

So I guess this does highlight a feature request which would be:

- ability to toggle 'download over 3G' ON/OFF

This way the user has full control. Not having this is crazy.

I confirm that Podcast App uses 3G to download. Ate me 3G data plan, despite the fact that Settings->Store->Use Cellular Data is OFF.

sotirop wrote:

I confirm that Podcast App uses 3G to download. Ate me 3G data plan, despite the fact that Settings->Store->Use Cellular Data is OFF.

Do what I do.... I kill the app so it won't download until I start it.

I agree. But I leave app running during the night so by the time I leave house next morning, I got all podcasts downloaded and ready to listen during drive at work. If for some reason it loses WIFI connection, it might use 3G and ... 3G data plan (game) over.

I've stopped using 'Podcasts' until I see evidence that this data problem has been resolved. I've been using 'Downcast' for at least a month now and it's quite good. I have it set to download (rather than stream) podcasts only when on WiFi and it seems to work perfectly. I've not had a data overage since swtiching. I still hope Apple gets 'Podcasts' working correctly.

I too saw a huge spike in cellular data usage in using the Podcasts app because podcasts would continue to auto-download over 3G even while I was connected to a wireless access point. So far this month I've been charged for the $10/1GB upgrades 6 times! That's an additional $60 on my wireless bill!

I just wanted to update this thread (as it seems to be where everyone is posting their concerns) with information about the latest Podcasts update, which has added the ability to disable cellular data usage.

Podcasts 1.1 adds support for iOS 6. This version also provides:

- Automatically keep your podcast subscriptions up-to-date between devices using iCloud

- A new setting to choose to automatically download new podcasts only when on Wi-Fi

- A new setting to choose whether to play episodes by oldest to newest or newest to oldest

- Pull to refresh a subscription to check for new episodes on iOS 6

- Additional performance and stability improvements

I'm using iOS 6 and Podcasts 1.1, use cellular data turned off in the app. My iphone was left playing a downloaded podcast unattended, when it finished that podcast it simply went to the next one in my unplayed list (which was new and not yet downloaded) and streamed 90 minutes of it over 3g, so I'll need to pay extra on my data plan to get through the next 2 weeks.

So Apple have made a distinction between downloading the podcast over cellular data and streaming it. How about a setting for no streaming over 3g!

I am also very dissapointed in the removal of podcasts from the ipod app.