Podcast Playlists in IOS6?

For those of you who want a manually added playlist and don't do smartplaylists, here is an easy workaround:

1. Create the playlist you actually want

2. Then create a smart playlist with the rule being that it must come from the playlist you want. This will mirror automatically the playlist you make.

Voila, problem solved 🙂

I had everything working again after deleting the new Podcasts app, rebooting and resynching a few times... my playlist (of primarily podcasts) has been working fine for the last couple of days. Then, this morning all of a sudden the Music app shows no content... no podcasts, no playlists, no music... somewhere around 30GB of stuff suddenly disappeared 😟 In iTunes, it's clear that the iPod *thinks* it has something, as the device shows the podcasts and music, but no luck on the iPod itself. I just turned off music and podcast synching, synched again, and am trying to just synch podcasts so I at least have something to listen to in my 3-4 hours of commute today.

I never expected to have such problems with the fundamental parts of the OS/device 😟

Now that you've updated/downgraded/etc, do you still have the option to make Podcasts one of your bookmarked categories (where the four defaults are Genius, Playlists, Aritists, Songs) or do you have to go to "More" every time? I go to my podcasts about 20 times a day as I switch back and forth between media in an ADD stream of consciousness.

I'm adding my me too. As one person who doesn't mess with their phone while driving (a lot), this hot mess is a good way to careen into a barrier at 70+

Having to read and click through several screens of eyecandy and playback controls for every single podcast is ridiculous. Plus there is no way to establish order of playback..

For god's sakes put it back along with the google maps...Apple is starting to resemble microsoft...If it's not broke then break it.?..

I just tested, and I can add Podcasts to the bottom-row "bookmarks" in the Music app (now that I've deleted the Podcasts app), so you should be good to go with that.

After spending an hour or so STEAMING MAD about this situation, and after reading all these thoughtful comments, I figured out how to restore the iPhone library to play podcasts alongside music. First, delete the Podcast app. Second, remove the Music app from the background. Third, turn phone off then back on. Viola, my podcasts show up in my playlist where they used to be. Hope this helps, guys.

Cool, thanks! That works.

Does anyone use iTunes Match? I was able to restore smart playlist functionality by deleting the podcasts app and then restarting the Music app... however, this does not work with iTunes Match enabled? I can resync over and over and the smart playlists actually show up under device in iTunes, but they do not display on the playlist tab in the Music app on the device itself. Anyone else having this problem?

It amazes me that I can use programs like doubletwist to get more functionality on an android phone than I have on the latest iPhone.

I removed The podcast app, then closed music, rebooted my device (both iPod & iPad) and I got my playlists back in Music. I'm now happy. I hope they don't change anything now.

Worked for me . . . so far so good. And, I have a backup plan in case it decides to stop working. My first-generation iPad can't go to iOS6 and happily accepts my podcast playlists . . . so my 1-1/2 hours each way to work resumes its Podcasting ways!

Rolokid wrote:

Does anyone use iTunes Match? I was able to restore smart playlist functionality by deleting the podcasts app and then restarting the Music app... however, this does not work with iTunes Match enabled? I can resync over and over and the smart playlists actually show up under device in iTunes, but they do not display on the playlist tab in the Music app on the device itself. Anyone else having this problem?

I think my problem was similar. I'd had some other weird problems with my iPhone, so I did a full wipe-and-restore, then used iTunes Match to restore the music to my phone (I bought an ITM subscription, but I only ended up using it on my iPad). And I had a similar problem. I disabled ITM (which I'd honestly only enabled so I could reload music over my work wifi during the day), and did a couple of sync cycles, and the problem seemed to go away. I didn't make the connection to ITM until I saw your post.

Looking forward to iOS 6.1!

I can resync over and over and the smart playlists actually show up under device in iTunes, but they do not display on the playlist tab in the Music app on the device itself. Anyone else having this problem?

That *might* be related to an existing problem that started with iTunes Match, before iOS 6. Try unchecking the "Sync Podcasts" checkbox under the Podcasts tab of the device in iTunes, syncing, then re-checking it, and syncing again.

(Here's my original description of the problem... and the fix someone suggested that worked for me).

You have to download at least one podcast first. Deleting the app tells you that it will delete all your data but the actual podcast will appear back under the music button.

I have found an interesting bug (from the sister thread to this one in the support forums). A playlist of podcasts still exists even if it is invisible in the Music app. You can play it by commanding Siri to do so. My playlist is called "abacus news" so that it alphabetizes to the top of the list (now a moot point) but if I say "play playlist abacus news" Siri will start playback.

dan i elm: That was a promising solution, but unfortunately Siri could not find any playlist on the device that did not display on the playlist tab, despite it showing up under devices in iTunes.

mbmgibson: Thank you for the suggestion and the links. I have tried unticking and ticking the podcasts in iTunes. I've tried unticking all and even some. I can even watch them disappear and reappear in devices. However, no luck on getting them to display with ITM enabled. The only playlists that appear are ones that come from ITM which are not smart playlists for podcasts. Again, when I disable ITM they appear just fine.

I'd be surprised if this gets addressed in 6.01. Hopefully, it will work properly if and when the Podcasts app gets playlist support.