Podcast app will no longer download new podcasts

I have the same problem - stuck on preparing to download. Sometimes it appears to work but the next time I open Podcast app, the one I downloaded has disappeared. Very frustrating!

The podcast app is stuck on "Preparing to download" for me as well.

I did manage to download ONE podcast yesterday, but that was only one.

I then tried to find an answer or some support from Apple, but according to them this is not their app, and my account hasn't purchased any apps.

I'm having the same issue. The Podcasts app says "Preparing to download" but does not actually download the podcast. If you go to the iTunes app > Downloads, the podcast will appear with "Processing..." underneath and no progress on the download bar.

I'm having this exact same problem. Here's how it happened for me:

I was in my house about to leave waiting for someone, and it dawned on me to download some new or recent episodes of a podcast. I went into the Podcast app and started them, and then locked my device thinking that the episodes would be downloading. Little did I know they weren't on my wifi for some reason. I found this out when the person I was waiting for was ready to leave so we could go somewhere and I unlocked my phone in the car. At that point I switched over to LTE and the oldest of these 3 episodes I wanted to download started downloading and was completed in seconds. When it got to the other 2 remaining episodes, they both just had the status of "Preparing to download..." With the loading wheel that tells you how much has been downloaded at 0%. Still right now it's like this. Could this just be an issue with LTE, the podcast, or any of iTunes podcasts as a whole?

I'm getting the same problem - and more - on the new Podcasts app and utterly hate it. Have no idea why they moved the podcasts functionality (which worked) into a new broken app. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong; podcasts won't download, if they _do_ download then they just sometimes disappear, podcasts won't play (for some reason, I have to go and play another podcast and _then_ return to one I previously tried, which then works),

the app won't background properly (which means that, after pausing a podcast, instead of just pressing Play, I have to go back into the app from the start and queue up the podcast AGAIN....

The list of problems with this app go on and on and on.

P.

The app works perfectly fine for me, however I was having a couple issues until I completely deleted the app from my phone and from itunes and then reinstalled it. That did the trick for me.

If you still don't like it just delete it and your podcasts will show back up in music like they did before.