podcasting problems please help!

I'm afraid what you have at present is not going to work. Your feed must have 'enclosure' tags containing the URLs of payable media in acceptable formats - .mp3, m4a, .m4v, .mov or .m4a. What you have is a weblog feed with links to YouTube videos - iTunes does not recognize these.

This page about making podcasts may help in laying out the basics and showing what a basic feed looks like:

http://rfwilmut.net/pc

Incidentally the Google Drive link you give leads to a login page: again, this won't work. Your files must be on an ordinary web server, and available directly in a browser without having to log in: and the server must be able to handle 'byte-range requests' or the Store won't accept your podcast.

(The iPhone plays podcasts by using 'byte-range requests', which means calling for part of the file at a time rather than the whole thing. Unfortunately some servers don't support this, and there were an increasing number of complaints that podcasts which worked elsewhere weren't working on an iPhone.

So Apple are now making the ability to handle this a condition of submission. If your server doesn't support this, all you can do is to ask them whether they can implement it. If not, you will have to find another hosting service - ask about this before committing yourself, and if they say no, or don't know what it is, find another host. Note that if, as some people do, you are hosting the feed and the episodes on different servers, it is the server hosting the episodeswhich is in question.)

All that is in the 'description' tag which iTunes only reads if there are no 'itunes:subtitle' or ''itunes:summary' tags, and it won't render the html but will just display it, messily, so the links won't work even if it does show them. Without properly formed 'enclosure' tags the episodes won't appear in iTunes anyway.

The feed is created in Tumblr and submitted to Feedburner, and it's in Tumblr that you have to sort this out. There has to be a method of adding an mp3 file in Tumblr so that an 'enclosure' tag is correctly formed, but I can't advise on the specifics. Once you get that straight Feedburner will pick up the teed.

Yes, it's in Tumblr that the problem lies: Feedburner simply adds some tags before passing the feed on to iTunes. The Tumblr link you give is to a weblog web page, not a podcast feed: Tumblr presumably has a method for creating a proper podcast. As I say, you may find it worth reading my page which I linked to above - I'm not suggesting you should handwrite your feed, but it would give you an understanding of the underlying mechanics so that you would know what to look out for.

But also remember about the access to the media files if you are hosting them on Google Drive - they must be directly availeble to anyone without the need to log in. The test is that when you enter the URL in Safari (and are not logged in) the file plays directly in Safari (this assumes you are on a Mac).

Roger,

As I spend hours trying to figure out why Itunes won't accept my podcast I continually see your posts in the Apple forums patiently explaining to ppl why their 'casts will not be accepted. But you could save a lot of time and effort and skip the technical mumbo jumbo and just say that Apple has changed its policy and has screwed over thousands of ppl who have been doing podcasts for years, as well as ppl who want to start one. For everyone in the forums who keep seeing the dreaded byte range request errors, its not about changing any specs, its about using a pay service in order to get your podcast listed in Itunes (unless you're some kind of computer genius). Tumblr, wordpress, blogger, archive.org, etc. arent going to work anymore. The sites where you have to pay will work. You can't do a podcast for free anymore and have Apple acknowledge it. And I find it very conveinent that your friend from libsyn (a pay podcast service; an expensive podcast service) swoops in on many of these posts offering his serivces. If there's a way to do a FREE podcast that Itunes will accept, please tell us in the simplest terms possible. Thank you.

All I can tell you is what you already know: newly submitted podcasts must have their media files hosted on a server which accepts byte-range requests or they will be rejected. This is presumably because prior to this requirement there were a lot of complaints from iPhone users that podcasts weren't working, which were caused by this issue.

Unfortunately many servers don't handle this, and all you can do is investigate before committing. Free hosting services have always been dubious because they have to make a profit somewhere and usually do this by adding adverts to your website pages. Of course they can't do that with a podcast, which gives them no incentive whatever to accomodate podcast creators. I don't know whether there is any free service which would be suitable, I'm afraid.

I can only comment on the technical issues and expain them to the best of my abilities: it's not my place to comment on Appe's policies (and in any case that is forbidden by the terms of use of the discussions). Robert Walch's posts are his own responsibility. He does declare his interest in Libsyn.

Hello Jam19,

I am sorry you are frustrated by the change Apple made requiring byte-range requests.

And for the record many pay for media hosts do not support that as well.

Apple as I understand it - made the change to require supporting byte range to allow for a better user experience for mobile users of podcasts via iOS. As it is their playing field they can make changes in rules as they see fit. And Apple for the most part does make those changes for the end users best interest. ie the >100 million plus consuming podcasts - not the <200,000 making them.

This is NOT about Apple screwing over the podcasters - this is about Apple helping the Podcast consumers. As a podcaster - you want to make consuming podcasts the best user experience possible. That is why there is an over 8 to 1 ratio of podcasts downloaded to iOS devices vs Android. Google does not care about either podcasters or end users. So as a podcaster be happy Apple has done what they have done over the years.

Yes - I definitely jump in here and let those know that are frustrated that there is a place to host that does 100% work with iTunes - libsyn - but for the record - I used libsyn for years before working for them - and I have been contributing on the board on and off since this board started 7+ years ago - again years before I started at Libsyn.

My advice has always been to podcasters if you are serious about your show - get it off a free host and put it on a paid service like libsyn. There have been too many free hosting companies on the podcasting side that have shut down - and usually with no notice - Podango, Gcast, podcast spot, podshow creator, mypodcast.com - ALL Gone. And mevio for audio, blip for audio - have both stopped supporting the Audio podcasters.

If you are looking for a good - easy solution for podcast hosting - then you are going to need to pay for it.

Again I am sorry if this has frustrated you.

Regards,

Rob Walch

podCast411

libsyn