My podcast has been on iTunes for years and I update it with a new episode every weekend. This weekend my feed won't work though. I suspect Apple changed something again. They've done this several times before and each time it breaks my feed. My feed passes at feedvalidator.org and the podcast still shows up in iTunes with a description of the show, but no episodes. Here is my feed: http://www.reluctantradio.org/oaks.rss
It's not the feed that's the problem (and it's not something that Apple have done): your server is not responding to requests for the media files. I got the 'server unexpectedly dropped connection' error. This is something you will need to take up with the people running your server.
To check your server quickly, simply click on this link to your latest episode in Safari - it should play in the browser.
http://www.reluctantradio.com/Podcast/ReluctantRadio/121028.mp3
It's not the feed that's the problem (and it's not something that Apple have done): your server is not responding to requests for the media files. I got the 'server unexpectedly dropped connection' error. This is something you will need to take up with the people running your server.
To check your server quickly, simply click on this link to your latest episode in Safari - it should play in the browser.
http://www.reluctantradio.com/Podcast/ReluctantRadio/121028.mp3
Roger,
The domain name the .mp3 files were at expired and I have no communication with the person who sold it to me and controls / owns it. I changed the feed so it gets the .mp3 files from the same domain name the feed is at and now the podcast works if I manually subscribe to it. The iTunes Store still looks for the .mp3 files at the old domain name though. I can't remember how to force iTunes to renew the feed. There used to be a command for that years ago but it didn't work for me whenever I tried it so I never bothered to write it down... Do you know what that command is?... Thanks so much for your help. 🙂
Scott
The feed now works when subscribing: the Store should update in a couple of days or so without your having to do anything.
It still doesn't work on my computer when I subscribe through the iTunes Store. I just see the description of the show and an exclamation point and there are no episodes listed for the show when I flip the triangle. Is there a way to purge the cache in my iTunes application?
The iTunes Store is looking for a feed at
http://www.ReluctantRadio.com/oaks.rss
not the URL where the feed actually now is. That URL brings up a default page, not a feed.
You how have a problem, as I assume from what you say that you can't access this URL to place a feed there with the 'itunes:new-feed-url' tag to redirect the Store to the new feed.
You can only try emailing them at podcasts 'at' apple.com and explaining the situation - give them the URL of the Store page:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/reluctant-radio/id181560429
and the URL of the new feed. Otherwise you will have to resubmit the feed as an entirely new podcast.
I've never been able to get a reply from Apple when I've attempted to contact them about podcast problems in years past. Do they actually reply now?... I just heard from the guy who sold me the domain name and he said it didn't expire. Hopefully he'll look into this and fix it... and as soon as he gets it going again I'll move the feed to the other domain name... does that really work by the way? I've never tried to move a feed before. My general experience over the years with iTunes podcasts is that nothing works properly and Apple never bothers to fix anything.
They have been known to move the Store to a new feed when it wasn't possible to access the old one, so it's worth trying.
Otherwise the method for moving to a new feed (which does work reliably) is detailed here:
http://www.wilmut.webspace.virginmedia.com/notes/podcast.html#move
However you should be aware that if your feed continues not to work for some time it is likely to get your podcast removed from the Store altogether, so that you will have to resbumit it (and there are problems associaged with that).
Come to find out the domain name did expire with no warning. I remembered that the guy gave me his password previously when this happened and I wrote it down. I just logged into his account and renewed the domain name but it still doesn't work. I suppose I'll have to wait for the DNS servers to change back to my server again. I think that takes a couple of hours doesn't it?... I only have one server with both domain names pointed at it, so there's only one feed. If I add the code to the feed to move it it'll appear on the feed at both domain names, because there's only one feed actually... will this cause a problem with iTunes?... or should I put a copy of the feed without the move feed code into a folder on my server and send iTunes there for the new feed?... Sorry to make this more confusing than it may be by anticipating iTunes problems before they even happen. I've had a lot of problems in the past in case you can't tell.
You can put the redirection tag in the feed once you have the old domain up and running again: once moved, iTunes will of course see the tag in the new feed but aas it's redirecting to itself it won't have any effect. You should leave it there for a couple of weeks.
It can take 48 hours or so for a domain change to propagate round the world's DNS servers. Of course heaven knows what effect that storm will have had on some of them, but what really matters here are Apple's.
In fact I just checked and the old URL now works (in London), so go ahead and put the tag in. Then it's just a question of waiting - it will take a couple of days for the Store to catch up, but in the meantime the old feed URL is working and indeed you can now play episodes from the Store page, so you're up and running.
Our podcast is back up now thankfully. We're a nationally syndicated radio show and couple of the radio networks download the show from iTunes because it's a super easy way to distribute the show. Thanks so much for all your help. I'll probably move the feed this weekend when I put up the next episode. I may wait an extra day before putting up the next episode because this week's episode was down a couple of days as a result of this problem and it could probably use an extra day to make up for any lost listeners.
I just moved the feed when I added this weekend's episode, and the podcast still works so I guess we'll just go ahead and call that a success. Thanks a bunch for the help Roger. 🙂
Scott
Hey Roger,
I moved the feed with last weekend's episode and it worked. Now I can't get this weekend's episode to show up in iTunes even though it shows up in a browser and the audio plays. I added this weekend's episode to both the new and old feed and tested both of them and everything works, just not in iTunes. When I update the iTunes podcasts it only sees last weekend's episode... Here is the new feed we just moved to last weekend:
http://www.ReluctantRadio.org/Podcast/ReluctantRadio/oaks.rss
iTunes is using the feed at
http://www.reluctantradio.com/oaks.rss
although both seem to have the same content. The latest episode, dated today, is in both feeds and is visible when subscribing. You can't really expect it to appear in the Store so soon: it usually takes 1-2 days for a new episode to appear. It should appear in a day or so as the feed appears to be OK.
However the feed iTunes is using contains the 'new-feed-url' tag to redirect iTunes to the feed you link to, but it is not having an effect. This is because the second line of your feed is incorrect. it reads
<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.org/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0">
and it should read
<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0">
(.com not .org).You need to correct this, then the Store will redirect to the new feed in a day or so. Leave the old feed in place for a couple of weeks for the benefit of subscribers.
I just changed the .org to .com in both feeds but my iTunes application still doesn't see the latest episode. I wasn't really expecting the iTunes Store to update quickly. Every week the iTunes application immediately downloads the new episode as soon as I add the new item to the feed and click update on my iTunes application. This week it doesn't see the item in the feed at all... I started over again and added the item a second time to be sure I didn't make a mistake. I don't see any errors, and the feed and audio file both work perfectly with a browser.
iTunes is now using the feed at
http://www.ReluctantRadio.org/Podcast/ReluctantRadio/oaks.rss
and the latest episode in the feed, that of 11 November, is showing both when subscribing and in the Store.
Feed no longer works
