iCloud sync for Podcasts?

1. On iTunes 12.5.5.5,
2. Go to Preferences > Store.
3. Select the check box Sync Podcasts subscriptions and settings
4. Click OK

I believe it only syncs with other ios devices, not with Mac OS X on the desktop. This is what I've read so far, but I really hope I'm wrong. I wish I could get a clear and final answer to this as well.

edit: I think it works now. From information in another post, if you go to itunes and select Podcasts from the top menu, then tick the Sync Podcasts box and untick the Automatically Include box. Right-Click Transfer Purchases on your ios device and your podcasts should sync between iTunes and ios.

I have the same questions, and this recommendation doesn't sound right. When I unticked the "Automatically include..." checkbox, I got a warning that all the podcasts on my phone would be erased. Also, where is the option to right click to get "transfer purchases"?

I have to say this is all a bit confusing. I have the ability to subscribe to podcasts through iTunes on my Mac. I can also subscribe to podcasts in the Podcasts App on my iPhone. I can _also_ sync podcasts between the two. And now there's iCloud sync in the Podcasts App? How does this all work together?

First is the question that started this thread: how does iCloud sync work in this setup? Do I need to turn off iTunes syncing? How do I do that without losing all the podcasts on my phone? Maybe that's what you were trying to explain, Stephen, but I'm not clear on the steps.

And iCloud syncing aside, I'm not clear on how good, old-fashoined iTunes syncing works. For example, will a podcast on my Mac that was synced over from my phone update itself on the Mac, or will it only update when I perform another sync? Same question for podcasts synced to the phone from the Mac.

Perhaps I'm over-thinking this; I just want the podcasts in iTunes on my Mac to always be the exact same as what's on my phone (with the same settings, read/undead status, and playback position). How do I achieve that?

I cannot believe apple would make this so complicated. I don't want to have to manually connect my phone or tablet to my computer for a feature they say works over the cloud. They advertise "icloud" support and this means to most that simply "adding/removing a podcast to one devices will syncronize to others".

I contacted phone support and they verified this should be working however I got the usual apple run around inlcluding "turn off and on your device" and "logout of itunes and log back in". Great help apple!

If anyone finds a solution or verifies this is definitely a bug, please share it with the community.

In reply to both Downgear & my own previous post, it does appear that the unread/read status and the current playback position of my podcasts are syncing just fine between my iPhone and iTunes on my Mac without any manual syncing (via USB cable or wifi).

The part that apparently doesn't sync over iCloud are the subscriptions themselves, i.e. if I subscribe to a new podcast in iTunes, it doesn't automatically add that subscription to my iPhone. For that, I have iTunes configured to sync all episodes of all podcasts, and rely on USB syncing to keep the subscription list in sync. Given that my podcasts subscriptions change much less frequently than the current playback positions of my various podcasts, this actually seems to work fairly well.

And this seems to be an intentional limitation on Apple's part. The article at http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/03/hands-on-apples-podcasts-app-loses-reel-ani mation-gains-playlists/ specifically states that "The new Podcasts app supports iCloud syncing of playback positions and custom stations."

Thank you very much for clarifying that Eric.

That makes sense and is a very reasonable option however I am baffled as to why apple has not done a better job at explaining this! Even the phone support was not aware of this and I eagerly await going home to test it. I kept awaiting for all my devices to synchronize much like iTunes match does. I mainly listen to Podcasts from iPhone however I still wanted the play position or "played" status to be recorded in iTunes.

I was pulling my hair out with this app for a while. I did some playing around with it last night and confirmed that since upgrading to iTunes 11 (I actually didn't want to but it did so automatically when I upgraded to Mt. Lion), and using the last version of Podcasts (I didn't update yet), it is syncing playback position with my macbook.

Up until last night I had each podcast set on my iOS devices (iPad 3 and iPhone 5) NOT to automatically download. Then I would listen and then still sync to iTunes. It would update them via syncing, yet the app would show new episodes before I had downloaded them, I was just doing it this way.

However, last night I tried unchecking the "automatically sync . . . " and then only selected some old podcasts that I like to have on my device, so in other words it will not update my current subscriptions via the cable (I still sync for musice that I rip from CD's and photos basically, and to backup). Then I turned on automatic downloads for each current podcast I subscribe to on the two iOS devices. So we'll see how it works using the automatic downloads.

One thing is clear, if you have iOS devices set to sync subscriptions via iCloud and still sync those same podcasts with iTunes on a mac, you will have a lot of screwups. Mainly you will listen to something, it will show as unplayed, then you sync with your mac, and it will re-sync that same episode which your mac thinks you didn't listen to, and then screw up your play status.

I did verify that the playback position does sync with itunes over iCloud, HOWEVER - if you look at each episode it doesn't look like it, because it still shows as unplayed with the full circle filled on. Yet if you click on an episode that you've already started listening to on an iOS device, it will pick up where you were, but it's decieving.

Sorry for my confusing post, but this topic is confusing, and they haven't made it any better. I'm about one more screw up from downloading Downcast. What I'm trying now is to just stop syncing those podcasts between the mac and iOS devices, so I basically turned that off, however, I didn't completely uncheck to sycning "Podcasts" in iTunes because I thought I might lose some episodes. Eventually I'm going to turn it off becasue in reality I rarely ever listen on my mac.

I'm confused.

What menu at the top of itunes am I selecting podcasts from? I don't see it?? I don't see where to click to check/tick off sync podcasts.

thanks for your help