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vilennon Author

Level 1

1 points

Why did iTunes 11.1 (126) delete all (SEVERAL HUNDRED) Podcasts?

I update to iTunes 11.1 (126), update my iPhone 4 to iOS7, synched my iPhone. iTunes began to load Podcasts onto the limited space of my iPhone until clicked "x" to stop. I had previously set my iPhone to be managed manually so that I can choose what to put in the limited space. I set iTunes to allow me to manually update my iPhone *again*, synched it and went on about my afternoon.

When I came back to iTunes I see that it has taken it upon itself to DELETE ALL OF MY PODCASTS! Everything is missing. All of my carefully cultivated selections are simply missing, not even retrievable from the Trash. Even if I had the patience to download and sort out the SEVERAL HUNDRED podcasts again I do not have unlimited bandwidth. I will have to repeat listen to hundreds of podcasts to determine which ones I've already heard. What will this do to the podcasters themselves when they wonder why loyal listeners are dropping off? Should I email each podcaster and say, "I can't take the time sort out your hundreds of episodes AGAIN, so I guess I'll just stop listening." ?

Honestly, how could anyone think this kind of faceless automation was a good thing? I have been an Apple user long enough to remember the phrase, "It's not a bug, it's a feature" but I don't know how you can fix this.

iTunes-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.7.5), iPhone 4

Posted on Sep 18, 2013 6:12 PM

161 replies

StoryMan

Level 1

13 points

Sep 18, 2013 10:46 PM in response to ElisaSD

I tried that. I went to that folder and the podcasts were gone. iTunes deleted the files. I had to restore from Time Machine.

Sep 19, 2013 2:01 AM in response to vilennon

I have lost my 35 GB collection.. and when I try to visit the podcaston iTunes store, it shows as if I have not subscribed to it at all.. really frustrating. This is not expected from Apple.

mrkorb

Level 1

8 points

Sep 19, 2013 3:55 AM in response to vilennon

The new behaviour of iTunes is apparently to delete the podcast files the moment that particular episode is marked as played, not on refresh of the list (depending on your podcast settings).

Sep 23, 2013 7:31 AM in response to mrkorb

And the problem is it doesn't even have to be fully played. A partial play will inspire it to be deleted too.

vilennon Author

Level 1

1 points

Sep 28, 2013 8:18 PM in response to Judy__

If iTunes can't delete the files you may have a permissions problem. You can try fixing permissions with the Disk Utilitiy app or AppleJack. See if that alleviates the problem.

Judy__

Level 1

10 points

Sep 28, 2013 10:21 PM in response to August Berkshire

The key word is laborious. Ugh! But that is essentially what I have also had to do. This dumb stuff is what the devices are supposed to do - not the humans.

turingtest2

Level 10

274,516 points

Oct 5, 2013 4:28 AM in response to Kevin Goldsmith

Ouch. 😮

Had you tuned off the option to Sync podcast subscriptions, settings and stations before updating to iTunes 11.1.1? My library survived the second upgrade without any problems.

tt2

Judy__

Level 1

10 points

Oct 5, 2013 6:43 AM in response to Mike SM

Yes, I agree.

Oct 5, 2013 4:59 PM in response to daniel.florin

P.S: Sorry for the cursing but I am angry as ****.

turingtest2

Level 10

274,516 points

Oct 14, 2013 11:08 AM in response to David Strait

Glad it helped. I have to say I too was singularly unimpressed when I found so many of my podcasts deleted without warning. 😮

tt2

Oct 14, 2013 11:46 AM in response to Kevin Goldsmith

How did you downgrade?

Oct 16, 2013 9:35 AM in response to vilennon

I've also had my podcasts deleted on multiple computers as well (mac). Unbelievably frustrating.

Mike SM

Level 1

4 points

Oct 22, 2013 8:03 PM in response to vilennon

... Apple releases iTunes 11.1.2 with OS X Mavericks support.

Is the podcast sync bug fixed?

turingtest2

Level 10

274,516 points

Oct 23, 2013 3:07 PM in response to Unicorn_Systems

Do you have a backup of the data to restore? If not then have you considered file recovery software? It may not be too late to retrieve most of the missing data.

tt2

turingtest2

Level 10

274,516 points

Oct 23, 2013 4:41 PM in response to Unicorn_Systems

Ouch. 😮

tt2

Why did iTunes 11.1 (126) delete all (SEVERAL HUNDRED) Podcasts?