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

I found all my podcasts vanished when updating to 11.1.3.

I managed to find them all by searching for one podcast by name in the 'library search' box. It found one podcast but provided a link to '42 more'. I clicked this and all of my podcasts reappeared. I have no idea where they had been hiding but I seem to have all of the missing ones back.

Hope this will help some of you.

I found all my podcasts vanished when updating to 11.1.3.

I managed to find them all by searching for one podcast by name in the 'library search' box. It found one podcast but provided a link to '42 more'. I clicked this and all of my podcasts reappeared. I have no idea where they had been hiding but I seem to have all of the missing ones back.

Hope this will help some of you.

Now it's 2014. I thought this was fixed. Just lost about 200 "Fresh Airs". The entire thing is deleted--heading and everything. Got some back from Time Machine disk, but thinking it is time to abandon iTunes. Deleting files is not acceptable behavior for a program, ever.

This is infuriating. I have iTunes 11.1.5.5 for Windows 7. I have been accumulating podcasts for four years. This morning, I went to listen to one on my iPod and all of my podcasts were blank. So when I got home, I tried to re-sync with my computer and iTunes gave me an error that it couldn't sync because all of the selected podcasts are not present on my PC. Sure enough, the "podcasts" section of the library is empty except for two podcasts I had manually downloaded and added. The files are all physically gone from my computer. I can't fathom how anyone thinks it's acceptable to release software like this.

I found all my podcasts vanished when updating to 11.1.3.

I managed to find them all by searching for one podcast by name in the 'library search' box. It found one podcast but provided a link to '42 more'. I clicked this and all of my podcasts reappeared. I have no idea where they had been hiding but I seem to have all of the missing ones back.

Hope this will help some of you.

I too lost a few years of Podcasts after updating itunes about the time this thread was started. I turned off Podcast Syncing in itunes as suggested here and I had no more problems. The Podcasts that were deleted were the ones that were in the itunes library on my computer and not on my iphone. Seems itunes thought they should be deleted since they weren't on my phone. They could at least give you a warning dialog box.

I called Apple last year and was told that was a bug in a previous version of iTunes. They seemed to think it was fixed.

Now just a couple days ago I turned Podcast syncing on in itunes (latest version 11.1.5.5) on Windows 7 to see if I could fix a problem I was having copying Podcasts to my phone. The Apple Podcast app is just plain quirky in general and in the process of experimenting to get things working more smoothly I deleted a Podcast off my phone with he intent of recopying it from itunes. I had only a couple episodes of the deleted Podcast on my phone. After deleting the Podcast from my phone itunes immediately deleted a little over a years worth of episodes from the same Podcast in my itunes library but left a couple years worth of older episodes of the same Podcast.

Seems the deleting bug is still there only it makes no sense at all to me what it is doing. I would definitely recommend turning the Podcast sycing option off as outline above. Itunes seems to delete what it feels like with no warnings and in my experience it deletes the podcast files completely off the computer without a trace of them in the recycle bin or anywhere else.

JWD88 wrote:

Dave: There is no excuse for deleting files, ever. That is called malware ...

*starts chanting*

MALWARE! MALWARE! MALWARE! MALWARE! MALWARE! MALWARE! MALWARE! MALWARE! MALWARE! MALWARE! MALWARE! MALWARE! MALWARE! MALWARE! MALWARE! MALWARE!

The LEAST you guys can frickin' do is have "Do Not Allow Delete" actually function to override the sync. But NOOOOOOOOOO..

6 versions of iTunes since 11.1 and you can't fix one of the most horrible bugs to EVER come into being on a Mac. Bad Apple!

*starts chanting again*

BAD APPLES! BAD APPLES! BAD APPLES! BAD APPLES! BAD APPLES! BAD APPLES! BAD APPLES! BAD APPLES! BAD APPLES! BAD APPLES! BAD APPLES! BAD APPLES! BAD APPLES! BAD APPLES! BAD APPLES! BAD APPLES!

*gasps*

BAD... APPLE!

Okay. I'm done venting. ..For now.

I'm running the latest versions of iTunes on my iMac and iOS on my iPhone 5s. Most of my podcasts (years worth) just suddenly and without explanation or warning disappared off my iMac. :-( Get your act together, Apple!!

Yeah — I noticed years of podcasts were gone when I updated my iPhone back in the fall. I have an all-Apple set up. The problem keeps popping up despite getting all my settings right — I thought... Anytime I touch manual deletion from on my iPhone, even not syncing across devices, iTunes dumps entire lists of poscasts! The "Sync Podcasts Subscriptions and Settings" checkbox was a new discovery, however I'm still not confident. The problem keeps coming back.

And my backups dont help: Yes, I can get the podcasts back in iTunes by dragging and dropping or by using Apple's suggested "Add to Library" command, but all my Played/Unplayed info and Ratings are wiped clean with either approach, since these are in some meta-data thingy somewhere. I tried dragging the following from a backup to see what would happen: "iTunes Library Extras.itdb", "iTunes Library.itl", "iTunes Music Library.xml". This hopless act only screwed up stuff that was fine. Don't try this at home!?!
And why does the iPhone insist on giving me an iCloud option that eats up my Verizon data pland and mucks up my iTunes' podcast lists again?

What's going on Apple?? No one is addressing this issue at all, despite pages of user complaints. Where's Steve?
Oh — He's left the company permanently, on what was good terms. We'll see about that...

Love You, Steve!!!

f

This has happened to me several times now, and twice in the last 2 days. I don't have time to keep re-subscribing, and downloading all over again. The podcasts I listen to get updated most days, and I resync before I set off for work so I can listen as I travel. It is impractical to keep taking backups all the time. There must be a better way. Apple WAKE UP and fix this.

So.....

iTunes 11.2.1 is out and Podcast for iOS has been updated. There appear to be new controls for the interaction between the iCloud syncing and the Mac-iPod syncing. Has this finally solved the issues?

I want to point out to Apple that you've created new features to work around a problem you created, making it (the App) more complicated than it needs to be. So this better work for all the trouble you've caused your customers.

vilennon wrote:

PS. I'm not sure what happened to iTunes, why Apple refuses to publicly address these issues, or where iTunes quality contol has gone? Is anyone beta-testing this software anymore. If Apple isn't interested in fixing these issues would they consider handing development over to a third party?

Boy, wouldn't THAT be a kick in the teeth for Apple? Considering the power of the Jobs legacy was doing everything right and in-house, needing a third-party to come in for clean-up duty would not reflect well on the company.

And again...!!! I resubscribed to all my podcasts this morning. Then I went to work. When I got home I went to resync the PC to pull down todays podcasts - but I wasn't subscribed to any .... yet again.... Please can we go back to version 9?