iOS 7 Music app no longer able to play podcasts when Podcasts app is not installed.

Me too. I upgraded the iOS on my iPad a couple of days ago, and today went to listen to my podcasts. Where the heck are they? Well now I know, and I have to agree it was a dumb thing to do, pointless really. Who thinks up changes like this?

Update: I'm not sure what changed but I've regained control of podcasts in my car. I have rebooted the phone and I've also gone into the Podcast app and worked with my podcast subscriptions. Nothing though that I would directly associate with the problem. On the down side, iTunes decided that some of the episodes I haven't yet listened to should be deleted. It also unsubscribed me from everything. Annoying to go fix but I think I've got it all set back up again they way I want it.

I agree. This could be my last Apple product. I'm tired of unecessary changes.

I agree. This is change was not necessary. What about Apple's commitment to simplicity and user-friendly products?

I can create, but not listen to playlists that have podcasts and music on my iphone now. I've been doing this for years. I'm surprised Apple doesn't at least make the Music app interoperable with the Podcast app; it would be better if they simply got rid of it.

In sum, Apple: the Podcast app is a mistake, and you should fix this mess quickly.

This is ridiculous Apple.

I used to play some podcasts through the music app because unbelievably the iOS podcast app DOESN'T HAVE CHAPTER SELECT.

I get the Economist Full Edition which is a a 7 hour long single file broken up by chapters. On iOS 6 I could play this through the music app to access the chapters, now I can't even resort to this mess of a workaround.

Apple should either revert this change or fix their mess of a podcast app (which I see has a well deserved 2 star rating)

This doesn't excuse Apple, but here's an idea that would make it easier for you. I listen to the Economist podcast too. Instead of subscribing to the whole edition though I subscribed to each section individually. That makes it somewhat easier to navigate, instead of having on 7-hour file, you get 18 (or so) files, that are generally less than 1.5 hours long. Two drawbacks though: first, sometimes iTunes downoads them in reverse order, and second, you may miss one-off sections (such as the schools briefs the last few weeks).

Those of you that continue to fight Apple's decision to divorce podcasts from music, may be interested in a post I did on my own blog entitled "How to create a playlist of podcasts on IOS 7" http://garethhowell.com/wp/podcast-playlists-ios-7/

My motivation was to re-create the ability to switch on "Music" and have a playlist of unplayed podcast episodes in date order; thus avoiding the need to interact with my iPhone whilst I was driving. If you'd like to do the sam, go take a look. I've recently updated the post to cure iTunes' insistence on re-downloading episodes once they have been converted to media type = music.

Gareth

I agree as well. Apple put it back the way it was. Like many on here, I listen to my podcasts in the car and I have the phone controlled by my car. The podcast app does not display properly there and the management of my podcasts is getting annoying (and dangerous, since I now have to fiddle with my phone AFTER every individual podcast). Stop the requirement and let those of us who don't like the app manage our podcasts in and audio app.

I spoke too soon. Although my approach worked for a while, it now doesn't. I need to investigate further.

Gareth

Just piling on. The thing that most kept me on iPhone was podcast integration. I can't beleive that apple blew this so badly. My 5S is only hours old and I am already thinking of giving it up. No other phone had the same podcast/desktop support that iOS did. Now they just made a mess of it. Only salvation is that so far my 2012 Prius audio system can still recognize, control and play podcasts as "Podcasts" genre! Toyota 1, apple 0.

CoachAlex wrote:

I agree as well. Apple put it back the way it was. Like many on here, I listen to my podcasts in the car and I have the phone controlled by my car. The podcast app does not display properly there and the management of my podcasts is getting annoying (and dangerous, since I now have to fiddle with my phone AFTER every individual podcast). Stop the requirement and let those of us who don't like the app manage our podcasts in and audio app.

This, plus the latest release makes the layout even worse.

The top 3/4 of the screen is now taken up with the Podcast header info - channel name, description, image etc. Which as it turns out, leaves just enough room to list a single episode at a time. Seeing as I'm forced to use this app to control the playback in the car (thanks Apple for removing podcasts from the music app), it's almost like Apple are trying to cause mayhem on the roads.

Trying to select a podcast while driving is impossible now, time for me to find a new app...

... just adding agreement.

What seems most disappointing is that after the one or two years since the advent of

this app, no one at apple has found it worthwhile to fix what seems to be a broken application.

In my experience: subscriptions are doubly entered (i.e. broken up into multiple, partial

lists).

Also, there still is no way to navigate to the Lyrics page of a podcast

Thumbs Down, but now locked into, for PodcastApp

Podcast Playlist Issue Workaround

OK, here's a solution for adding podcasts to a Music playlist. This is a modification to an earlier suggestion that didn't quite work, because the iTunes indexing system doesn't like it when you change the "Media Kind" (<Get Info> <Options> tab) from Podcast to Music. If you make the change for Media Kind for a podcast, iTunes will remove it from the display list (because you've told iTunes the file is no longer a podcast, duh), though the file remains stored on your computer. If you don't care about seeing podcasts in iTunes folders, go ahead and: 1) add podcasts to playlists; 2) highlight a single file or group of files in the playlist; 3) change the Media Kind to Music fo those files in the playlists. BTW, do not bother with changing "Genre" type -- no effect.

An additional solution is to create a secondary folder, call it iTunes Podcasts for Playlists (or whatever name you desire), locate the individual podcast folders and files with a file manager and copy those podcast folders and files to the secondary folder location. So effectively you will have two copies of any podcasts that you want to add to playlists. The original files remain in iTunes and can be played from iTunes. Newly downloaded podcasts which are classified as Media Kind = Podcast will be added to the original iTunes location for podcasts. As needed, you will need to manually copy original podcast folders/files to the secondary location for converting Media Kind to Music and then adding to your playlists, followed by sync with your Appe device.

Until Apple restores the ability to add any audio file where Media Kind = Podcast to a Music playlist, this solution is about the best I could cook up.

I think that the podcasts will show up in the music list if you change the media type to music. You shouldn't have to search the file system for the files.

Did you try audiobook for the media type? That would keep track of your last played position. I think you can mix music and audiobooks in a playlist.

Fred