podcasts gone after iTunes 11.1 update

You're welcome. 🙂

My method will also restore the playlist membership, played status, play counts & bookmark positions for all episodes, and should be significantly faster than restoring everything from backup.

tt2

In my case I think the problem was syncing across devices. Boxes were checked in iTunes <preferences>, <store> where they either were not before or were simply not working, especially the <synch podcasts across devices> box. I unchecked the boxes and backed up from Time Capsule, which was a bit tricky actually.

I don't have the same stuff on all my devices and I think rather than lose the podcasts they synched with my empty Mac library to my full macbook pro! I hope this post is intelligible to those with a problem. I find that upgrades sometimes leave one with checked boxes one doesn't know about.

I suggest as I posted elsewhere on this topic that you go to preferences in iTunes and under the 'store' tab you uncheck 'synch podcasts across all devices'. I think that was the problem in my case, as I have different podcasts on my macbook pro and Mac ? If you don't have two or more devices linked to the store of course this post will be irrelevant; I suspect you do though?

Thank you turingtest2 - this not only solved my problem with the disappearing podcasts, but was very understandable from a background point of view too.

Thanks again!

You're welcome, just wish none of us had had the problem in the first place. 😮

tt2

i have not backed up in the last 30 days. stupid of course. stupid of me for trusting apple to run a simple program update. the update has deleted over 20gb of music and podcasts from my computer. i have restored the previous library, which has provided me with the names of the missing files. however, the actual files are no longer on my computer at all.

this problem is unrelated to my devices, as i had not yet plugged my devices in to my computer. now i am afraid to do so.

Im happy to replace the missing podcasts myself but couldnt stop itunes removing them once they had been downloaded.

For me the important bit was step 6

" 6. Uncheck the option to Sync podcast subscriptions, settings and stations then click Continue. This should prevent a repeat of the deletions."

It works! thanks turingtest2 you've saved me a lot of pain

Wait, music? It deleted music?!

HOW THE **** AM I SUPPOSED TO CHECK FOR THAT?

Edit:

Oh, the update was released on the 18th, right? Whew! I just checked when my folders were last modified. Breathed a sigh of relief.

Message was edited by: Terrorsteel

My podcast subscriptions also just vaporized from all my devices.

The curious thing is that they have been there since I updated to 11.1, but for some reason today they just disappeared.

Now the good news. I followed the instructions here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967

and they are now restored.

and if I didn't have a backup and now they are all gone permanently......trying to redownload from itunes store, but it is not letting them "STAY" on my computer and it keeps deleting them

After restoring content go to the Podcast section of the library uncheck the option to Sync podcast subscriptions, settings and stations then click Continue.

You can also go to Edit >Preferences Store and uncheck Sync podcast subscriptions, settings and stations.

If you've lost episodes that cannot be redownloaded, and you've not done too much with the drive since, then an undelete tool might recover most of them. FreeRecover looks promising... Select the drive, use the options to get file paths and check file integrity, then, presumably, you can restore anything that has been deleted from the podcasts folder that has a good integrity score.

tt2

I've gone through all the steps to restore backed up podcasts, and I actually have all of them in a folder next to the iTunes Media folder.

Each time I reimport the podcasts, iTunes copies the podcasts faithfully back into the iTunes Media folder.

Once the copy is complete, I check the settings and make sure auto download is off, do not auto delete, etc.

I can line up the iTunes window and the finder folder next to each other, and when I hit refresh (as there are new podcasts every week) certain podcasts magically diappear from the finder window, and the cloud / arrow icon appears next to the episode in iTunes.

I have just done thr same, but unchecked sync podcast subscriptions in the preferences - store section, hit refresh and the episodes did not delete. Hurrah.

However, that raises another question: can I still download the latest episodes by manually refreshing the podcasts? Let me try... I have just deleted from the folder, and iTunes the latest of one of the podcasts, and when I clicked refresh, iTunes downloaded the file right back again, and didn't delete it when refreshed again.

It seems we have a winner - if you set everything to manual, ie. do not auto delete, uncheck sync podcast subscriptions, automatically download - off, and keep - all, the deletey thing doesn't happen (I've tried it a couple of times now, and it seems to be OK...).

Thanks to all who contributed to the solution - it's been bugging me since the update went off - especially turingtest2...

Cheers,

When I first updated to 11.1, I lost all but three of my many podcasts (and even then lost some episodes from those three). The episodes were not simply "hidden" -- they were GONE. At this point, I had not engaged my iPad or iPod, so those devices were not the culprits. I restored my podcasts using Time Machine and they stayed put, albeit with some strange arrangments within iTunes. When 11.1.1 came out, I updated and have so far had no more new problems. But based on various expreiences reported in this thread and at least one other related thread, I have no real confidence that my podcasts -- or even my music, videos, etc. -- will not disappear again. I have had multiple Macs starting with the original 128K in 1984 and have had a couple of system crashes that required me to restore from backups. But I have never before had a released version of a Mac app delete files that I did not want to delete. Apple has simply started to lose its way with rushed updates that often seem to be only for achieving a new look. I don't want Apple to retain stagnant system and software relics just because it is comfortable when things do not change, but I sure do expect not to be an alpha or beta tester unless I choose to be. Get with it Apple or you will become just another Microsoft.

I too over the last few days have been having problems with iTunes 11.1.1. I do a weekly church podcast and iTunes carry's it. So I keep a copy of each show in my iTunes libary. I noticed that my last 10 podcast we gone. I said "WHAT". So I redownloaded them. A few minutes later iTunes deleted them from my libary and I check the disk they where housed on and they where gone there too. So I downloaded them again, and again trying differnt things. Making sure all things where chrcked right, I even call Apple on it, no help (side note, guy on phone was nice, but could not help me.) I see a lot of people are having the same problems. I love Apple and it products, but this is nuts, come on guys. Get your act together.

Go to Edit > Preferences Store and uncheck Sync podcast subscriptions, settings and stations before attempting to restore or redownload old episodes again.

tt2