How do I hide old podcasts in iTunes 11.1 and What's Up with the New Podcast Pane?

I downloaded the 2007 keynote. In the feed, the relevant tag says:

<enclosure url="http://itstreaming.apple.com/podcasts/apple_keynotes/1_macworld2007.m4v" length="6325000" type="video/x-m4v" />

You will see they've entered the 'length' attribute (which should be the file size in bytes) as 632500, which is why it's erroneously being shown as 6.1 MB. Once downloaded on subscription the correct file size is taken from the file's metadata, 1.21GB.

I played part of it, skipped some way in and played a bit more, then stopped and quit iTunes. On reopening it, and double-clicking the episode (which still showed 1.21GB) it resumed playing from where I left off.

So all behaviour is normal. Make sure that in your 'Podcast Settings' in 'My Podcasts' (button top right) you have 'Keep' to 'All' - I haven't experimented to see what happens if you change this.

I'm in the UK, though I don't think this is relevant. The file says it is a 'protected MPEG-4 movie' but I don't see that this has anything to do with it. (I was able to open it as an audio file in Amadeus Pro.)

that's all very nice and I am sure very sophisticated and thus highly satisfying for the technically minded but simple-just-user-me would VERY much prefer if I were told at the place where I normally find that information how big a download is.

PS: I've reported it to Apple, although I don't expect a reply one-on-one. I've actully recorded a video clearly showing how the keynote podcast disappears on its own accord. Although I don't think you can send attachments to the Apple feedback site. Fox

Thanks Roger, I'll have another go tomorrow. Cheers, Fox.

Silkefromdeu wrote:

that's all very nice and I am sure very sophisticated and thus highly satisfying for the technically minded but simple-just-user-me would VERY much prefer if I were told at the place where I normally find that information how big a download is.

Normally you are: they just made a mistake. The other entries in the feed are correct.

The other entries in the feed are correct.

not the way it displays for me, there is one with 22 MB and 15 with no indication of size at all

Thus those that tell me nothing or nothing probable are the majority of the 25 I get offered for download if I say ctrl-click for old episodes.

Maybe they made a mistake but if they made it for more than half I assume intention or bouts of adoration for mysterious philosophy

Actually, yes several of them have omitted the 'length' attribute altogether. I assume the absence is simple carelesness.

carelessness is a philosophy too and for some time it was even one that sold really big.

sometime in the late 90s business consultants thought they had hit the nail with the philosophy that eliminating the last 10 % of mistakes costs the majority of money thus in order to save money allow 10 % of mistakes to occur.

That ran for some years then the next big "philosophies" came into fashion and one of them was called Total Quality Management and guess what: they were intolerant of any mistakes.

This was (THANKFULLY!) fixed with the upgrade to 11.1.1

Valerie

and what will happen to all the other stuff that doesn't work any longer?

I could make a long list of oddities which make it really tough to keep my library in shape but let me just mention the serach function which delivers results which aren't even available after I have asked for all old podcasts to be shown.

I never thought Apple programmers/technicians could sink so low in my esteem and I happen to know a bit about how to distinguish a well designed program from rubbish.

hi Roger

OT - but since you mention in your profile that you like classical music maybe this might give you some joy

http://www.dradio.de/recorder/999551/

http://www.phonostar.de/partner/dradio-recorder

as far as I have tested it that recorder lets you download all of Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandradio program including all concerts and operas - unimpeded by copyright and iTunes lets you import them from their preprogrammed storage place without a hitch in case you want to listen to them on a mobile device. (if you need any help operating it, let me know, but I think it is pretty self-explaining) It has one glitch though i.e. it seems to me that it doesn't like iTunes being open at the same time (therefore I run it on my old laptop). It should work abroad because all our public institutions are keen on keeping our expats on board.

BTW it isn't the only such radio recorder on offer within Germany's public radio conglomerate(BBC kind of) but it offers so much that I have refrained from installing the only other one that came my way. (but the way federalist German public radio is operating, there should be quite a number of them by now)

Good Luck in case this is you cup of tea

Well I've checked all my iTunes settings, and did a repair permissions. The problem still remains, select podcasts disappear before my eyes.

But there appears to be a pattern to all this. When I upgraded from iTunes 10 to iTunes 11.1, some, but not all, of my podcasts were erased. Now, the podcast disappearing issue with iTunes 11.1.1 (the patch that supposedly fixes things) only seems to affect those episodes that were erased when I first upgraded to iTunes 11.1.

Its really strange, and from the posts above by Silkefromdue and Roger, it seems to suggest that the problem is peculiar to my machine.

I'm out of ideas....? Fox

What are your current settings? Under preferences/store deselect all syncing? Under My Podcasts/settings select Keep ALL?

You might have a corrupted iTunes Library. Do you have a recent backup of the 2 iTunes library files? If not, create a new one at a different location and just use it to download podcasts into it to see if they disappear.

Timbuktu, you have solved my problem! Thank you!

Yes, I had 'Keep All' selected under Setting in My Podcasts, but I then de-selected "Sync podcast subscriptions and settings" in iTunes Preferences/Store - as you suggested. Wha-la! It works, my podcasts don't self-erase (so far).

Question: what does "Sync podcast subscriptions and settings" actually do, because the repercussions ain't exactly obvious in my book... Fox!

As far as I can tell Apple hasn't updated iTunes Help to refelect this new "sync podcast subscriptions and preferences" setting - and a few other changes since iTunes 11.1 - and I haven't found a reference on Apple Support either. The following is fully speculative, I assume it works similar to keeping a word document in the cloud that can be updated from all devices and always reflects the latest changes. Again, the likely idea is to keep your podcasts in sync with all your devices, so when you make any changes to your podcasts on any device, that change is applied to all devices. This works well for playback, ratings and read status but not so well for deleting content automatically without specifying additional criteria.

Pure speculation though...