music app - podcasts iOS 7

i already said this before in this thread but i'll say it again: yes, podcast app ***** in every way possible. we are all disappointed. but i don't understand why everyone in this thread doesn't simply get a different podcast app. it is unlikely that Apple will suddenly bring back podccast support in itunes, so just take your business elsewhere! there are a ton of podcast management apps in the App Store. Shop around and I'm sure you can find something that fills the holes left by Apple. Most of Apple's native apps are decent to mediocre, and there are apps that do a better job than Apple's native apps (I'm thinking of the calendar app, the weather app, etc). If you don't like how Apple's calendar app handles your reminders and appointments, download a different calendar app! If you don't like podcast app, download a different one!

fan4bronco wrote:

If you don't like podcast app, download a different one!

I take it you didn't read any of the issues raised earlier in the thread. A different podcast app won't integrate with my car - this is limited to the music app. Personally I don't care what Apple do with the Podcast app, just let me create a playlist that includes any mp4 file (including podcasts) and my problem is solved.

Not just that, it also won't integrate with iTunes.

A third party program doesn't even remotely solve my needs..

Like others have said, a third party app might solve the problems with the poor interface and confusing nature of the Apple podcast app, but it doesn't help in those situations where you are using a third party piece of equipment (yes, like a car) that simply plays the files stored under "music" in your iPhone.

The only solution in that case is not to get a different app, but to:

a) get a different car;

b) get a different phone; or

c) use some complicated work around to make podcasts look like they live in the music app.

As ePhoney said, best outcome ould be to have Apple let us create playlists that include any mp4 file.

Wolfpup wrote:

Not just that, it also won't integrate with iTunes.

A third party program doesn't even remotely solve my needs..

I still feel this way, because I miss being able to mix music and podcasts in the same playlist.

That being said, there is a large part of me that is actually happy Apple destroyed podcasting through their software. It forced me to find a 3rd party App (Downcasts, but there are others that I am sure work well too) which work so much better than the iTunes method ever did. When I think back to all those times when I needed to get out the door, but I couldn't get iTunes to sync with my phone and I would just get more and more frustrated as nothing worked...

I really really miss having music and podcasts together in a playlist. I guess I'm lucky, that I found out that ditching the apple programs just made life easier.

The risk to Apple is that their whole value model is based off everything "just working". Podcasts certainly don't fall into that category. iTunes is so unreliable, it doesn't fall into that category either. At some point, when they keep breaking things that used to work, many of will start to re-evaluate whether there is actually any advantage to the Apple "ecosystem" if the essentials do not work, and the non-essentials are better handled by 3rd parties

Well, not sure why you assume we haven't. For some people that won't work, for me I did in fact go to another podcast app (Pocket Casts) but I drive a car that's 14 years old and doesn't have phone integration built in anyway.

I still get notifications to this thread via email. It's not like we're all sitting around on our hands moping about how apple screwed up. Annoyed, yes, keeping an eye on the situation, yes, moving on to other solutions/workarounds, also yes.

Thanks to all for the information in this discussion. I have been looking for a solution to the awful Podcast App in IOS 7 for a long time and now will try one of the suggested third party apps. Apple has had some poor software implimentations before but none as awful as the IOS 7 Podcast app.

I use my iPod for podcasts and audiobooks almost exclusively. The simple interface in Music in previous iPod IOS versions worked perfectly. I have purchased many iPods in previous years. I purchased a new iPod Touch that ran on IOS 7 about a year ago. It now sits on a shelf unused and gathering dust because it is too difficult to use podcasts with it. I have gone back to my simplier and more useful Ipod Touch that runs on IOS 5 and I will not upgrade my other family Ipods because, like myself, they use theirs for podcasts.

I do not understand why Apple broke a function that did not need fixing but I can speculate: Apple has been seduced or pressured to make all application interfaces visual even if it was not neccessary to do so. I have noticed that many apps that functioned very well with a TEXT interface have been converted to icons or pictures. On a small screen, I find these apps sometimes difficult to use. I avoid them when ever possible. Not everything has to be an icon. Some people still read and don't care about pretty pictures. After all, podcasts, audiobooks, and music is an AUDIO experience, not a visual one. Sometimes I wish I still had my iPod with the wheel selector because I could operate it without even looking at it.

I literally bought an iPod Classic *AFTER* buying my iPhone 5s because it handles podcasts sooooo much better than iOS 7.

And yeah, iOS 5 was the pinicle of iOS podcast support. 6 functioned pretty well, but they wrecked the ability to download podcasts from the device if you wanted to (which would then copy back in to iTunes and iTunes would skip downloading them). I was basically fine with how iOS 6 worked though, but then requiring Podcasts in iOS 7...like I've mentioned before, I like iOS for other reasons too, but THE reason I use it is the superior podcast support.

Third party apps do nothing for me for a variety of reasons, most significantly because they don't sync with iTunes. I need to manage my podcasts on my PC and sync 'em with all my devices, not have some flakey third party program downloading them to a single device that doesn't even have enough storage, with no way to use them on my PCs or any other devices :-/

I'd like to try that trick someone mentioned of highlighting all your podcasts and altering the...well, I don't know if you have to alter the "media kind" or the "genre" or both. I could swear I've tried that before though and just made a mess of things.

I'd try it again though if I didn't have my iPod classic. (The classic's got better battery life than my iPhone anyway which is nice...)

I finally figured out work around it you just go to the list of podcasts in your itunes right click and click on get info. Then click on the options tab under that there should be something that says media kind: podcast. Click on podcast and then click on music. Now the podcast should be read as music file. You can then find the podcast under the music section of itunes and then just put in a place to sync to your iphone. It then shows up on the music app and any other music apps you downloaded and still works like podcast where you can hit next and stuff.

The Podcasts app is horribly broken. It is trying to download anything I ever listened to. I can't make it stop. I can't figure out how to turn off the automatic downloading. My phones memory is now full, I can't take pictures and I am constantly getting the 'memory full' warning. 😠 Help!!!

All I want to do is use iTunes and smart playlists to mangage what podcasts are transfered to my phone and listen to them (Like I could with the Podcasts app before the most recent update). I do not want to use the phone to stream or download anything. Is there a third party app that will let me do this? It looks like most third party podcasts apps are designed to download and manage podcasts on the phone.

Changeing the media type to music or audiobook seems like the best workaround even if it is a hassle. The fact that iTunes will automatically download a new copy after you change the media type really turns it into a big pain though. (With media type 'music' do you lose the ability to save you place?)

As far as I know it's not possible for a third party program to read stuff synced from iTunes, so that's not a solution at all for me as I need to manage stuff *on my PC* and listen to podcasts on all sorts of devices (including my PC), not just one single iOS device (which doesn't have enough storage anyway...)

You can manually set any audio file to remember playback position. It's under the "options" tab when you do "get info" for any file(s), and it's worth pointing out that you can edit all your files simultaneously.

I'm not sure how well it works to switch everything to music files though. I could swear I've tried that in the past and it made things a mess, and I'm hesitant to try it again given how much work it would be to fix everything if it goes wrong.

I can't remember the settings in iOS...there are some settings I think along the lines of NOT being subscribed to anything, NOT downloading anything...only even set like that I STILL have it mess up and start displaying podcasts that aren't actually on the device, and other bizare things. It's completely broken...

I'm found deleding the "podcasts" program and reinstalling it, then syncing with your PC again can at least get things to a semi-fixed state temporarily, though you have to manually change the "podcasts" settings in iOS yet again so it's not trying to download stuff on the device.

And all that's not even the limit of what they've broken recently with iTunes/iOS podcast support! Soooo this is why right now I'm just using an iPod Classic for my podcasts. I'm incredibly disapointed that Apple took a system that's worked near flawlessly since 2005 and trashed it, seemingly by someone who has no idea what a podcast is nor how you'd use one...

I'd still encourage everyone to complain about it on that feedback form that was mentioned earlier. :-/

Nope. Deleted and reinstalled, turned off everything I could in settings and the podcasts app still immediately downloaded hundreds of old podcasts and filled up my phones memory 😠

How could Apple take something that worked and screw it up so badly.

Try Settings > Podcasts and make sure Download episodes is turned off.

I just use iTunes to download my podcasts.

I have a smart list configured to show all podcasts, I use this list to select all episodes then change the media type from podcast to music. This enables me to sync them to my phone and access via the music app.

It's a stupid workaround for a problem that shouldn't exist, but it works.

Download episodes is turned off and I still have dozens of podcasts that I have listened to a long time ago and/or deleted in iTunes still on my iPhone 5s. Even my smart playlists on my 5s look different than they do in iTunes, they have a lot more podcasts in them that should not be there.

The podcasts app is (just barely) usable on my iPhone 4s, there are no extra podcasts on there for some reason. But it does take several tries to get everything to sync over.

Seiryu wrote:

Anyone taking bets on how long before Apple figures out that Audiobooks aren't Music either, creates the Audiobooks app and rips audiobook support out of the Music app? Audiobooks need to be equally hard to deal with so we can have a common user experience that makes sense in the new world order.

Ding, ding, ding! Anyone that guessed "about 20 months" can now collect their winnings.

As detailed over in the "iOS 7 Music app no longer able to play podcasts when Podcasts app is not installed." thread, I've resorted to marking all my Podcasts as Audiobooks to trick iTunes/Music into playing them. Now, having upgraded to iOS 8.4 with months of podcasts queued up to pop into my ear buds as I don my gloves and beanie for the morning cycle commute, I get the ominous message and a sinking feeling: "Audiobooks no longer appear in Music. Do you want to use iBooks instead?". Oh dear. Should I just assume iBooks isn't as ******** as Podcasts, or is it back to square one?