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music app - podcasts iOS 7

If anyone knows a possibility to get podcasts in ios7 back in the music app - please help!!!

in my opinion podcasts are still audio and belong in an audioplayer where all audio can be played.


thx

stoefl

iPhone 4, iOS 7

Posted on Sep 19, 2013 6:51 AM

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Posted on Sep 19, 2013 8:54 AM

I want this, too. Apple started to break this relatioship in IOS 6, but there was a workaround. Now it seems they've really put the kibosh on it. This is particular bad because it means I can't play podcasts via the iPhone interface in my 2012 Honda Accord - it only knows about the music player app. So, how dumb is that - the best place to listen to podcasts is in the car, and now Apple is forcing me to use another app, manually, and another means of getting the signal into my car streo. Hard to believe anyone thought this through.


I hope Apple decides to restore this functionality for us. What's so strange to me is that they had to do actual work to break this piece of workflow. There's no downside to leaving podcasts in the Music app, as far as I can see.

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Question marked as Best reply

Sep 19, 2013 8:54 AM in response to stoefl

I want this, too. Apple started to break this relatioship in IOS 6, but there was a workaround. Now it seems they've really put the kibosh on it. This is particular bad because it means I can't play podcasts via the iPhone interface in my 2012 Honda Accord - it only knows about the music player app. So, how dumb is that - the best place to listen to podcasts is in the car, and now Apple is forcing me to use another app, manually, and another means of getting the signal into my car streo. Hard to believe anyone thought this through.


I hope Apple decides to restore this functionality for us. What's so strange to me is that they had to do actual work to break this piece of workflow. There's no downside to leaving podcasts in the Music app, as far as I can see.

Sep 19, 2013 6:23 PM in response to stoefl

I really want this functionality also. But until it's fixed/restored, maybe we can come up with a workaround. Here is a hack workaround that I played with this afternoon. Since the Music app can still play Audiobooks, I tried changing all the episodes of a podcast (Grammar Girl, in my test) to Media Kind is Audiobooks in iTunes. Then I created a smart playlist (let's call it 'Grammar Girl Podcast') with two rules: 'Album contains Grammar Girl' and 'Media Kind is Audiobook'. This produces a playlist that can be re-ordered in iTunes and the Music app shows the handy 15-second forward and backward skip options.


I haven't tried to add in other podcasts yet, but I think it can be done by adding additional rules to the smart playlist.


The smart playlist only has to be created once, but the difficult part is remembering to change all of the podcast episodes to Media Kind is Audiobook as the episodes are picked up automatically by iTunes. Another negative aspect is that the podcasts are now listed in the Books section of iTunes, and since I've got about 100 audiobooks from Audible.com in the Books section, it's difficult to find the podcasts in the list so I can delete them after listening to them.


I have not played with this enough to understand the side effects or other awkward aspects of it. I'll try it for a week or so to see how well it works.

Sep 20, 2013 3:52 AM in response to MightyCasey14

On smart playlists with changing podcasts to audiobooks: it's pretty easy to set these up to do what you want.


One approach: for ALL podcasts, change the "Media Kind" to Audiobook, but make the "Genre" podcasts. Then set up a playlist with Media Kind = Audiobook, and Genre = Podcast. That gives you all the "Ex-Podcasts". Build on that list: make one that combines that "Ex-Podcast" list with zero plays, and another with played. The one that has played episodes is full of episodes you can delete; the one with zero plays is what you can sync to the iPhone.


Of course, you can make this as complex as you like: for example, I change all the Stuff You Should Know podcasts to Audiobooks, but I'm, oh, about 300 episodes behind, so I have a playlist of the six most recent unplayed Stuff You Should Know podcasts/audiobooks that syncs over to my iPhone.


At the moment I'm still TRYING to use the Podcasts app, but I may give up and opt for "change everything to Audiobooks" pretty soon. Those who use devices that rely on the Music app (I'm not in that camp) should definitely consider such a change.


Note as well that Audiobooks have lyrics panes, and podcasts don't. I have many language-learning podcasts that use lyrics, and I've always changed those to audiobooks.


(Annoying that PODcasts are basically named after an Apple product, yet Apple seems to be doing their best to make them more and more difficult to use!)

Sep 20, 2013 9:03 AM in response to nilsdavis

Here's an interesting observation. I do most of my podcast listening in the car (2013 Audi), so initially, like nilsdavis, I was not happy with this change. However, even though podcasts no longer show up in my iPhone's Music app, they do show up in my car's stereo menu, like they always have. So this hasn't been an issue for me at all, thank goodness.

Sep 20, 2013 6:04 PM in response to stoefl

I completely agree. Taking podcasts out of the music app makes things much more difficult. I used to be able to set up a playlist which would automatically update, and I could get in my car and listen to a wide variety of podcasts in the order I wanted without ever having to touch my iPhone. Now, I have to use the iPhone to select the next podcast while driving, a dangerous and illegal (here) move. Grrr.


Thanks for the suggestion to change to audiobook. I will try it and I hope either Apple gives us back podcasts in music, or at least doesn't do the same to audiobooks in the future!

Sep 21, 2013 6:53 PM in response to stoefl

Podcasts are now their own App, guys. That's all Apple did, they still exist on your devices. Go to the App Store and search "Podcast" it will be the free App by Apple in purple. I'll admit I panicked at first but logically it made sense that they wouldn't do away with podcasts on devices. Especially as it still exists and still syncs to your device. They merely separated it into its own App.


Also, on iOS6 I still found my podcasts easy and needed no work around. Those who couldn't I don't understand why their placement was pretty obvious inside the Music App.


So TL;DR - Podcasts have their own App. You can find it in the App Store. It's free and by Apple.

Sep 21, 2013 8:12 PM in response to rauldt

I definitely prefer having all the podcasts folded into the Music app.


The Podcasts app is much better than it was when first launched a year ago: if you're only listening to podcasts on your iOS device, it's not bad. I just used it when I was travelling away from my computer for a month, and for keeping up with podcasts, the Podcasts app worked moderately well.


However, the Podcasts app falls down in a few ways:

  • Syncing between the Podcasts app and iTunes remains a disaster. Episodes I've played keep reappearing, and episodes I haven't played keep disappearing. This is the biggest reason I'm trying hard to avoid the Podcasts app. If you don't listen to podcasts on your computer, then this doesn't matter to you, but I listen a lot on both the iPhone and my computer. The current Apple ecosystem does NOT work well for people who listen to podcasts on both their computers and their iOS devices.
  • Others have posted about cars, or other "devices" (calling a car a device seems odd!), that only play an iPhone's audio through the Music app. They can't access the Podcasts app. This is another big issue, and a VERY important one for some people - it makes playing podcasts in the car, one of the most natural places to play them, actually dangerous.
  • Many podcasts use lyrics. I study Chinese with ChinesePod, and their lyrics pane includes a transcript for the dialogue. Yet the podcasts app doesn't display those (that hasn't changed, has it?). This takes away a lot of functionality.
  • I have many podcasts that are music. They're SONGS. On my computer, they're in playlists that shuffle songs. The Podcasts app doesn't allow that. Plus, I want to keep them, and my version of the Podcasts app keeps ignoring the "Keep all episodes" instruction.
  • The Podcasts app seems to assume that podcasts are "disposable" - you listen, and then you want to get rid of them. Sure, this applies for current affairs shows, but not for much of what I listen to. I've kept many podcasts as, basically, audiobooks - and when folded into the Music app, they have audiobook functionality. In the Podcasts app, they don't.


I've been trying over the past few days with the new iTunes 11.1 and iOS7's version of the Podcasts app - but I've given up. I've deleted the Podcasts app from my iPhone. Any podcasts I download in iTunes are immediately changed to "Media Kind = Audiobook" or "Media Kind = Music", giving me back the functionality I've had in the past. (Unfortunately those changed episodes will then be downloaded AGAIN, and I have to mark those new copies as played, which is a hassle: so Apple's trying really hard to make it hard to maintain that old functionality!)

Sep 22, 2013 5:35 PM in response to ashleyfromsammamish

The problem is that the Podcast app breaks a lot of functionality that we had when we could play podcasts in the music app.


I had a smart playlist with all my unplayed podcasts and could listen to them all in one continuous play. Now I have to start a new podcast episode every time one finishes. This is annoying when I'm listening to music podcasts at work or home, and infuriating when I'm driving or biking - the last thing I want to do while driving is mess with the phone every 5 minutes.


The Podcast app's UI is better than it was in IOS6, but still awful. I want a view of just the podcasts that have unplayed episodes. I listen to dozens of podcasts, most of which update only every few weeks, and don't want to have to scrub through cover art of things that I can't play, just to find the ones I can.


I can't listen to all unheard episodes of all podcasts in chronological order any more - I can do that for one podcast, but not across all my podcasts.


The worst of it is that someone had to do work to break this. It worked fine in IOS6 and before, but now IOS7 won't even sync the playlist. If I have a playlist in iTunes, and I tell it to sync that playlist to my phone or iPad, how is it a better experience for me to not play that playlist? Especially when it can clearly play the files in the crappy Podcasts app?

Sep 22, 2013 5:44 PM in response to therealjpb

I had a smart playlist with all my unplayed podcasts and could listen to them all in one continuous play. Now I have to start a new podcast episode every time one finishes.


I believe you can fix this:

  1. When your iPhone is syncing to your computer, go to Devices / iPhone, and then the Podcasts tab at the top (in the bar that should read Summary, Info, Apps, and so on).
  2. Scroll down, and you should see "Include episodes from playlists": all the playlists that include podcasts should be listed there. Check the ones that you want to sync over to your iPhone.
  3. Re-sync.
  4. Those playlists should now be included in the Podcasts app: look under "My Stations" in that app. "Stations" is, for reasons that escape me, the term Apple has chosen to use for playlists.


Note that ONLY "Media Kind = Podcasts" will sync into the Podcasts app. It's a really weird setup: on your computer, the playlist may be a mix of podcasts and other audio; but on your iPhone, the other audio will be in a playlist with that name in the Music app (assuming you've told it to sync), while the podcasts will be in a "station" with that name in the Podcasts app.


Intuitive and "it just works", indeed. (Sarcasm off.)

music app - podcasts iOS 7

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