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Lost in Asia Author

Level 3

778 points

Figuring out podcasts in iTunes 11.1 and iOS 7.

Like many here, I'm dismayed by some of the ways that iTunes 11.1 now handles podcasts: that appalling view of "SHOW ME EVERYTHING" in the List pane in particular.

What I'm providing here are a few tips and suggestions for things that seem to be working for me.

In iTunes: List view is now basically useless, so lots of us are moving to the previously-disliked My Podcasts pane. (I don't like it either, but it currently seems the best option.) Your podcasts are probably in no order whatsoever, BUT you can drag and drop them to your preferred order. Yeah, this takes a while and is annoying, but a good part of the (improved?) syncing with iOS: the same order will also appear in your Podcasts app on the iPhone! And vice versa: I actually reordered them on my iPhone (hey, I was bored on the subway), and to my surprise the new order appeared on iTunes when I got home.

Deleting podcast episodes: in iTunes, don't delete them. If you delete them, they'll download again the next time you sync. Instead, mark them as played, and then re-sync - that's the only way I've found to get rid of them in iTunes. On the other hand, you CAN still delete in the Podcasts app, and then, once iTunes is synced again, those deleted episodes will also disappear from iTunes (which I believe is actually an improvement). (They'll still appear in that stupid List view, but now with a cloud icon.)

In iTunes, you can choose the podcast subscription settings: the option that seems to work best for me is Download ALL. That sounds scary - like you're going to get all 400 episodes of Stuff You Should Know - but as best I can tell it doesn't mean Download All; it means Download ALL NEW (big difference!). This is especially useful for podcasts that often put out a few episodes at a time (Fresh Air, Bill Maher): if you just Download Most Recent, you'll be missing some.

Note that podcast subscription settings seem to automatically sync across iTunes and the Podcasts app. If you unsubscribe in Podcasts, then you also unsubscribe in iTunes. (I suspect this lies behind how many people suddenly found themselves unsubscribed to their Podcasts.)

For those with a big collection of podcast episodes that they want to keep: change the Media Kind! Spoken, I change to Audiobooks, and Music, to, well, Music. I've done this for years, and this is probably the only reason I didn't lose massive collections of podcasts with 11.1. It makes managing your library a lot easier. EDITTED ADDITIONAL NOTE: Unfortunately any epsidodes that are changed like this will then be re-downloaded, because, well, because iTunes wants to make your life miserable, I guess. Mark the re-downloaded episodes as played (because deleting doesn't work 😕), and they'll disappear again.

Use smart playlists. "Media Kind = Podcast", and "Plays = 0". Such a playlist is more useful for viewing than anything left in the Podcasts section in iTunes, although unfortunately you can't refresh from that playlist - you still have to go to the now-appalling Podcasts section.

Using the Podcasts iOS app isn't actually that bad. "My Stations" is the foolish name for what is called "Playlists" everywhere else, and your iTunes podcast playlists should appear there (with the usual too-complicated syncing nonsense for setup). You can play podcasts quite well in "My Stations", although unfortunately you can't mix it with audiobooks or music.

Good luck.

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), Late 2009

Posted on Sep 19, 2013 7:25 PM

61 replies

Oct 1, 2013 12:46 PM in response to Laodah

This is all a total crock! It's really too bad Steve Jobs passed. This is only the beginning of the downfall of Apple. Apparently somewhere along the journey, Steve forgot to instill upon his "people" what he was trying to do!!!!!..... with the creation of a user-friendly, elegant, simple, common-sense design for building and maintianing a computer operating system. People like him are one in a zillion and there will probably be no one else like him to come along in the cyber world during any of our lifetimes.....so we'd better get used to this kind of garbage. This update is the stupidist thing I have encountered yet..and I am a die-hard Mac fan. I am just about ready to chuck the entire machine out the window. What was the point of this update anyway?!? Poor Steve..I think I can hear him now... trying to roll over...Amen.

Oct 2, 2013 2:18 PM in response to Lost in Asia

This has been a most interesting post. Some of the suggestions were really good and I appreciate other people putting in the time to try and figure this out.

I was never a fan of iTunes 11, and clung to 10, until upgrading to IOS 7 (seemed to) force me to go to 11.1. I have all the podcast problems discussed here, and am checking out alternative apps, since I don't have the spirit anymore to act as the lab rat for Apple's experiments. Not to mention the time. I just want to listen to my podcasts, in the order I want, then same or not save them, as I want.

Add to this iTunes amazingly bad interface, non-existent search funtion in its store and mania toward pushing us all to an ipad based existance...I'm just tired. Oh. And they never seem to respond to these concerns either. That really makes this 25 year Apple customer feel really good.

Checking out.

Oct 3, 2013 4:30 PM in response to S.W. Christensen

As I posted at another discussion ( but perhaps this could help you too):

I agree with you all...however at this point, I think if you just give in and use the "My Podcast" option to manage your current available and downloaded (listened to or not yet) pods cats in that mode, you will see you can do what you used to in the OLD 'List' format. Leave that new catastophic LIST version alone for now until they change it, which I don't think they will, but hopefully they will fix some glitches. What the LIST mode does is makes ALL the podcasts since the 'big bang' available to you (whether you want to see them or not ) in order to search for a missed episode or one someone recommends to you...it's more like a directory. Apple wants us to use the 'My Podcast' mode to manage our own podcast. Like a lot of people I prefer lists to other formats, so therefore I was very resistant to using a different format...But since giving in, these past few days, I have found that it is really very simple and you can arrange the order of which podcasts you want where...and it just works. I refuse to even go to the list mode because I think it has some inherent flaws...like duplicating some podcasts, etc...there is so much going on there my head starts to hurt just trying to navigate through it. But I assure you..if you just go with the flow and try out the 'My Podcast' mode you will find yourself settling down and enjoying your listening like before. That's my take on it anyway...Best wishes to you all...

Oct 3, 2013 5:21 PM in response to spinnikin

I'm trying! Today's update has helped. I'm not totally opposed to the My Podcasts world.

But can I ask you for a piece of advice? What I can't figure out how to do in the My Podcasts world is what I used to do through playlists and smart playlists. That is, grab an interesting episode from a month ago in Fresh Air, the newest episode of WFT, three short snappers from a movie review podcast etc, then rearrange them in the playlist so I have a good mix to listen to. Smartlists or their equivalent...I don't think they exist at all anymore, do they? So I can't automatically have three podcasts that just go to a separate playlist that I can use for at home listening.

I'm also a little freaked out that absolutly none of this is going to work when I try to sync to my 5 year old nano (on which I only listen to podcasts) or my gym shuffle, where a good political argument has gotten me through many a long treadmill session.

Your thoughts welcome.

Laodah

Level 1

4 points

Oct 3, 2013 7:07 PM in response to S.W. Christensen

Wait a minute, the new iTunes won't sync to an old Nano either?!? Mine is the same vintage.

Laodah

Level 1

4 points

Oct 3, 2013 10:08 PM in response to Laodah

Also, you can't delete undownloaded podcasts in My Podcasts, either. The software is worthless.

Rickyscv

Level 1

4 points

Oct 3, 2013 10:37 PM in response to Lost in Asia

So has today's update helped the original problem of this post?

Oct 4, 2013 1:22 AM in response to Rickyscv

iTunes 11.1.1 is now available. When subscribing to podcasts there are some changes:

In list view only the most recent episode shows when you first subscribe. Control- or right-click on the name of the podcast or an episode and choose 'Show old episodes' to reveal all the previous episodes.

In 'My Podcasts' view the same is true: click 'Old episodes' to show earlier episodes, click 'Done' to hide them or 'Add all' to keep them there and add them to List view.

In List view each episode now has a blue circle to the left showing it can be played as a stream without downloading it first. Click the cloud icon at right to download it. Control-click and choose 'Delete' to delete any episode from the list.

There are also some Settings in 'My Podcasts' and 'My Stations' which allow you to change the arrangements for downloading and playing on a podcast by podcast basis (not episode).

Oct 4, 2013 3:24 AM in response to Lost in Asia

S.W. Christensen: Playlists and smartlists should still work, with the caveat that smartlist syncing is buggy. Apple's own support documentation suggests using them: http://www.apple.com/ca/itunes/podcasts/. Apple has long had problems getting smartlists to sync correctly, and for me at least, it seems like every other version of iTunes breaks my syncing, which then gets fixed over the next few months.

Lost in Asia: Thanks for laying out your strategy; I think I'll use it. If you turned off podcast syncing with the device, wouldn't that solve your problem of podcasts being copied from the device to iTunes?

I'm also retracting my comments that the Podcast App on it's own is pretty good. Over the past few days I've had the following problems:

1. I have one podcast which will not remember what episodes I've selected. They just disappear every couple of hours.

2. I cleverly (so I thought) set up a "must have" station so that I could hit the download all button before I left the house in the morning in case I hit a dead zone on the train. What happened on the train? It tried to stream despite having previously downloading the episodes. This has on occasion worked properly, but not consistently.

3. I started streaming an episode, and let it buffer until the whole thing was finished, thinking it would still be there when my antenna was off. Nope. Came back later and it told me I had to be connected.

4. I enabled streaming and downloading using cellular data, but when I'm away from WiFi and try to download something, I get an error message, "Blah blah blah episode is over 0 bytes, connect to WiFi to download." Streaming works, but not downloading.

5. This morning, I woke up to find almost all my podcasts gone--again. It had "forgotten" which episodes I'd selected, but this time for every single podcast. Might have had something to do with the iTunes update, since I have iCloud syncing for podcasts turned on (for the moment.) If so, do we have to resign ourselves to reconstructing our entire libraries after each update?

The only reasonable explanation I can think of is witchcraft. I'm pretty sure there is witchcraft involved.

GAH!

Lost in Asia Author

Level 3

778 points

Oct 4, 2013 4:52 AM in response to Lost in Asia

Well iTunes 11.1.1 has solved some of the biggest problems for me. The List view is back, thank goodness, so now I can at least see what's going on: My Stations isn't exactly a disaster, but I strongly dislike the "1 of 3" approach to multiple episodes. Just show me all the episodes I've got.

Deleting episodes seems to work again! How innovative.

I remain confused by just what the "My Podcasts" view is supposed to be useful for. They show you a number for how many completely unplayed episodes there are, but nothing to indicate that there may be 20 half-played episodes? How odd.

S.W. Christensen: I haven't noticed anything strange happening to my smart playlists with iTunes 11; they still seem to be doing what they've always done, on iTunes at least. The confusing part is that what iTunes calls "Playlists" are renamed "My Stations" in the iPhone's Podcasts app: if you look in that pane, you should see the smart playlists/stations. Also, they unfortunately no longer work the same way when syncing to an iPhone: any music or audiobooks will be in a playlist of that name in the Music app, while any podcasts will be in a "Station" of that name in the Podcasts app (as always, assuming you've checked all the right boxes in the the different panes that appear when you select the syncing device). In other words, the smart playlist content will be on the iPhone, but in two different places.

I'm also still able to drag and drop to "dumb" playlists: that works whether from List view or My Podcasts view, but it's a lot easier from List view because you don't need to dig down to find the episode.

For now I think I'm going to stick with: not syncing podcast subscriptions between devices; subscribing to podcasts I want to keep on iTunes (and promptly changing Media Kind to Audiobook); and subscribing to the ones that I listen to and get rid of on the iPhone. Not keeping subscriptions synced has, amusingly, made the syncing work better: the behavior seems more reliable, with fewer (maybe even zero?!) random disappearances or duplications of podcast episodes.

At this point I really don't like plugging my iPhone into my computer - it's started to feel like a bit of a crap shoot for what's going to happen with syncing. But it's how I keep the darn thing charged during the day, and I'm certainly never going to buy yet another over-priced speaker dock that will become worthless the next time Apple decides to change their plugs again.

Still annoying that, if I change the Media Kind of a downloaded podcast, it redownloads. But at least in the List view it seems a lot faster than in the "My Podcasts" or "My Stations" panes. (Or, if not faster, at least I can see which arrows are spinning, and stuff seems to be happening, rather than the dead halt I see on the other panes.)

Also still annoying that the Podcasts app doesn't show podcast information, but heck, Apple decided we didn't really want to see that kind of stuff a few years ago.

But if Apple ever tries to fix Audiobooks the way they've fixed podcasts, I'll be starting to look hard at how deeply I'm enmeshed in the Apple ecosystem. The position I'm in didn't really trouble me a year ago, but it certainly does now. (One of these days I'm going to learn how to export all the metadata in iPhoto, but that's a topic for another forum.)

Lost in Asia Author

Level 3

778 points

Oct 4, 2013 4:59 AM in response to Enchantr1978

Enchantr1978:

If you turned off podcast syncing with the device, wouldn't that solve your problem of podcasts being copied from the device to iTunes?

Not when the iPhone is plugged in - at that point, the content copies over. I suppose I could turn off syncing altogether, but I don't want to do that: my music smart playlists are probably even more convoluted than my podcast ones, with all kinds of fancy ways to get recently-unplayed songs on the iPhone.

Fortunately I'm (so far!) having far fewer problems with the Podcasts app than you are. Who knows - maybe this is because I've turned off podcast syncing? Or a lack of witches in my vicinity?

If you mind my asking, what's the podcast that's giving you trouble? I can try subscribing and see if I have the same issues.

Oct 4, 2013 5:18 AM in response to Lost in Asia

Has anyone thought to remove Apple's iOS Podcast app form your iPhone? I did, and podcast funtionality was returned to the Music app like before. No more sync across devices issue for me anymore.

Oct 4, 2013 7:51 AM in response to Lost in Asia

I agree. I went to this thread with iTunes 11.1 seeking a solution to my podcast problem, and now that I have iTunes 11.1.1, all is well.

Oct 4, 2013 8:55 AM in response to Lost in Asia

Lost in Asia. Thanks for the comments. I only had two smartlists and they're definatly gorked. But...the update helped, and once I stop having to inturupt my self-guided iTunes 11.1 tuturial with, you know, work, I am hopful I'll be able to figure it out.

I agree with ou about plugging into the computer. I had kind of come to the conclusion that I should just segregate the podcasts on the phone. The doesn't solve my problem about my old nano and shuffle, but as fate would have it I fully loaded them before the software update, so I can avoid dealing with that for a few days.

The iTunes user community has sure provided lots of helpful ideas as we navigate this bumpy ride. Kudos to everyone.

Oct 4, 2013 9:02 AM in response to Lost in Asia

The update fixed most of the problems - *except* the annoying autoplay behavior where it just goes right to the next episode at the end of the one you're listening to. This is in list view, of course, I don't know what the behavior is in the My Podcasts view.

The other thing I finally noticed about the original update was that only *some* of the podcasts were deleting/redownloading constantly and some of them were not. Sorry to be so slow on the uptake, those of you who already noted this upthread. I wonder if there was some RSS setting or something that was true about some feeds and not about others which iTunes was misreading/mishandling.

Anyway, I'm not one of the people who threw up my hands and said I'M NEVER USING APPLE FOR PODCASTS AGAIN! I had some faith that they would work these issues out, and they mostly have. However, I still can't escape this sinking feeling that Apple has even more changes for podcasts and their consumption planned for rollout in the next few years that I don't think I'm going to like.

Figuring out podcasts in iTunes 11.1 and iOS 7.