Updated the podcast app, now all podcasts come up as temporarily unavailable

This initially worked and then after a few syncs the same problem (podcast unavailable) came back. I also noticed, like egbert nobacon, that songs weren't syncing to my playlists. Reluctantly, I deleted the Podcast app and installed Downcast from the app store. I also deleted all the music on my iPhone 5 and reloaded it. The songs synced and I am playing podcasts on the Downcast app.

I think it is a bug in the iOS Podcasts app. Here is my reasoning.

Yesterday is the first time I experienced this issue. I found that I did, indeed, have Sync Podcasts checked in iTunes. So I unchecked it, and applied it, so a sync started. I was in the process of listening to a podcast at the time that I had added back to my iPhone via the "delete and add old episode" method.

Sync finished, I continued to read through this post.

Then, i figured, let me try something.

Went to another podcast that I redownloaded to the phone prior to the sync where I unchecked the "sync podcasts" option. Got the error again. Redownloaded it, played fine.

Then I went back to the podcast I was listening to during the sync, that continued to play fine post-sync. The error popped up and the podcast refused to play.

I have quit iTunes for now (finding I rarely need to sync it anyway anymore) and everything is working as planned. I am tempted to just turn WiFi syncing off for now to prevent it from happening, and allowing me to continue to use Home Sharing and access videos from my Apple TV, but looking for a way to submit this as a bug.

Update. Just synced with iTunes with "Sync Podcasts" unchecked and the files played on my iPhone, so the combination of having it checked and autodownloads on the iOS app seem to be conflicting.

I submitted a bug request.

Nev Swift, did you try the steps I described on Nov. 15th? If so, what happened? What versions do you have for Mac OS X, for iTunes on your Mac, and for iOS on your mobile device?

wavecrash, what versions do you have for Mac OS X, for iTunes on your Mac, and for iOS on your mobile device?

Mac OS X 10.8.5, iTunes 11.1.3, iPhone 5 iOS 7.0.4

Though I continue to use the Apple Podcast app, since I turned off Sync podcast subscriptions and settings (and deleted and reloaded all corrupted podcasts) I have not had any recurrence of the problem. However, one other thing I also changed that I only mentioned in passing in my original post was that I turned off all auto downloading of podcasts to my iTunes on my Mac. So the only auto downloading is done on my iPhone and there is therefore no chance that they might both independently download the same podcast episode (which perhaps might have lead to complications when my iPhone syncs with iTunes).

So I wonder if it may be that auto downloading to no more than one device (not both) is also a necessary step of the work around to avoid the bug. Even when syncing the subscriptions and settings is turned off, it will still try to sync the downloaded podcast episodes. So syncing an episode in one direction only might be important.

In any case, obviously a true fix needs to come from Apple.

iSRS, could you please give a link to your submitted bug request so that others could follow it as well? It would be nice to see what Apple is saying about this, if anything.

(I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually marked as a duplicate. Just guessing, I imagine numerous people have tried to submit a bug request regarding this issue.)

I have the same thing only sometimes I start listening and half way through, it poops out and gives me the temporarily unavailable message. I can't delete and reload my episodes because most of the podcasts I listen to are from BBC and they take them down after a few days.

This is making me crazy!!

Michelle, do you have Sync podcast subscriptions and settings turned on under your Store Preferences (cf. here)?

iOS 7 does allow syncing (and other operations) to take place in the background. The Podcasts app itself is in the list of applications that can operate and update/refresh while in the background. (See Settings -> General -> Background App Refresh) So it is not beyond possibility that a sync might be attempted even during playback.

However, does it ever fail during listening when you have no data access to any trusted Mac that it might want to try syncing with? Or does it only fail during listening when, for example, you also have network access to the Mac you use for syncing?

Since I disabled syncing podcast subscriptions and settings and also turned off autodownloading of the podcasts on my Mac (I only autodownload to my iPhone), I have not had the problem any more.

About your not being able to download older podcasts (e.g. from the BBC), if they have been completely removed from the site, then there may be no option to download them again. However, if an episode simply does not appear on the list of older episodes (e.g. Add Old Episodes), then I would suggest it is at least worth a try to see if the alternate method of getting the episode might sometimes work. Press the "i" in a circle to the right of the broken podcast to get information on it. Then choose Remove Download. Then, when that has been done, choose Download Episode. It's a long shot. If that does not work, then the item is likely no longer available from the original site. (For the desperate, the only other hope for a broken podcast that has no backup would be to see if there is some utility that might support undelete of the podcast recording file that is deleted when the podcast is corrupted.)

Something is broken on apple's backend. But there is a fix. 😀 It doesn't work on the podcasts that are actually unavailable (old/bad server/etc), just the ones that play in the MacOS iTunes but won't transfer to an iPod/iPhone.

I can't take credit for the fix, read it on another thread and I can't find the person to credit him/her, but here is the temporary solution to get podcasts to transfer from your library to the podcast app...

1- Select the podcasts folder in iTunes (MacOS)

2- Select all podcasts.

3- Get info, go to options tab

4- Change Media Type from "music" (or anything else) to "podcasts"

5- sync your phone

6- open podcasts app

7- return to normal listening... kind of

Some users have reported that it fixes the problem (at least for podcasts in their libraries already, all newly downloaded podcasts must have this done again, and again, ad nauseum).

It worked for me. Hopefully this is temporary while apple fixes the glitch.

Awesome effort Apple. Took something that worked better than anything else out there and TOTALLY screwed it for all your users !!

This has been rooted for weeks and no acknowledgement, let alone a fix !

Hurry up.

Sounds like this is farly common.

Google gave me this thread https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5656449

I've had a downloding problem now for about three days. Just keeps failing part way through. Subscribe to six podcasts and have the same trouble with all of them.

Stunned at how idiotic this whole podcast issue has rolled on for months with no fix from Apple. Seriously contemplating a replacement device because of this and my use of podcasts. I just kept waiting because I assumed that Apple would surely get it fixed but apparently they've abandoned podcasts.

Or maybe they've decided that forcing everybody onto the cloud is more lucrative and worth the inconvenience and anger that all of this is creating.

Bruce Bridges wrote:

Or maybe they've decided that forcing everybody onto the cloud is more lucrative and worth the inconvenience and anger that all of this is creating.

Maybe I've missed it - but how would being on the cloud help? I use both iCloud and iTunes Match - and still have the same problem... and I use the same annoying fixes that others have posted.

However, I do have to agree: it's extremely disappointing to see how Apple seems to be ignoring this issue.