iTunes doesn't mark podcasts as played if listen to on iPod

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Level 1

10 points

iTunes doesn't mark podcasts as played if listen to on iPod

This is driving me crazy - iTunes refuses to update the status of podcast to played if I listened to them on my iPod. The iPod display in iTunes clearly shows that the podcasts has been played but I have to manually update the status in iTunes it self - super annoying. If the podcasts are not marked as played, iTunes unsubscribes me from the podcasts feed - and, of course, makes it much harder to keep track of which podcasts you haven't listenede to yet (especially, if like me you listen to hundreds of podcast every week).

Any ideas how to make iTunes update the 'played' status automatically from the iPod?

Posted on Nov 20, 2013 2:54 AM

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Answer 1

Mista2

Level 1

34 points

Nov 28, 2013 12:35 AM in response to Chrandersen

This is driving me crazy too. I removed the iOS podcasts app becasue it was doing such a poor job of keping my casts in synch, only to have iOS 7 remove podcast playback from the music player 8( BAD MOVE APPE. Not only does this remove my hands free playback "Play Playlist Unplayed Autdio Podcasts" the synch back to iTunes seems to be completely FUBAR!!!

Just today I also had to delete and redownload every single frikken podcast on my phone as NONE of them would play back.

Apple if you are listening, PUT PODCAST PLAYBACK AND SYNCH INTO ITUNES AND THE MUSIC PLAYER.

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Answer 2

Chrandersen Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 27, 2013 6:03 AM in response to Chrandersen

Has anyone ever found a solution to this problem? Has Apple ever adressed it? I spend hours manually updating the 'Played' status to keep track of my podcasts and it is incredibly annoying.

What does one have to do to get Apple's attention?

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Answer 3

Apr 13, 2014 7:24 AM in response to Chrandersen

Same thing is still happening to me... I am running iOS 7.1 on my iPhone 5 and my iPad 2, and iTunes 11.1.5.5 on my Windows 7 PC.

I sync my devices with iTunes about once a week. Between syncs, everything is great... I listen to a podcast on my iPad in the car, then later, if I want to continue listening on my iPhone, it picks up right where I left off. I love that feature, and it's the only reason I keep the "Sync Subscriptions" on. My other settings:

Refresh Podcasts: Every hour
Auto-Downloads: All
Episodes to Keep: All Unplayed

The trouble starts if I sync to iTunes. When I open iTunes, it does not register the fact that I have listened on my devices. The podcasts show up as "Unplayed" and I have to manually mark the ones I've listened to as "Played" before I sync. It's a ritual that I put up with, but it is a major pain.

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Answer 4

Jul 17, 2014 10:43 AM in response to Chrandersen

This is also causing my life much difficulty. I listen to iTunes while running, and if I sync all Podcasts without a playlist, I have to stop, press the button, hear the voice go through x many podcasts, and click on the next one. If I sync to a certain playlist, I am able to play all of them in a row, but they will not be marked as played, last played, skipped, or last skipped. Why are these choices there if we cannot use them?

If I do not sync, they will occasionally randomly mark some played, even if unplayed, but then leave all of my played marked as unplayed. Most of the time all are marked as unplayed even when played all the way through. Since the "last played" and "last skipped" options are chosen for my list, one shouldn't have to play all the way through in order to see the dates of when they were last played or last skipped.

I have searched all over the net for a solution, but can find none. The best solution I had was to get rid of this iTunes version and go back to an earlier one, but unfortunately, the new one was replaced as a package with other software installs, without my choosing to install it. Can Apple please help?

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