Podcasts won't download

Hi jordanmh7!

I have an article for you that addresses this issue and can help provide you with some information about dealing with this circumstance:

iTunes Store: Downloading podcasts using an iOS device

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3281

Thanks for being a part of the Apple Support Communities!

Cheers,

Braden

there is something very wrong with the podcast app. apple needs to address it.

GO to settings and scroll down to podcasts. Click on it. If sync is on, turn it off. Instant solution.

Your "instant solution" didn't help. Any other suggestions?

I have the same problem and have tried all solutions, none of which worked.

Braden,

Those links are generic descriptions of how to use the app. They have nothing to do with the problem.

I had the same issue for a couple days.

After trying a bit this worked for me:

1. I synced the podcast episode in question to my iphone, from itunes on my computer. ( Guide on how to do that here: Sync your iPhone, iPad, and iPod with iTunes using USB - Apple Support)
   This did put the complete episode on my iphone, but the episode still showed as waiting for some reason.
2. I started playing the episode and fast-forwarded to the end so that it'd finish playing.
3. I deleted the episode by swiping it towards the left and clicking delete.
4. I downloaded it again over wi-fi without issue.
   It now sitsperfectly downloaded and ready for a proper listening without issue.
   

I hope this works for you guys as well!

I had a ton of strange podcast app behavior recently. Days and days of podcasts not downloading, no matter what I did. (Though they would PLAY if I pressed play, via cellular or wifi.) "Preparing to download..." never actually made the jump to "Downloading."

I also had a rash of old podcasts being set to download as "new" even though I had played them months ago. Some were even more than a year old.

I did have TWO podcast episodes that kept giving the "This podcast episode is not available for download" error and would not play no matter what.

Here's the other thing: I couldn't get any of the normal app updates in the app store to download successfully, either. I have apps set to update automatically, and when I looked today, there were 15 apps that were waiting to download (several days worth) and even if I pressed Update Now, nothing happened.

It was like there was bottleneck where nothing would download, except, of course, all of my other apps were working, I was getting email, I could use the mobile web, etc, etc.

I tried to close and open the podcast app. I cleared all downloads and tried to select the downloads I wanted. I re-set the phone. I tried messing with the "download over wifi" and "sync with iTunes" settings, I turned wifi off and on, reset my router, (to see if it was a cellular vs wifi issue, in part). Still nothing. Podcasts and app updates were all still frozen.

Finally, I cleared/canceled the pending podcast downloads. I closed all apps. (I even closed iTunes on my desktop, just in case there was some weird "sync" or backup issue going on.) I shut down the phone, let it sit a bit. Powered back up. Opened App Store first, and updated all of the pending app updates. (They started ticking off in rapid succession and were completed quickly.) I opened the Podcast app and started to download all 14 un-played episodes, one by one. I did not queue them up, I waited for each one to download before initiating the next one. I now have all of the podcast episodes downloaded and ready to listen to, and all apps are up to date. I have absolutely no idea if this answer will help anyone else, but I am hopeful that my bottleneck issue has been resolved.

Short answer: Shut down the device then turn back on. This worked for me.

Thanks KravenKross I've been trying to figure this out for a day or two, didnt think about turning it off and on again /facepalm.

Well, shutting down the phone and then starting it later did not work for me. I did many of the same attempts eswyatt did thinking that somehow there was a setting or switch that was stopping the downloads at the point of "preparing to download" but nothing made a difference. Rebooting a computer always is a good option to fix issues so I really thought shutting it off and then starting it up later would work. I did it 3 times actually and I'm still sitting with multiple new episodes I want to download but which refuse to do so. Very annoying.

Maybe the best idea is to use a different podcast app. Can't believe someone from Apple is not on here helping with this. I just read a different thread with over 120 people noting they are having the same exact problem. There seem to be at least a half dozen different threads on this same issue. Not sure when Apple might notice and fix the issue. Certainly all one hundred plus of us can't be causing this, especially when it's cropped up at the same time.

Miraculous fix today, just tried to download and it worked perfectly, like it used to. Apple must have send a little update. Hope others are getting a fix too.

Short answers, long answers...I've tried them all. Some worked, but only temporarily and this is ruining my podcast feed! I'm wasting cellular bandwidth because they won't download on wifi. The same things I've listened to before AND marked as played when they come back, keep coming back again. Shutting down the phone and restarting helps for that day, but the next day the podcasts won't download again. I'm ready to try another app as well - this is unacceptable and has been going on for too long.

This worked like a charm!
Thank you!!!

Thank you! I too am doing the /facepalm. D'oh, Dogbert tech support, shut up and reboot FTW.