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iTunes Podcast: Feed change not updating as expected.

I changed the feed name of my podcast in FeedBurner, included the

<itunes:new-feed-url>
tag in WordPress, waited about a month and have issues that am not able to solve. Specifically, I was anticipating the iTunes Store to have a seemless catalog of episodes and a seamless experience for users. Instead, I have episodes split and users have stopped receiving updates.


I am using the PodPress plugin for WordPress and the resulting XML seems to be correct, inlcluding the new-feed tag. It can be found at http://lifejourneychurch.cc/listen/feed


Old Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/jesusmcc/jTtw


Renamed Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/sermonsfromlifejourneychurch


When I search and find my Podcast in the iTunes Store the link is: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sermons-from-lifejourney-church/id208926933? mt=2 (I don't believe this was the link originally before the rename, I am pretty confident it was http://feeds.feedburner.com/jesusmcc/jTtw) It also has old episodes before the change. No new episodes.


I believe my feed it working as expected, the iTunes store does not have updated information.... so it would seem.


Also, do new iTunes URLS now have a id# tagged on the end? What does ?mt=2 mean?






MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Feb 3, 2014 10:54 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Feb 3, 2014 11:14 AM

iTunes is trying to use the feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/jesusmcc/jTtw - there is no file at this address, so the Store is showing a cached version of the feed at the last time it was able to read it.


The new feed contains the 'new-feed-url' tag but this won't do any good as iTunes isn't reading it. You needed to add the tag to the old feed and leave it there for a fortnight - the redirection is immediate but you have to give the Store and subscribers time to get round to checking it.


In order to retrieve this you are going to have to reinstate the original feed and add the tag to it, or try emailing podcasts 'at' apple.com and ask them to move the Store to using the new feed. Don't leave it too long to sort this out because with the feed not working the podcast is likely to be removed altogether sooner or later, then you will have to start again from scratch.


I don't know why the mt=2 is added but you don't need it. In fact you can simplify the URL right down to


https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/id208926933

3 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Feb 3, 2014 11:14 AM in response to SpenJam

iTunes is trying to use the feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/jesusmcc/jTtw - there is no file at this address, so the Store is showing a cached version of the feed at the last time it was able to read it.


The new feed contains the 'new-feed-url' tag but this won't do any good as iTunes isn't reading it. You needed to add the tag to the old feed and leave it there for a fortnight - the redirection is immediate but you have to give the Store and subscribers time to get round to checking it.


In order to retrieve this you are going to have to reinstate the original feed and add the tag to it, or try emailing podcasts 'at' apple.com and ask them to move the Store to using the new feed. Don't leave it too long to sort this out because with the feed not working the podcast is likely to be removed altogether sooner or later, then you will have to start again from scratch.


I don't know why the mt=2 is added but you don't need it. In fact you can simplify the URL right down to


https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/id208926933

Feb 3, 2014 11:32 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Great clarity from the resident expert, thanks! I will attempt to email and hope they are responsive. I hesitate changing the URL back as some users may have manually subscribed outside of the iTunes Store.


It seems I changed the feed name too early, and should have simply added the new-feed tag first and let is proopagate through the store and users. Logic would say I would be updating users to a feed that had not yet changed it's name in this scenario. Maybe I am missing a detail, or maybe renaming a feed is more difficult than moving the feed?

Feb 3, 2014 11:37 AM in response to SpenJam

The thing about the process is that you have to have an overlap period - preferably about two weeks - when both feeds are working. If the new feed isn't up then it's no good redirecting to it, and if the old feed isn't up iTunes has no way of knowing what the new feed is. Normally people are moving a feed to a new server so this isn't a problem (unless the original server has gone down) - moving to a new URL within Feedburner is evidently more problematic: it's an unusual situation.

iTunes Podcast: Feed change not updating as expected.

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