How to stop runaway downloads?

Same problem here, overnight my phone went from 4gb free to full. Settings claimed that podcast app was only using 1.2gb, went through app and noted about 30 podcasts I'd listened to over 6 months ago. Deleted app, reinstalled, then it tried downloading 91 podcasts, then did a full wipe and restore of phone, same problem too. I am thus now without Podcasts lest it fll up my phone again.

I've got the same issue - iPhone 4S running iOS 7.1.1. There's new version in the App Store - Podcasts 2.1.1 which I've updated to - it doesnt fix this issue.

I think it's actually worse than stated above - I even tried going into Settings / Mobile and then blocking the Podcast app. I turned off my Wi Fi and went into Podcasts - the first time it gave a warning that Mobile Data was disabled - but in the background you could see it start downloading! I've tried closing Podcasts and even restarting the phone but now it doesnt even give that warning - it just starts downloading. My phone is so full I couldnt take a photo before.

This implies the new Podcast app is totally ignoring iOS settings on data - MASSIVE FAIL PODCAST DEVS!!!

I'm now getting warnings from my mobile provider about going over my data limit. Excess data here (Australia) can be $5/MB - could make for a juicy class-action law suit if someone was inclined ...

I've deleted the Podcasts app from my iPad and my wifes phone, and warned my friends. I've been totally unimpressed with Podcasts since it first came out - since then they've gone backwards IMO. The Music app was doing the job fine - this is garbage.

Does anyone know of a decent alternative app? I've wasted enough time on these morons.

Mine got up to 2,500 podcasts being downloaded. I've never even listened/subscribed/downloaded anything near that. I used to listen to a lot of podcasts, didn't have time for a while. Tried to listen again and now it's made impossible. What happened?

ITM. I have the same problem and indeed it's like having a virus.

The thing keeps downloading "saved" episodes even though I too have set it to never download anything, It has downloaded so many old episodes that I've run out of space, and can't sync my phone with iTunes anymore. I think I have to MANUALLY delete 200 episodes to free up space?

Apple keeps breaking things in updates! I've resorted to not ever updating iTunes again, and now might have to adopt the same policy for Apple made apps too. This is so frustrating.

I'm seriously considering writing an app for people who only want to sync podcasts with iTunes.

No download options, no nothing. Just import what's unplayed/checked and keep playlist in the same order, and add an option to shuffle playlists (like we used to be able to before this whole disaster of a Podcast app was released).

That app would be amazing, but I haven't been able to find any non-Apple app that can sync with iTunes, so there's a big chance that Apple restricts that option.

Grumble. Yes, apparently so. A quick search told me only Apple apps can interact with iTunes.

So they even broke that.

Thank goodness I'm not the only one experiecing this issue. What I noticed today was I installed Podcasts directly from iTunes and it synced up the new episodes of my podcasts, but when I loaded the app it started downloading everything. I had the settings all turned to OFF as well.

As someone who works in IT full time, this is a disgrace. Does Apple even know the meaning of testing?

I've noticed this issue as well, both on my iPhone showing xx podcasts downloading, and mysteriously previously played podcasts re-appearing in my iTunes as unplayed. I've tried the following:

- In iTunes on the Podcast area, go to Settings, then switch off Downloads

- iTunes again, sync your device, select Podcast tab, then switch off "Automatically include xx episodes of xx". This was previously unticked for me, but had re-ticked itself after the iTunes update (I use playlists to organise my podcasts and those playlists are the only things ticked in the Podcast area)
- In the Podcast app on the device itself, go to My Stations and deleted the All Unplayed list

Once you've done that, check your recently played list. For me, I had 20 podcasts that I had NOT recently listened to showing up in there, accounting for 706MB. I have my recently played list set to only show 3 days worth (playlist is synced to my iPhone), so I'm hoping that after those 3 days, I'll reclaim that space back.

I've given up and deleted the Podcasts app from my iPhone, also had to manually delete all the podcast files from it using iTunes to get my space back.

I'm trying the RSSRadio app - so far it has worked smoothly including optionally importing my podcast list from iTunes. Downloading can be limited to wifi - so iTunes becomes redundant. Playback is smooth over bluetooth or headphones jack.

It all seems to be working OK so far. In fact it's quite a nice app and everything seems easier and more obvious than Podcasts - although that's not saying much.

I was having this same issue. I figured out the problem on my phone at least. Hopefully it will work for others as well. The problem is that when the new app came out and included the "save episodes" feature, it marked every downloadable episode of every podcast as "saved" by default. It tries to download every podcas tthat you want ot save so that's what's causing the loop. You delete the episode, podcast sees that it's on your save list, and redownloads it. Really stupid.

At any rate, if you open the app, go to my podcasts, click on a podcast, click on the saved tab, there is a list of every saved episode. What I had to do is go through each podcast, go through this list, and by swiping left and removing, I removed each episode from my saved list. I only did this for episodes that weren't on the "From your computer" list as those are actually the episodes I wanted synced. Not sure at this point if I should have removed those too.

I don't know how this saved podcasts list is going to act in the future but it stopped all the endless downloads and now I have free space again. Hopefully as I listen to the podcasts, they'll be removed from my "saved" list. I don't want to save anything that I've already listened to anywhere besides my computer. Another thing I noted is that while those podcasts were still on my save list, the "other" category of my phone's available memory was about 1.5 GB larger than it is now that they're not being saved.

This was a pretty big hassle so if you've got a solution that works for you outside the podcast app, I wouldn't recommend coming back.

I ended up briefly trying Downcast - but did not like that at all. It doesn't seem to have a "sync with iTunes option" so I coudln't find my playlists, and only downloads episodes in-app. So - The opposite of what I want.

I deleted the 100s of 'saved' episodes the Podcast app downloaded by going to Settings - General - USage and deleting ( swipe ) the biggest files there. I had the episodes I still wanted to listen to in iTunes anyway.

I deleted the Podcast app from my phone, unchecked to sync podcasts, had iTunes remove all podcasts.

Disconnected the phone to check podcast space in Usage.

Then plugged it back in, reinstalled the Podcast app and re-synced all podcasts (5 least recent episodes of all).

So far so good. No weird downloads, no space shortage..

Settings = Podcast app I have are:

Synd Podcasts - Off.

Refresh Every - Manually (and never pull down to refresh anything)

Limit episodes - 10 most recent ( in case the thing throws a hissy fit again and starts downloading at least I won't run out of space again)

Download episodes - Off

Delete Played episodes - On

Use Cellular Data - Off

Another thing that may have been compounding the problem is that in iTunes, they've created a list of "saved podcasts". If you go to "My Podcasts" in the top right there's a "saved" box where you can look at which podcasts are saved. Or from the "list" at the bottom there's a drop down box to switch between viewing "unplayed/my episodes", "saved", and "unplayed/my episodes and saved". You can look at your saved episodes there too.

I think the best solution if you want to keep your podcasts on your computer but not have them being put on your phone is to set your podcasts to not delete automatically on your computer. And then delete all the podcasts from the saved list. It seems like there's no way to stop a saved podcast from being put on your phone so having podcasts in the list will continually be a problem.

Edit: From my perspective, all the problems seem to stem from the "saved podcasts" feature.

I have to add that I didn't upgrade iTunes either.

I'm still on iTunes 11.1.4.62 (and don't plan on upgrading because doing so always majorly breaks something..)

So I don't have the 'Saved podcasts' in iTunes.

Anyone did manage to restore the space used by these download ? I have more than 4 Go blocked and marked as 'other' than i cannot free...

Stupid app...

Yes - Go to (general) iPhone settings, Usage and delete whatever podcasts take up too much space (then resync or redownload the ones you want).