Multiple copies of podcasts - and multiple icons - loading on iPhone and iPad

This problem began for me several days ago. I looked at one of my subscribed podcasts a minute ago and there must be 30 copies of it. Solution?

I started having a similar problem last week. Many many copies of two podcasts kept being downloaded. I deleted the app. When I reinstalled the app the downloads started again.

Same problem here. After the latest "update" the podcast app suddenly began downloading multiple copies of all my podcasts. Deleting them does no good. They replace themselves. The other, even nastier thing I've observed is that when a podcast has played to completion, instead of automatic deletion the app simply shows the podcast as "unplayed." It's a real pain considering that pre-update I was having no problems with this app at all.

I have 10 copies of a CNBC podcast, 39 copies of another episode. They are on the phone ONLY. Deleting them from iTunes or (unchecking and rechecking) them doesn't seem to help. My iphone reports it is 4.12gb over capactiy and wont sync.

Has anyone found a workaround yet?

(iphone 4s,16gb, with 7.1.1)

I have the same issue with a host of different podcasts on an iPhone 4S running the latest iOS and podcast app releases. One interesting observation is that while connected to iTunes the phone's podcast list shows multiple copies of episodes and increased storage use but hovering the cursor over the Audio section of the multi-colored data bar shows a count and storage use that matches the actual numbers in iTunes.

If anyone from apple is reading... the problem started with the latest podcast app update.

This is almost exactly my problem also - same set up, same problem.

I reported the problem earlier on v 7.1.1. Erased everything and restored from backup. It appeared that solved the problem.... for a while.

Later, I updated to 7.1.2 and things were fine again, for a while. But it did happen again with a different podcast. This time multiple copies of Adam Carolla were appearing. It is intermittent, but it also happens with ios 7.1.2.

Instead of erasing everything I unchecked the sync podcasts from iTunes, Deleted all podcasts from the iphone itself. Then after making sure all podcasts were deleted from the phone I rechecked sync with iTunes and it appears to be working without the duplicates for now. At least I didn't have to do the full restore.

Same setup as reported earlier except with windows iTunes v 11.3.0.54 and iOS 7.1.2

Thanks Archie... your solution almost resolved my problem on the latest versions of OS X, iTunes and iPhone 4s. In addition to unchecking the sync'ed podcasts in iTunes and making sure they were actually deleted on the iPhone itself, I also had to delete all podcasts and episodes in iTunes. The drag is having to re-subscribe to your podcasts so make sure you have a list of your current subscriptions. Also, you'll lose any episodes that are no longer offered for download.

YES thanks for posting this question, wish there was a better solution (or that it wasn't a problem to begin with). God i hate this app so much.

Same problem here, iphone 4s, iOS 8.3

I have been struggling with this issue for more than a year now. Its just horrible and its even worse on apple's part that they are not ready to take up the challenge to sort this out !

Here is what my podcast app does all by itself "Magically" !!

1. Downloads podcasts

2. Deletes then when it feels like

3. Doesn't download when i want it to

4. Crashes while downloading

5. Creates multiple copies ( in which none of the podcasts are downloaded)

Its just too frustrating to use the iPhone with all these issues. Apple is making their own apps crappy and not doing anything to improve them... Whats the point of including force touch and other new features if the app is fundamentally not working properly ... none of these features will work any good untill apple addresses these frustrating issues !!!

Add me to this. My show is This Morning With Gordon Deal. I eventually had to just delete it because I was sick of having it vanish and duplicate automatically. Also I have an indie podcast that causes my system to crash, it loads slow, can't forward or reverse and it's the only one that does so. I delete it and reinstall same thing. There should be a way to report problems with individual podcasts to Apple. I'm on an iPhone 6 latest iOS etc...

Outrageous! I've had this problem on and off for at least a year. Here on Apple's "support" site I see people complaining for the past year and a half. Any solutions or responses from Apple "support" staff? The two things that really enhanced my life when I got an iPod in 2006 were self-updating playlists and every podcast I could want in my pocket. Apple degraded the playlists years ago, so now they will only update by syncing with iTunes every day. Thought it was nice that podcasts would download to my iPhone when I first got it, but it has turned into this nightmare of stalled downloads, memory usurped by 10-20 copies of each podcasts, etc., etc. I am getting out of the Apple ecosystem as a soon as I can. Bye bye!