iTunes 11.3 freezing when refreshing podcasts

Silkefromdeu, I was replying to your post attacking me, calling me a cultist and a back-seat driver.Did you mention your five hours with support? Hyperbole would be if it was really only 40 minutes like mine and saying it was five hours.

In an earlier post I tried to possibly help others by naming three files removed. That seemed to be what rendered iTunes usable again. For me. I think it helped one other person—at least it garnered one "like" and an even more helpful response.

You might think there is an easy fix it but Apple's willfully ignoring us. I doubt that's the case. Earlier on when things have also not been working well in iTunes for me—problems burning discs where they would finalize prematurely and problems searching with a lot of songs and having infinite beachballing in certain music views—but eventually, and none too quickly, those problems were fixed. Me not like but me stay on reservation. Software is not easy to perfect—at least it never seems to happen. And "improvements" often seem more the opposite.

Since this current problem isn't nearly as severe now for me, I'll be unfollowing this discussion. My email inbox has been swamped, mostly with non-helpful posts I must say. So, chances are I won't be back here, not even to answer direct replies/attacks/insults.

Apple released iTunes 11.3.1 today (7 Aug 2014) to specifically address this podcast issue. The fix is definitely better, but still far from perfect. It takes 14 seconds to delete a single podcast. However you can now use the podcast in iTunes.

first check:

Update in ListView works with "lightning speed" - deletion of downloaded and still in the cloud episodes just fine

BUT!!!!!!!

delete a downloaded episode in ListView and lo and behold it'll still be there in the playlist

Wasn't that the huge synchronising comfort that Apple was once, long ago when iTunes first appeared, lauded over the top all over the place?

But maybe that's why they've given up on it, it is so yesterday - today one wants to delete not once in one central place but after that in playlist after playlist.

the older I get the more I am amazed on the absurdities fashion comes up with.

Hello Folks,

I just got word from Apple support that the an iTunes update was just released to try and fix the problem we are facing.

The staff at Apple support have been most communicative and have put in a lot of effort in trying to assist me. I am most appreciative of this. 🙂

As I mentioned before, in the initial report I made to Apple support here in Japan that went to the technicians in Apple HQ, this thread is documented. Thus my request to stay focused on the issues you individually are having. We all have different configurations and so this thread is a good way for us to directly share our specific issue.

Obviously there is a little more work to be done. However, thanks to the wonderful people on this forum who shared technical information, since the update today iTunes does not freeze and become unresponsive on me when clicking and working in podcasts.

Now what needs to be worked on for me is the brief pause (as in two seconds at most) I get when changing from one library to the podcast library and within the podcast window tabs as well. Before iTunes would become unresponsive, forcing me to close iTunes. I do not have to do that any longer. I have just communicated this issue to Apple support.

If you could continue to post what was fixed and what was needs more work on in your own individual case, that would help so many.

Thank you and Cheers! 🙂

hi ozdazza

thanks for sharing and congratulations that you have such a marvellous support service in Japan.

though it is against all my principles to work for free for a company that certainly can afford to pay one or more people a decent wage to test their software instead of expecting its customers to do it for free I'll continue to list what I think is wrong with Podcast in Tunes. While I do it I'll just delude myself into imagining that Apple is a charity and thus worthy of all the free of charge support it can get.

Here are two things that still vex me:

When I delete a previously downloaded episode in either ListView or MyPodcastView it stays on in any playlist without any mark to it. As best I can tell it isn't on my harddrive any longer but it is in the playlist as if undeleted. I haven't checked yet whether such a deleted episode will play on the Mac or the iPod it is vexing enough when designing the playlist.

In the good old times I could have the information pop-up open and ListView operable simultaneously - this isn't possible now. I have to click first back into ListView or close the info-pop-up first before deleting or pulling into a playlist.

Hello Silkefromdue and everyone,

Thanks for sharing your issue as with my configuration I do not have this issue at all. Maybe others have the same issue as you and hopefully they will post.

Thanks.

The 11.3.1 update has made things a lot better, or should i say put some things back to normal.

my biggest problem remaining is still that i can not remove a podcast from the list without deleting every episode. I have a number of podcasts that no longer put out new episodes, so i want to remove them from the list but i still want to keep the files.

There used to be a warning window that popped up when you deleted a podcast, that asked you if you wanted to keep the files. Now that window just tells you your files will be deleted. How rude...

Here's a reproducible bug (at least in my iTunes). If you highlight several podcasts in ListView, right-click on them (or hit CTRL + click on them) and choose from the pop-up menu "delete", iTunes will start working for quite a long time, but it will either not delete the podcasts oder it will delete only some of them. However, deleting the podcasts works, if you pull them into the basket or if you click in the top menu bar on "edit" and "delete".

Spotted that 11.3.1 is out with specif refernce to this issue and stating this will solve thhe issue - but before I go for it - can anyone else confirm that it does resolve the previous issues we were all experiencing?

hi rexluna

have you tried unsubscribing from the podcast - it used to leave the name of the podcast in the list including all loaded down episodes.

Else I guess the only solution would be to store the episodes first on an outside medium (CD et al). As of now I can't figure out how Apple is handling the deleting and saving service i.e. if there is a logic to it it is still way beyond me.

11.3.1 hasn't fixed anything for me, still beachballs if I hit the list view button.

hi spacer

highlighting and deleting behaves mysteriously with me since Mavericks - I notice it mostly in Finder - as best I have figured out it doesn't work if the highlighted items are interrupted by a non highlighted one

popsync

for me it has improved things but is far far from satisfactory

PS:

if any of you should be savvy or adventurous enough to try any of these I'd appreciate a feedback

http://recode.net/2014/08/07/five-iphone-podcast-apps-compared-which-one-is-righ t-for-you/

Downcast

Price and compatibility: $2.99; iOS 6 or later, Mac OS X 10.8 or later
Downcast may not be the most visually striking podcast app, but it offers a good user experience and a robust feature set. Out of all the apps I tested, it was my favorite.

The apps he tested included iTunes (sic) - even though the post is dated August 7, 2014 - he/she neither mentions the 11.3 trouble nor the major time stealing "hiccup" from September 2013.

Spiller Will,

I get a beach ball when I switch views both in the Library - when switching from "Music" to "Podcasts" for example, and within views in "Podcasts" - from "My Podcasts" tab to "List" tab views for example.

However, for me, the beach ball does not occur all the time. And if it does, it lasts 2 seconds tops.

Before the August 8 update, I would get a beach ball and then iTunes would become totally unresponsive, meaning I had to force quit.

I have reported this issue to Apple support.

I just want to check with you Spiller, if the beach ball continues and the iTunes becomes unresponsive. Or, if the same thing is happening like with me, you get a beach ball, but after a wait, iTunes responds and does not have to be forced to quit. With the same thing happening when switching between view tabs within podcasts and of course between libraries.

Also, how large is your podcast library? My library is just over 1TB in size. On another Mac with only a few podcasts, this issue does not occur for me.

Looking forward to hearing from you. 🙂