How do I turn off the feature that stops downloading podcasts because I haven't listened for a period of time?

iTunes will stop updating a podcast subscription if you have more than five episodes downloaded but not listened to, as detailed in this page:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA23353

which states:

You've subscribed to a podcast but have more than five unplayed episodes. iTunes will stop automatically downloading newer episodes. You may get the following message:

iTunes has stopped updating this podcast because you have not listened to any episodes recently. Would you like to resume updating this podcast?

You can click Yes to continue downloading additional episodes. Or you can just listen to any part of any episode and a new episode will download at the next update.

There is no setting in iTunes to change this, but there is an AppleScript available which will apparently deal with this (I've not tried it):

http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=updateexpiredpodcasts

I have the same problem. iTunes recognizes that I listened to podcasts on my iPhone. But it still stops because I never listened to one on my MacBkPro. Since iTunes knows that they have been listened to (after syncing), why does it still think that none have been listened to. This is a stupid problem that should have been fixed a while ago.

I agree. I use iTunes to feed to other services, like Sonos. So even though I may not be listening on iTunes, I'm still counting on the feed. STUPID feature. Come on Apple, fix the podcast part of iTunes! Its been broken for so long most of your customers have moved to other apps.

That may be the way it is supposed to work but with me it is happening to podcasts that I have been listening to. Half an hour ago I listened to a podcast that downloaded today and five minutes later, when I looked, there was the dreaded exclamation mark. I am sick of having to regularly check for exclamation marks next to podcasts that I am regularly listening to (or marking as listened to).

Same problem here Honyant. All my podcasts display this "feature" every 3-4 days despite listening to every episode released. Since the latest release of iTunes this problem has arisen and no sign of a fix or even an acknowledgement there is an issue.

I know Apple support reps propbably don't read their own support forum, but interesting I had a link to their survey at the top of this thread, so I filled it out and final response was "Thank you very much for taking the time to complete our survey. Apple places high value on your feedback."

Yet I haven't seen a single good comment about this new iTunes podcast synch feature, but I bet it doesn't go away. It ****** me off when in the podcasts app on my phone, now they've broken iTunes too.

I am now listening to a podcast that downloaded today and while I am listening to it an exclamation mark has appeared next to it. That is a fail in my book.

First, this is unwanted. I manage my subscription and don't need this feature. A warning would be nice, but don't micromanage my podcasts by shutting them off.

Second, it is wrong 9 out of 10 times.

Get rid of it.

this is a really annoying "feature" that we should be able to toggle off so it doesn't interfere with our podcasts. I *always* listen to my podcasts but I don't always listen to all of them on both my shuffle and iPad so it thinks I haven't listened to it lately. This is a really annoying feature because some of my favourite podcasts from BBC do not save on their servers for longer than a week or two so I end up not downloading many of their podcasts. VERY ANNOYING, APPLE!!!!!😠

*sigh*

This is the most irritating functionality. I'm not even going to rant about it; it's pointless. Apple NEVER reads these forums, and I'm not exaggerating. A support rep on the phone told me they don't read the forums, that it's for "community support".