iTunes 11.3.1 stops working when opened in 'Podcasts' view

On Windows 7 pro, I updated from 10.7 (64-bit) which was working fine to 11.3 (64-bit) which was buggy specifically with podcasts and also memory calculations -- relating to manually managing music and podcasts. In my case, 11.3 sometimes showed my iPod memory was full when it was 40-50% under capacity. I don't know if others here had the same problem. I haven't had any specific issues with my iPad air -- but I don't use it for podcasts.

When I tried updating with 11.3.1, iTunes would open and immediately display "iTunes has stopped working" and quite the program -- so as far as my own experience goes, the new update made things worse and I uninstalled it and reinstalled 11.3. I tried going back to 10.7, but after you've updated to the 11.3, iTunes it can no longer read the "library" file in previous versions-- and I didn't think to save the 10.7 library before originally updating.

The fact that iTunes came back with a "supposed" fix for 11.3 so quickly indicates they were well aware of the problems with that version -- unfortunately -- at least for me -- the 11.3.1 version was even buggier. As I mentioned, I spent some time with Apple tech to try to resolve these issues to no avail.

For me the new version, 11.3.1.2 works better. Since I am actually able to launch the program. YEY! 🙂

For me the 11.3 worked fine but it looks like a spoke too soon. I refreshed a feed and downloaded 5 episodes at the same time. iTunes did download them but froze for 5 min before completing the job and the episodes were added to my feed...

Two bad releases in a row... This is really bad. I am just glad I can launch the program now. But if this lagging and freezing continues I might go back to 11.3 or what it was. I have to disagree with you that Apple was fast in releasing a patch. This was incredibly slow. It should have been released the next day or just a few days after. They have to act faster in my opinion. Especially for trivial problems like this. And why iTunes can not use more than 1 core on my 4 core CPU is just beyond me...

I'm on Windows 7.I use iTunes for podcasts. It has been getting worse every update. The last but two pushed me to manual downloads, the previous update stopped that working, so I went back to RSS. I had high hopes for this update. Now it CTD's ( every time in "safe mode" ). Every update is worse...

Really? You think so? I mentioned the problems with podcasts to Apple on 3 separate occasions. You don't think anyone else did? LOL.

Maybe Apple should get its head out of its *** and check its forums from time to time, too.

Fanboys. Sheesh.

I'm running 11.3.1.2 on Windows 7 64-bit and also had the issue where iTunes will stop responding if it's on podcasts. I would have to open iTunes and quickly switch to music just to avoid it crashing.

I've noticed it just tends to crash if it's on List mode. If I have it on podcasts and am viewing it in My Podcasts or My Stations then it doesn't crash. I can refresh from those views and I don't have any problems. I would still rather be able to view it in List mode, but at least that's a workaround.

I have had same experiences as many here: updated to latest version and crash after crash when viewing Podcast lists, or when updating in list view.

I have reinstalled everything, even after disk and registry (win7Pro) wipes of all Apple software. Reinstall everything, and all runs without any files loaded back to library, UNTIL I re-subcribe to a podcast from Store and refresh in last view.

Also, doing a safe boot of iTunes (not WIndows) would yield a crash most of the time, altho not always immediately on refresh or view of the podcast list. One time I was listening to a podcast for over an hour and iTunes suddenly crashed. It was running in safe mode.

So, my experience is that this is related to Podcast view, and doesn't seem to matter whether its running normal or safe mode, or if you restored your library or downloaded new subscribed Podcasts. Its a consistent problem with Podcasts view.

I should also note that my anti virus software was mostly disabled via all of this testing. I also eliminated other software services ( disabled from running) to try to isolate the issue further.

So, I hope this helps Apple QA team figure it out.

--------------------------------- From my Application Log, consistent with every crash-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------

Faulting application name: iTunes.exe, version: 11.3.1.2, time stamp: 0x53dc1f90

Faulting module name: iTunes.dll, version: 11.3.1.2, time stamp: 0x53dc1f7c

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x00e0d157

Faulting process id: 0x19a8

Faulting application start time: 0x01cfb87cbd080012

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\iTunes\iTunes.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\iTunes\iTunes.dll

Report Id: 863a1bd4-24aa-11e4-a575-b888e3146805

I need to take back my earlier statement that always running in safe mode seems to keep me out of trouble. That seemed true when I wrote it, but I was wrong. I agree with you that safe mode doesn't make a difference.

The only thing that helps is to just stay away from that view. Especially, I avoid making any kind of user-initiated change to the list of podcasts at all costs -- I don't mark anything as viewed or unviewed, in particular. It's okay to watch a video podcast, but once that podcast is over, iTunes crashes when it tries to mark that podcast as "viewed," so I don't want to let it do that either.

Fortunately, I had moved away from the iOS Podcasts app some time ago, so I have another app that I turn to for podcast viewing, which pretty neatly allows me to just ignore the iTunes podcasts view altogether. As long as I leave it alone, I seem to be okay -- and if I try to do anything with it, I'm not -- and that's true regardless of whether I'm in safe mode.

Hope there is an update to the update soon. I restored my computer (Win 7) back to before the update and am slogging along with the old version. Podcasts don't update, but at least I can still open iTunes!

When and if Apple ever fixes this latest version, I am going back to my old method of not downloading any more updates, period. It is obvious to me that they are not beta testing these updates, especially for Podcasts, and it just isn't worth the hassle.

the temp fix that works is stay out of podcast list mode until they fix this **** thing

Thank you for this! This afternoon, I've been playing podcasts from iTunes in "My Podcasts" rather than "List" view -- and whaddaya know?! -- you're right, I can listen to them all the way to the end and iTunes doesn't crash like it does when I play them in list view!!!

I still think it's sad that I'm all excited that I now know a better way to work around Apple's failure to get this right in the first place -- but, let's just say it: I'm excited to have found a better way to work around Apple's failure to get this right in the first place.

Thanks again!

I wish I had stopped with iTunes 10 like other people have. But I had no idea that iTunes 11 was going to be the disaster that it has been. Now I read that iTunes 12 is close on the horizon. Am I going to adopt it? Probably -- it can't get much worse than iTunes 11 has been -- but would I rather go back to something that worked reliably and consistently and didn't make me nervous about what's going to break this time every time there's an update? Heck yes. Sadly, I don't seem to have that option. Still, if I'm going to stick with something indefinitely, I think I'd rather take my chances with 12 than stay with 11 forever. iTunes 11 can't die fast enough, as far as I'm concerned.

Well, it's a partial success for me - I managed to get iTunes into My Podcasts view, and the thing doesn't freeze and crash. I can listen to things. It even downloads updates automatically - for some. But about two thirds have the ! mark, and do not refresh - some are not showing anything new since June, although I have been getting them from old school RSS regularly. So, not enough of a fix. I think I'll go back to 10, I know that works, and I liked the little graphics window at bottom left.

To add to the workaround put forward by Turmoil2K1, I found three strange episodes in a playlist. They were strange in that their Where property on the Summary tab of the Get Info dialog box said that they were on the server in the cloud. At one stage they were saved on my computer.

By the way, ever since iTunes introduced the Saved/Feed concept, 11.2 I think, I've been having problems with iTunes deleting played episodes after playing them. This is despite the settings, in default and for the specific subscriptions, stating otherwise. Played episodes for some subscriptions were appearing with radio buttons in the Recently Played Smart Playlist inferring, I suppose, that they were in the cloud. Last night I went through all my podcasts and saved all my episodes. After refreshing all my subscriptions, in List view using 11.3.1.2, new episodes appear as ticked in the Recently Added Smart Playlist. I save each episode by clicking on the circled greater-than symbol and then untick them. I've been unticking recently added podcasts this way for some time. I have a Ticked Podcast Smart Playlist used primarily to manage the syncing of podcasts to my iPod which is how I listen to them. Sync is set to automatically include three recently unplayed episodes of selected podcasts or ticked ones.

Getting back to the playlist, seeing all eleven episodes for the subscription have been downloaded and saved I added these to the playlist which, strangely enough, resulted in fourteen entries: three duplicates. I was expecting iTunes to say that three were duplicates and I was going to skip them but it didn't. That's when I stumbled across the issue. Before deleting the three bogus entries from the playlist I went into Podcast List view and switched Show through its four settings and could only see the eleven saved episodes. After deleting the three bogus feed episodes from the playlist I can now start iTunes in List mode without it crashing. Hoo-bloody-ray!