kstinmb

Q: iTunes 11.3.1.2 does not download subscribed podcasts

iTunes Version 11.1.3.2 running under Windows Vista Business on a standard HP laptop.

I have an iPod Classic set up to synchronize several dozen podcasts.

I have subscribed to a podcast "60-Second Science" and the podcast settings are:

PodcastSettings.jpg

When I select Refresh

PodcastSettingsRefresh.jpg

 

I expect iTunes to download any new episodes of the podcast to my laptop (Download Episodes is ON, Limit Episodes is OFF).

But when I check, the newest episodes are available in the cloud, but are not downloaded. They each have the "cloud down arrow" symbol

CloudDownArrow.jpg

which means they are available to be downloaded, but they have not been copied down to the laptop.

 

Here you can see than several recent episodes of the podcast are available, but have not been downloaded.

PodcastNotDownloaded.jpg

When I Synchronize my iPod, the newest episodes are not copied.

Here you can see that the episodes for Monday, Aug 1, Jul 31, etc. have not been downloaded or synchronized to my iPod.

PodcastsMissing.jpg

But, if I manually click on the "cloud arrow down" symbol for the first episode, it is downloaded, then I can synch my iPod, and the episode is on my iPod for me to listen to. You can see that the episode "System Converts Solar..." is now on my iPod:

EpisodeDownloaded and Synched.jpg

 

My question is: What else do I have to set so that the podcast episodes I have subscribed to are automatically downloaded? I have subscribed to almost 100 podcasts and I should not have to go to each one in Library | My Podcasts and manually select the newest episodes. Am I not following the directions? Is there another step I have missed?

 

Please tell me how to have my subscribed podcasts download automatically.

 

Thanks and regards,

Stephen Tinius

Myrtle Beach SC

iPhone 3GS (8GB), iOS 6.0.1

Posted on Aug 10, 2014 2:57 PM

Close

Q: iTunes 11.3.1.2 does not download subscribed podcasts

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by eccoboy,

    eccoboy eccoboy Aug 10, 2014 7:36 PM in response to kstinmb
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 10, 2014 7:36 PM in response to kstinmb

    11.3.1.2 was supposed to fix this issue but things are much worse instead

  • by wlwillis,

    wlwillis wlwillis Aug 10, 2014 10:56 PM in response to eccoboy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 10, 2014 10:56 PM in response to eccoboy

    Yah, much worse.  Now iTunes abends when I try to download my subscribed podcasts.

  • by eccoboy,

    eccoboy eccoboy Aug 10, 2014 11:06 PM in response to wlwillis
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 10, 2014 11:06 PM in response to wlwillis

    I quickly clicked off of the podcast tab after opening iTunes to prevent it from crashing.  So now I can use it but navigating podcasts is still slow and freezing periodically.

  • by DDK6,

    DDK6 DDK6 Aug 13, 2014 4:03 AM in response to kstinmb
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 13, 2014 4:03 AM in response to kstinmb

    I'm having the same problem, as well as this one:

     

    Podcasts I've downloaded sometimes show up as not, and available in the cloud. I've downloaded some podcast episodes several times. I think iTunes is deleting them, but I don't know why. I'm having to take the precaution of moving old podcasts somewhere else so they don't disappear entirely.

     

    Related, but separate: Why is Apple making iTunes delete podcast files entirely? It was better when the interface asked to keep the file or remove it entirely. I want to delete files from the menu but keep the files, without having to deal with unmanageably long menu listings. I've got plenty of storage,and don't want to have to rely on "The Cloud."

     

    OS: Windows 7 Professional.

  • by the fiend,

    the fiend the fiend Aug 13, 2014 5:18 AM in response to kstinmb
    Level 6 (8,550 points)
    Aug 13, 2014 5:18 AM in response to kstinmb

    There has been a long-standing issue with the way iTunes handles Podcasts when there are multiple episodes available.

     

    When your iTunes Library checks for new episodes of subscribed Podcasts, it will download only the latest one. This is fine if there is only one episode since iTunes last checked. But if there are two or more, then iTunes still only downloads the latest one, and ignores the previous episodes. Apple's apparent attempt to resolve this issue is to show the other episodes, but with the download cloud icon next to them. All well-and-good, but it's not obvious that this is what is happening, particularly when the Unplayed Episode Count includes those non-downloaded episodes.

     

    What compounds this issue is that the in-the-cloud episodes are listed in the Podcasts Library, which up until that change, only included media actually in your Library.

    kstinmb wrote:

     

    My question is: What else do I have to set so that the podcast episodes I have subscribed to are automatically downloaded?

    Submit a product Enhancement Request as feedback at http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html, although I suggest you don't get your hopes up. I submitted one a long time ago, but all Apple has done is introduce the "cloud" episodes, which has not solved the problem.

     

    kstinmb wrote:


    I have subscribed to almost 100 podcasts and I should not have to go to each one in Library | My Podcasts and manually select the newest episodes. Am I not following the directions? Is there another step I have missed?

     

    Please tell me how to have my subscribed podcasts download automatically.

    The only thing you can do is set your iTunes to check for new episodes frequently enough to catch all the new ones.

    podcast refresh.png

     

    However, even this may not be enough. There is a BBC programme that releases up to three new episodes every day, all within one hour. So even once and hour will not catch all three of these.

  • by GabrielZ,

    GabrielZ GabrielZ Aug 26, 2014 3:14 AM in response to kstinmb
    Level 1 (37 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 26, 2014 3:14 AM in response to kstinmb

    I tried everything I could think of, to no avail :-(

  • by nsdauwalder,

    nsdauwalder nsdauwalder Aug 27, 2014 8:14 AM in response to kstinmb
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 27, 2014 8:14 AM in response to kstinmb

    I found a temporary solution.

     

    Select all the episodes you want downloaded.  Right-click and select "Save episodes".  Yes, iTunes will become unresponsive like always.  Just wait, and eventually they will all be downloaded.  I keep a Task Manager window open so I can monitor iTunes until it goes back to "running".  This is hopefully temporary until Apple gets their act together.

  • by WrenElla,

    WrenElla WrenElla May 30, 2016 5:58 AM in response to nsdauwalder
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    May 30, 2016 5:58 AM in response to nsdauwalder

    I've been doing the same for the past year or so, or whenever it was that it became necessary. In the beginning I missed a lot of podcasts as I didn't realise that they were not being downloaded, or what the cloud icon meant.

     

    Nearly two years later and this problem still exists. But now, with the latest version of iTunes, Apple has helpfully unsubscribed me from each and every one of my podcasts, and all my saved podcasts, listened to or not, are missing from iTunes. (Of course they are still on my hard drive, as well as backed up frequently on another hard drive, but now their status and ratings (a lot of these podcasts were free downloads of songs) have vanished with no warning.)

     

    Re-subscribing involves locating each podcast title individually in the store, which now even makes it difficult for one to navigate to the podcast section, and also the podcasts interface in iTunes is now a complete mess! I can't believe I'm actually longing for the days when I used to grumble about having to click "Resume downloading" within iTunes on the titles I had not listened to "recently"; as for that, I never could understand how that was at all helpful because if I hadn't listened to a particular podcast recently it meant that I was busy and therefore was in need of having the latest editions automatically downloaded! Thanks, Apple!