Can not delete some podcasts from iPod since update to v1.2

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Can not delete some podcasts from iPod since update to v1.2

After updating to v1.2 of the iPod software, I no longer have access to the list of all tracks/podcasts on the iPod due to the new screen with all the "fancy" tabs of options that shows up when you click on the iPod in iTunes (using the dreaded iTunes v7.0). In the past I used that list to delete the podcasts that I had listened to (sorting by last played and then delete).

Instead now I have 2 folders: music and podcasts.

In my music folder I have 10 tracks, in podcasts I have 67 podcasts. When I make a smart playlist with all my tracks/podcasts (using time is not 0:01) I have 79 tracks/podcasts. With a bit of searching I located 2 podcasts that don't show up on the podcast list and that I have already listened to and therefore would like to delete. Problem is I can not. Deleting them from a playlist only removes the link, and since they dont show up on either of the main folders (podcasts or music) there is no way to delete them... at least that I know of...

The only thing I can think of is to restore the iPod, and I dont really want to do that as I fear this is something that will happen again and restoring the iPod each time a podcast or track doesnt show up in those 2 lists seems a bit extreme.

Has anyone else found this issue?
Can someone help?
Or should I just seat tight and wait for newer versions of iTunes and iPod software?

Posted on Sep 19, 2006 3:44 PM

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Answer 1

Jason L

Community Specialist

Sep 19, 2006 3:56 PM in response to chanda_m

Hey chanda_m,

Are you clicking on the disclosure triangle to the left of the iPod icon under Devices? When you click that triangle youll see a podcasts icon showing the podcasts on the iPod.

Jason

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Answer 2

chanda_m Author

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Sep 19, 2006 4:01 PM in response to Jason L

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the quick answer, if only it was that easy! Yes, I am clicking on the triangle... thats how I get to the 2 standard lists "Music" and "Podcasts" as well as all my playlists.

The problem is that the only way I know of to actually delete podcasts/tracks from the iPod is by deleting them from one of those lists or from the list that is no longer available. And for some strange reason I have podcasts that dont show up on either of the standard lists, the only way I can "see" them is by creating a smart playlist that shows all audio files larger than 1 second. :o(

Chanda

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Answer 3

Jason L

Community Specialist

Sep 19, 2006 4:19 PM in response to chanda_m

chanda_m,

Try clicking the iPod icon uder devices, then the podcasts tab near the top center of iTunes. From there you can set how podcasts are added or deleted from your iPod. When synced is unchecked you will have to drag podcasts to the iPod icon to add them to the iPod. To Delete you would have to highlight the iPod in the device list then podcast then delete which ever podcast you want.

Which list is no longer available?

If the podcasts are not showing up in iTunes it may be how the podcasts were creadted.

Jason

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Answer 4

chanda_m Author

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Sep 19, 2006 4:48 PM in response to Jason L

Hi Jason,

What you describe is how I update the podcasts, I have "sync" unchecked. I drag podcasts to the iPod (usually to a particular playlist) to add them and highlight them on the iPod to delete them.

With the previous software, when I clicked on the iPod icon, instead of the new screen with the different tabs (summary/music/podcasts/photos/contacts), I used to get a screen that listed ALL the tracks/podcasts on the iPod. I could then sort that list by Last Played (or any other criteria), highlight what I wanted to delete and delete it. It was easy, simple and fast.

With this new software I have to click on the Podcasts icon, scroll through the list and highlight each individual podcast and then delete them.

I could live with that, if it wasnt for the fact that the Summary screen tells my I have 79 songs, when I click on the Podcasts icon I see I have 67 podcasts, clicking on the Music icon tells me I have 10 songs. That is a total of 77 songs/podcasts. Which left me with 2 "ghost" songs. I was able to find the 2 ghost songs/podcasts by creating a Smart Playlist that list ALL songs with time larger than 1 second. However, I can not delete those 2 songs/podcasts because they are not listed under the Music icon nor are they listed under the Podcast icon. Is there any other way to delete songs/podcasts that do not show up under those 2 icons (Music/Podcasts)???

The screen that showed all the songs on the iPod, allowed the user to sort then and delete them was a very usefull feature!

Cheers,
Chanda

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Answer 5

Jason L

Community Specialist

Sep 19, 2006 5:10 PM in response to chanda_m

Ok Chanda,

I understand whats going on now. The podcasts are on the ipod but not showing up on the podcast or music list, under the iPod.

It sounds like the podcast id3 tag needs to be modified. You can right click on the the file and get ino and modify the file properties.

Whats the name of the podcasts? Do the podcasts play on the iPod? Do they show up under music, podcast, or the playlist?

We can always restore the ipod to get the podcasts off.

Jason

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Answer 6

chanda_m Author

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Sep 19, 2006 11:25 PM in response to Jason L

Hi Jason,

I understand whats going on now. The podcasts are on
the ipod but not showing up on the podcast or music
list, under the iPod.

Yes, that is exactly what is going on!

It sounds like the podcast id3 tag needs to be
modified. You can right click on the the file and get
ino and modify the file properties.

I just tried right clicking on the podcasts and there is no option for properties. I did see an option to "Convert ID3 tags", tried both "ID3 tag version" and "Reverse Unicode", no success.

I also looked under "Get Info" and the settings on the 2 ghost podcasts are the same as on the podcasts that show up correctly in the Podcasts list.

I can not find "file properties" or "properties" anywhere!

Whats the name of the podcasts? Do the podcasts play
on the iPod? Do they show up under music, podcast, or
the playlist?

The podcast is More Hip than Hippie, I have been listening to these podcasts on my iPod for months and never had this problem before. Also, I have owned my iPod for almost a year now and download/delete podcasts from it at least once a week and never had this problem before! It only started after the software update to iTunes 7.0 and iPod 1.2

As I explained in my answers before, these podcast files don't show up in the Music or Podcast lists. Which is why I have the problem in the first place! The only way I can "see" them is by creating a Smart Playlist with settings to list songs with time larger than 0:01 seconds. This way I get ALL songs on the iPod listed. Once I had made this list I was able to play the podcasts, the files are actually on the iPod. However, as I am sure you know, one can not delete files by deleting them from a playlist, the file remains on the iPod.

We can always restore the ipod to get the podcasts
off.

As I said in the original post, this is not an option I want to consider. I suspect this is something that will happen again with other podcasts, restoring the iPod each time it happens is not a suitable solution, it would mean the loss of all the podcasts that are there at the moment which I would like to listen to or keep (once I download podcast to the iPod I remove them from iTunes).

With the new software there is a new screen that shows up when I click on the iPod icon - the screen with tabs for "summary/music/podcasts/photos/contacts", while this is a nice new feature, it is also indirectly what is causing the problem. In the past, when one clicked on the iPod icon, the functionality was to show all songs currently loaded on the iPod. This allowed the user access to delete all songs independent of wether they are Music or Podcasts. I would not have the problem with deleting these 2 podcasts if the original functionality was still there.

So I guess I should change my question:
1. Is the original functionality to list ALL music/podcasts on the iPod still available, but just in a different location? I have looked and can not find any way to do this!
2. If not, is there a plan to include it again in a future version of the iPod/iTunes software???

Thanks,
Chanda

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Answer 7

Jason L

Community Specialist

Sep 20, 2006 2:36 PM in response to chanda_m

chanda_m,

Podcasts are not created by Apple they are created by podcaster's. It appears there was an issue with these specific podcasts or the iPod has to be restored.

More information about podcasts is available here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301880

-
1.iTunes no longer lists the contents of the iPod in a single window. The contents are sorted by podcasts, music, and TV shows ect..

2.unfortunatly I do not have information about any upcoming changes or new features of iTunes.

Jason

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Answer 8

chanda_m Author

Level 1

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Sep 20, 2006 10:33 PM in response to Jason L

Hi Jason,

Thank you for your help, I really appreciate your quick answers.

I am of course aware that podcasts are not created by Apple! Thank you for the link anyway. I dont think the issue was with these specific podcasts, since I have heard them before and there was no problem. It was only after the software update that this issue turned up.

I absolutely love my iPod and iTunes, until this software update I had no complaints about either of the products and recommended them to anyone looking for such items.

I am VERY disappointed with the loss of this feature/functionality that I had used on a daily basis. The single window listing all the contents of the iPod was essential to what made iPod/iTunes easy to use. Having them sorted as podcasts, music, TV shows, etc is usefull. However, it means that when I want to delete all the stuff I have already listened, or all low rated items, etc I must go to each window individually. This is specially annoying when deleting podcasts, which must then be highlighted 1 at a time before deleting.

Would it be possible to log this with the iTunes developers as a user request/sugestion/feedback???

Thanks,
Chanda

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Answer 9

Jason L

Community Specialist

Sep 21, 2006 8:50 AM in response to chanda_m

Chanda,

No problem, I wish we could have got the podcast to show up correctly. I would still suggest restoring the iPod and testing it again.

You can leave feedback for any Apple product here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Jason

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Answer 10

petersen

Level 1

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Sep 28, 2006 3:23 AM in response to chanda_m

Hi,

I have about the same problem, since my update to itunes 7.
I don't have my podcasts synced automatically, but i drag them manually onto my ipod.
In my dynamic playlists those files still appear, but in the music-view they don't.

Resetting my ipod is not an option, either, as I will lose a lot of Music that I am not able to get anymore!

I made 2 screenshots to clearify my problem ( http://klobs.de/apple/itunes1.png and http://klobs.de/apple/itunes2.png)

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.7)

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Answer 11

ceppm

Level 1

135 points

Nov 16, 2006 12:35 PM in response to chanda_m

Chanda, you're extremely patient with Jason!

I have the same problem as posted a couple of times already and so far nobody has given a proper answer.

As I said before, it seems like Apple's way to force us to buy a new iPod. Shove it!

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Answer 12

ceppm

Level 1

135 points

Nov 18, 2006 4:13 PM in response to chanda_m

Ok, I finally crack it. The name of the game here is "iTunes doesn't like you taking decisions and adding podcasts manually". As long as you keep that in mind, you will do fine.

This is how it works with an iPod 3G, podcasts and iTunes 7:

You can add podcasts manually. However, iTunes will not recognise them and will not show them under the podcasts list. You will have to create a smart playlist to been able to see and play them.

So, once you listened to them, how do you delete them?. As you can't delete from a playlist and you can't see them in your library, there is no direct way to delete them. However, there is a workaround. Not ideal but it works.

What you have to do is tell iTunes to sync your podcasts automatically. Before that, in your library, you have to check only those podcasts that you want in your iPod. Checked podcasts are going to be loaded automatically. If you don't want any podcasts loaded, uncheck all of them.

Then click on your iPod's icon, choose the podcasts tab, check the sync box and choose the options that suit you. Then press Apply.

Eject your iPod and plug it again. Once you do that, iTunes will automatically load all the checked podcasts (if any) and delete from your iPod those that are not in your library (or are unchecked). So, if you unchecked in your library the podcasts that you already listened to and are in your iPod, they should be gone.

At this stage, if you added any new podcasts automatically, they will show under the podcasts icon, below the music icon.

Question for iTunes programmes would be: why is it that iTunes doesn't recognise the podcasts to put them in the podcasts list but it does recognise them to delete them when you are using automatic sync? God knows.

If you still want to manage your podcasts manually. Go back to your iPod icon, select the podcasts tab and uncheck the sync box. Then you will have to repeat the process everytime you want to delete podcasts.

As you can see, it is a lot of work so Apple won. They broke my will, I gave up managing my podcasts manually and I'm letting iTunes do the sync for me. I just check and uncheck boxes before plugging my iPod.

I just hope that iTunes 8 will not do the same with audio tracks. If they force me to sync my audio tracks automatically, I will stop using my iPod and switch to another gadget. Maybe my mobile will cover the gap... and I would not have to carry one more thing in my pockets.

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