Itunes won't refresh podcasts.

Same problem here running OSX 10.10 and iTunes 12 (both latest versions). I also tried to manually refresh podcast but it doesn't help. Sometimes the download symbol in the upper right corner in iTunes appears for a second but nothing happens. New episodes do not even appear in iTunes. If I select a podcast I can click "subscribe" in the lower right corner of iTunes but again nothing happens (normally when I click it, it should say unsubscribe). Same goes for right clicking on a podcast and selecting subscribe or refresh.

Strange and annoying. Sadly I can not remove itunes from OSX and reinstall it, since OSX tells me that iTunes is needed by the OS and can not be deleted. Downgrading to iTunes 11.4 doesn't work also. On iOS I do not have these problems at all. All new episodes appear and can be downloaded.

This worked for me. Log out of your iTunes account and then try.

My podcasts won't refresh

Not sure if you or anyone else still has this problem but I found a solution that worked for me.

1. Go to your Podcast folder (usually iTunes/iTunes Media/Podcasts)

2. Copy the contents of this folder to another folder.

3.Afterwards start iTunes.

4.Go to Podcasts and delete all of them in iTunes.

5.Quit iTunes.

6.Go to your Podcast folder in iTunes (usually iTunes/iTunes Media/Podcasts) and check if all podcasts have been deleted. If not delete the rest so that your Podcast folder is empty.

7. Start iTunes.

8.Go to preferences and make sure that the box is checked where it says something like "adding files to iTunes media folder" (sorry don't know what it says in english).

9.Now press cmd+O and select the new podcast folder that you created in step 2. iTunes copies all contents to its iTunes media folder (might take a while).

10. Afterwards Podcasts in iTunes should work again.

11. Delete the now useless Podcast folder from step 2.

Here is a possible solution, and rant that the poor interface has caused us all to waste time solving this problem. Machine, heal thyself!

See

My iTunes is not downloading podcasts automatically.

I had a similar problem with itunes11.4, OSX 10.6.8. Refreshing podcasts worked great for a few weeks after installing 11.4 update and then quit refreshing. Quitting iTunes, re-opening iTunes, and manually refreshing worked, but was a pretty inconvenient workaround. The only thing different on the drive I know about was that a Flash update had been downloaded and perhaps a security update from Apple. I opened Disk Utility in Applications> Utilities, selected the drive that Applications was on, and selected "Repair Disk Permissions" (repeat a few times if the first trial doesn't work). This fixed the iTunes problem for me and I can now automatically update podcasts every few hours as before. Maybe it'll work for you too.

By the way, if those checkmarks indicating unplayed podcasts that have been downloaded annoy you as much as me (because they can cause new podcasts to play when i don't want them to), the fastest way i found to remove them is command-a to select all when the iTunes podcasts list window is active, then control-click, and from the menu that apears select "Uncheck selection". They're then all gone at once, at least until the next refresh of the list. Still, i wish we could disable the feature via preferences.

This is so irritating!!! But this problem is tied to the syncing of podcasts across devices via iCloud. First off, Apple has no way of letting you "reset" your Podcast sync data. You can delete podcasts all you want, but if you subscribe again, it will still "remember" what has been played. Which is fine IF IT WORKED FLAWLESSLY!!

I've looked everywhere for a way to reset everything back to "blank slate"/"clean"... I can't find a way anywhere. I'm a developer and have tried all sorts of super behind the scene ways too.

What does this have to do with the question here? Well... I too have this problem with iTunes no longer refreshing podcasts (even when trying to do so manually). But guess what? Forget logging out of iCloud/iTunes/Apple ID... simply go to iTunes preferences and then under Store... uncheck the "sync podcasts subscriptions and settings"... now hit refresh and it works... then go back and toggle the setting again, it no longer works.

So again, this is related to Apple's problematic iCloud solution for podcasts. It just doesn't work well most of the time (and now for iTunes for me, not at all).

I'd love to know if anyone has a solution to reset Podcasts COMPLETELY (I'm sick of the weird little bugs that have accumulated over the last few years with this messy solution!). But meanwhile, my work around for this issue is to just manually refresh while toggling on and off this setting (and so far, it keeps things in sync, mostly, across mac and iDevices).

Andre321's approach of relocating the podcast folders and copying them back to iTunes worked for me. Thank you.

I have had a similar issue with podcasts being removed and not showing up for download any more.

Try this -

Right click on the podcast and select 'Reset Plays'

This marks the ones previously played as partially played.

Then select them and mark as played again.

The 'missing' podcasts now show up again for download.

Chris