Podcasts Not Staying Downloaded

I am having an annoyance with a podcast downloaded from iTunes; seemingly without rhyme or reason, podcasts that I have downloaded and played do not stay downloaded on my computer. The worst part it is that there does not seem to be much consistency with which podcasts stay and which go. Some podcasts stick around on my hard drive after being played, and some just disappear after being played, forcing me to re-download the podcasts if I wish to keep an organized episode list. It is quite annoying, and I was hoping that someone knew what the issue might be and how to solve it.

A few details that might help:

- My iTunes folder is on an internal SATA drive

- I am using iTunes 12.0.1.26

- The "Delete Played Episodes" setting for the podcast is set to OFF

- The "Limit Episodes" setting for the podcast is set to OFF