Q: Podcast app crashing in iOS 9

Thanks ollyjmatt. Best work around I've found so far and works easily.

Okay. So I have went and sent a request to Apple stating that the app isn't working and I have found something else. When you click to choose which version of Podcats you are using, the version number goes to version 2.2. So I went to the settings on my phone just to make sure that I wasn't using an older version of the app and found that it was actually version 2.3. So, I'm guessing that somehow, my phone and maybe others have also downloaded the version 2.3 somehow when their phone updated and it will not run in ios 9.0. This seems like a logical answer so now I am thinking that it should be downgraded to version 2.2 but I'm not sure how I could do that since the app cannot be deleted and reinstalled. Does anyone else see this or is it just me?

Hi AppleHome

So once you've changed the media kind of the podcast to audiobook, which it sounds like you've done, you then go back to the view in iTunes of your iPhone (the view where you would usually add and remove items.

Instead of selecting the podcasts view in the left hand side menu, you click on the audiobook view. Then in there you should be able to see any track that has been classed as an audiobook, which now should include your recently changed podcasts.

You can then tick those to be added to your iPhone and hit apply or sync and they should be uploaded.

Then in your iPhone go to where you keep your audiobooks - I think by default it is in the Books app - and the newly added podcasts should be there to listen to.

Hope that helps

Forgot to mention that I chose to change the media to music and so the podcasts appear as songs with the podcast name as album. Works also for video.

Same issue as described in the original post, but restoring my phone is not an acceptable answer to the problem. Can we get a response that someone at Apple is working towards a fix?

WHAT WE KNOW

• This problem can affect any device running iOS 9 (the model doesn't seem to matter).
• The number of subscribed or unplayed podcasts does not seem to make a difference (although we have insufficient data).
• There's no known reasonable solution or workaround (restoring from backup, deleting Podcasts app storage, toggling settings).
• Apple support can't provide any fix, yet.

WHAT WE CAN ASSUME

• Apple developers are probably aware of this by now.
• Apple developers are probably working to fix this.
• The fix will probably come in an iOS 9.0.x update, since the Podcasts app comes bundled with iOS 9.

TEMPORARY ALTERNATIVES

• Use a different free or premium podcasts app, such as Overcast, Pocket Casts, Downcast, or any of the other podcast apps for iOS. (If you sync your podcasts to iTunes, then you can export an OPML of your subscriptions and import that into your new podcasts app.)
• In iTunes, change the media type to audiobook or music, resync, and listen to the podcasts through other apps.
• Downgrade to iOS 8.4 and restore from a pre-iOS-9 backup.

I'll update this post as we know more.

I had the exact same problems as everyone else here. The Podcast app would crash at various times, or hang and say it was rebuilding the library. Then I found that most of the native iOS apps weren't working, with Photos, the App Store, and Facebook crashing instantly, and Messages either crashing or freezing. Even Settings would crash on me and I would get error messages trying to restore from backup from my computer.

But after a hard reset, I was able to get back into Settings and turn off all of the options in the Podcast app. That seemed to stabilize Photos. I deleted a bunch of old photos, which allowed me to open Music and delete a bunch of old songs. I have both backed up, so I can go back and retrieve them again. But after clearing a bunch of space off the phone (even though it said I had lots of space available), most of the apps started to work again.

After one final reset, Messages started working again, and the Podcast app was up and running. All without having to reset or lose any actual data. It may not be a solution for everyone, but it may be worth a shot for some of you.

ollyjmatt!! I finally found it on my phone, Thank you!

I went to iBooks, Selected Audiobooks from the top drop-down menu, it's there

I had the same problem. The only way I was able to fix it was restore as a new phone. Very frustrating!!

On the plus side, I have a ton of space on the phone now.

AND, episodes are under "chapters".

FYI - I just updated to iOS 9.0.1 and it DID NOT fix the Podcasts app issue.

No fix in iOS 9.1 (Beta 2) very sad

Today's update 9.0.1 doesn't fix this Podcasts problem for me neither.

I am a podcaster too and can't listen on iPhone6+ because I updated to iOS9 and now it crashes. I've tried deleting podcasts...restoring from a backup. I'm not yet willing to start from scratch by erasing all and starting over. Very frustrating spent a couple of hours on the phone with Apple support–they weren't even aware of the issue. What else is working for anyone?

I have also heard that the podcast app has another bug (for those whom are able to launch and use the app). Apparently if you set spring to "Oldest First" the app stops working. So that may be a contributor to this issue since I know I used that feature on some podcasts.