Where is the On-The-Go station in Podcasts app in iOS9?

I just want to play my podcasts from oldest download to newest. There was the "My Stations" feature that allowed this and I could just listen to different podcasts one after the other all day. Now I'm going to have to interrupt my day to go in at the end of each podcast and tell it which one I want to play.

You can do this. Go to the "My Podcasts" tab and press the "+" in the upper right corner. Give your station a name. Choose all podcasts. Set it to "Play / Oldest to Newest", turn off "Group by Podcast", include Episodes / All, and turn on Unplayed Only. That'll give you a list of all your unplayed podcasts from oldest to newest.

I don't have one convenient list where I can view all podcasts I've downloaded and instead I'm forced to go into every individual show and delete the episodes I've already listened to. Major headache that I hope is resolved fast.

True on the first part, as far as I can tell - I can't find a way to see all episodes that are on the device, both played and unplayed. But for automatically deleting episodes you've already listened to: go to Settings on the device, and select Podcasts. Turn on "Delete Played Episodes"; this should make played episodes disappear after 24 hours, if I understand it correctly. If you want to see played-but-undeleted episodes, the only way I can find to do that is to go into each podcast and see if there are "Played Episodes to be Deleted" in there.

Also in the Settings, which may be interesting for you, is the option to download by wifi only.

I just want to play my podcasts from oldest download to newest. There was the "My Stations" feature that allowed this and I could just listen to different podcasts one after the other all day. Now I'm going to have to interrupt my day to go in at the end of each podcast and tell it which one I want to play.

You can do this. Go to the "My Podcasts" tab and press the "+" in the upper right corner. Give your station a name. Choose all podcasts. Set it to "Play / Oldest to Newest", turn off "Group by Podcast", include Episodes / All, and turn on Unplayed Only. That'll give you a list of all your unplayed podcasts from oldest to newest.

I don't have one convenient list where I can view all podcasts I've downloaded and instead I'm forced to go into every individual show and delete the episodes I've already listened to. Major headache that I hope is resolved fast.

True on the first part, as far as I can tell - I can't find a way to see all episodes that are on the device, both played and unplayed. But for automatically deleting episodes you've already listened to: go to Settings on the device, and select Podcasts. Turn on "Delete Played Episodes"; this should make played episodes disappear after 24 hours, if I understand it correctly. If you want to see played-but-undeleted episodes, the only way I can find to do that is to go into each podcast and see if there are "Played Episodes to be Deleted" in there.

Also in the Settings, which may be interesting for you, is the option to download by wifi only.

Lost in Asia wrote:

I just want to play my podcasts from oldest download to newest. There was the "My Stations" feature that allowed this and I could just listen to different podcasts one after the other all day. Now I'm going to have to interrupt my day to go in at the end of each podcast and tell it which one I want to play.

You can do this. Go to the "My Podcasts" tab and press the "+" in the upper right corner. Give your station a name. Choose all podcasts. Set it to "Play / Oldest to Newest", turn off "Group by Podcast", include Episodes / All, and turn on Unplayed Only. That'll give you a list of all your unplayed podcasts from oldest to newest.

I don't have one convenient list where I can view all podcasts I've downloaded and instead I'm forced to go into every individual show and delete the episodes I've already listened to. Major headache that I hope is resolved fast.

True on the first part, as far as I can tell - I can't find a way to see all episodes that are on the device, both played and unplayed. But for automatically deleting episodes you've already listened to: go to Settings on the device, and select Podcasts. Turn on "Delete Played Episodes"; this should make played episodes disappear after 24 hours, if I understand it correctly. If you want to see played-but-undeleted episodes, the only way I can find to do that is to go into each podcast and see if there are "Played Episodes to be Deleted" in there.

Also in the Settings, which may be interesting for you, is the option to download by wifi only.

The downfall of station (custom playlist) now is that if I have a podcast with say 100 older episodes. I don't want those all in the list. You have the option to exclude that podcast entirely from propagating into your station list.

In my instance, I have some podcast shows which I'm subscribed to which I am all caught up on and so only the most recent shows propagate into the list, but I also want to add single podcast shows from an earlier date and listen through that podcast archive from earlier to later dates. Give the option to add single podcast shows into your station list and that will cover all bases. I don't want to be boxed into automated propagation methods. While it's convenient in propagating my shows that don't have previously downloaded shows and only keeping up with the new shows, it is limited in letting me also selectively add only specific earlier shows to that playlist from a podcast which say I have 100 downloaded episodes. I don't want all 100 episodes propagated into the playlist! And I don't want to only add the most recent ones either by utilizing the "add most recent". I want to add a much older episode and listen forward through the series.

While it's convenient in propagating my shows that don't have previously downloaded shows and only keeping up with the new shows, it is limited in letting me also selectively add only specific earlier shows to that playlist from a podcast which say I have 100 downloaded episodes. I don't want all 100 episodes propagated into the playlist! And I don't want to only add the most recent ones either by utilizing the "add most recent". I want to add a much older episode and listen forward through the series.

Oh, I see - yeah, I can imagine the Podcasts app would be useless for that kind of playback. I hadn't considered that, even though I also subscribe to several podcasts in that way.

What I do with those sorts of podcasts (Stuff You Should Know, In Our Time ... the podcasts that to my mind are more like audiobooks in that I can listen to them years later): I don't even subscribe to them on the iOS device. I subscribe to and download those podcasts through iTunes on my computer (and do I sync podcasts between the different devices and my computer? Oh my god no!), and then change the Media Kind to Audiobooks, and after that manage and sync them as audiobooks. For example, limit the playlist to ten episodes, unplayed only, chosen by oldest or newest or whatever pleases me; whenever I sync, every couple of weeks, the list will repopulate.

Note that earlier this summer Apple moved audiobooks into the iBooks app, which was initially even more disastrous than you would have thought, but now it's manageable. You can't directly sync playlists from iTunes to the iBooks app, but you can use the iTunes playlists to determine what content is actually synced over.

I'm kind of amazed you've ever been able to listen to those sorts of podcasts through the iOS Podcasts app. The early versions of the separate app had me stop downloading podcasts to my iPhone at all for a year or two, and just download and manually sync them from my computer. It was only last year (I guess?) that I started using the Podcasts app at all.

Good luck. The days of looking forward to new updates seem to be a thing of the past - now it's more like "OK, so what will Apple change this time to make it even more difficult to do what I want to?"

Please APPLE, ARE YOU READING EVERYONE'S COMMENTS? The updated iOS 9 Podcast App is horrible! Where is "on the go" so I can simply add a few podcasts that I've selected, in the order I want, to a playlist so I can go jogging or for my commute to work. Everytime APPLE touches the podcast app they make it worst than before. I miss the "tile" look of seeing "my podcasts", then I'd select the tile and then add the individual podcast that I want to "on the go". I can't imagine if the developer of this App even listens to podcast. This can't be any different to listening to music, right? Let's say I have a 1000 songs, but I only want 10 songs added to a personal playlist, like "on the go" was. Voila, now I'm on my way to work.

This is how bad it is, I just started reusing my kid's old iPod Touch 4th gen, with iOS 6, just so I can get back to listening to my podcasts the way I used to. Seriously, APPLE please go back and see how simple the Podcast App used to work in iOS 6. There's even a refresh button there. Man do I miss iOS 6 now. There's no need to update things just for the sake of saying you have an update at your next annual event. If it works, don't touch it. Listen to your users, your customers, not your developers, for suggestions of improvements. This is just so horrible! Thanks for wrecking my podcast experience. I dont look forward to iOS updates anymore!

If you are frustrated with what Apple has done with the Podcast App in iOS 9, especially with the removal of 'the "add to 'on-the-go'" feature, as everyone else is on this community forum, then please write a response to Apple. You can do this as follows:

• Select "Support" on Apple's main webpage (as on an iPad), Then scroll down to "Other Products"
• Select "iOS Apps" and select "Podcasts".
• Select "Podcasts app for iOS: Organizing your podcasts with stations"
• Scroll down / read the instructions titled "Use On-The-Go" which were obviously written for iOS 8 (their last update was March 2015)
• Now scroll down to "Helpful - Yes//No" at the bottom of page.
• Select "NO" and send a reply where it says, "Thanks - please tell us how to help you better"
• Let them know (politely) how this support page no longer applies, how you feel about the Podcast app update in iOS 9, and that you want "add to 'on-the-go'" returned

Maybe if enough of us write a reply, Apple might hear us so they will update the App.

They made a lot of changes to the podcast app, but zero improvements.

I'm switching to a third party podcast app, perhaps podcatcher.

As other have found, you can create in iTunes (on PC/MAC) a Playlist to simulate “On-the-Go” that will play your selected podcasts that you want, and in the order you want. In the short term, this works but is really time consuming and regressive as far as what Apple has done to the Podcast App. Why do I need to go to my MAC to organize my Podcasts in a Playlist – this isn’t like I'm using an iPod Classic or Shuffle, as I used to in back when Apple first created an iPod and iTunes.

Oddly enough, you can still go into the Music App on your IOS 9 device where there's still a tab called “Playlists” and you can still create new playlists and easily add/remove songs to. THAT WAS THE BEAUTY OF “ON-THE-GO”. So why should this be any different with Podcasts. Can’t Apple see that some people may listen to their subscribed Podcasts more than they do with Music or in the same manner as they do as with music!?!

As I’ve stated in an earlier reply, just so I can listen to my Podcasts the way I used too when I’m out jogging / cycling / commuting, I have been “reusing” an older iPod Touch 4^th gen with iOS 6 for the last few days. WHAT A JOY THIS OLD iPOD TOUCH IS! The Podcast App in iOS 6 works the way it should (just like the way they finally got it to work again in iOS 8):

• I can easily see “My Podcast” that I have subscribed to in a tile view.
• I can intuitively figure out how use the forward/reverse slider and the speed control. There’s no fumbling.
• There’s even a “refresh” button in iOS 6 – wow – remember that!
• MOST IMPORTANTLY, it has the “On-the-Go” playlist feature where I can select any Podcasts to, in the way I want.

I just wish Apple would stop “improving” some their built in Apps just to say they have the “most advanced operating system in the world” every 6 months. The latest version of Podcasts in iOS 9 is the worst!

Golden Delicious01 wrote:

If you are frustrated with what Apple has done with the Podcast App in iOS 9, especially with the removal of 'the "add to 'on-the-go'" feature, as everyone else is on this community forum, then please write a response to Apple. You can do this as follows:

• Select "Support" on Apple's main webpage (as on an iPad), Then scroll down to "Other Products"
• Select "iOS Apps" and select "Podcasts".
• Select "Podcasts app for iOS: Organizing your podcasts with stations"
• Scroll down / read the instructions titled "Use On-The-Go" which were obviously written for iOS 8 (their last update was March 2015)
• Now scroll down to "Helpful - Yes//No" at the bottom of page.
• Select "NO" and send a reply where it says, "Thanks - please tell us how to help you better"
• Let them know (politely) how this support page no longer applies, how you feel about the Podcast app update in iOS 9, and that you want "add to 'on-the-go'" returned

Maybe if enough of us write a reply, Apple might hear us so they will update the App.

Just wrote with feedback. Thanks for making this suggestion a part of the thread. Hopefully more people do the same!

I might try to stick it out for now, but otherwise, I'll be off to a 3rd party app.

Totally agree. 'On the Go' was great for longer runs, bike rides, playing in the car without having to fiddle with the phone. Download episodes and create a playlist. This functionality has been lost. Current UI is awful. *** is "Up Next"? What a failure and disappointment! Have not found a similar capability in another podcast app.

TO add a podcast episode to the Up Next list, touch the three little dots on the left of the title, and choose Add to Up Next. To view the list, you need to open the full screen of the current podcast playing by clicking on its name at the bottom of the screen. Then, you need to open the list view, on the right next to the 15 sec forward icon (three lines and dots). This shows you what is on your up next list, and allows you to re-arrange them.

saitamasteve wrote:

TO add a podcast episode to the Up Next list, touch the three little dots on the left of the title, and choose Add to Up Next. To view the list, you need to open the full screen of the current podcast playing by clicking on its name at the bottom of the screen. Then, you need to open the list view, on the right next to the 15 sec forward icon (three lines and dots). This shows you what is on your up next list, and allows you to re-arrange them.

Pretty clumsy. Also, If you start listening to a podcast on your Up Next list and decide you want to instead save that podcast for later, well then you have to re-add that podcast back into your Up Next list cause it automatically removes it. So now you gotta go back to your podcast list and select that podcast, then go through all the motions of adding it baaaacckkk into your list. DUMB.

Sorry, not meaning to be a naysayer just because. But only because there truly is nothing good about it. Not even after getting over the learning curve. OR because I simply have a bias to the old way. It just ***** and there is no way around it.

Totally agree. The new UI is a complete mess. A messy, ugly, overly-complicated disaster.