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Podcast episodes failing to download - IOS 9

Hi all,


Since upgrading to IOS 9 I've been experiencing some strange behaviour on the Podcast app. I subscribe to numerous podcasts and tend to listen to them in chronological order on a custom playlist.


In one of the Podcasts, some of the episodes are failing to download. They are listed in the playlist with a cloud icon - I can play those episodes by streaming them, but they refuse to actually download. Whenever I try to download it, the download icon appears and seems to work until it reaches the 100% mark - then the download icon disappears and the cloud symbol remains. There's no error message, it just fails. No matter how many times I try to download these episodes they all fail.


Even more strange is that the last 3 episodes of the podcast in question (Christian O' Connell show - Absolute Radio) all failed, but the final episode seemed to have overwritten an episode from over a week ago. Let me elaborate - whilst listening to my Unplayed episodes playlist the episode of that podcast, which was for the 14th September, actually played the episode that was released yesterday (24th September) - which was one of the 3 podcasts that had failed to download over the last 3 days. I wondered if it was the fault of the provider, but it was fine in iTunes and downloaded and worked fine with alternative podcast apps.


I assumed that perhaps the podcast app had got its knickers in a twist and unsubscribed then deleted the Podcast and then re-subscribed, but there are still issues with downloads.


I've tried restarting the iPhone, but the problems still exist. This is driving me crazy, has anyone else encountered this issue? Has anyone got a suggestion to solve it?


Thanks in advance,


Simon.

iPhone 5, iOS 8.4.1

Posted on Sep 25, 2015 8:23 AM

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Posted on Sep 26, 2015 4:55 AM

HI there I have exactly the same problem but with a different podcast it's driving me crazy too

28 replies

Oct 2, 2015 12:16 PM in response to sjlawton

I have this problem. I'm subscribed to perhaps a dozen podcasts, and all of them behave as expected except one. That one has the download failure you describe (looks like it's downloading fine until about the 95% point, and then the download progress icon greys out and the cloud icon reappears). I have no idea whatsoever what could be different about this one podcast...

Oct 6, 2015 5:02 PM in response to sjlawton

I'm not getting the really strange problem you talk about later, but for me, podcasts are failing to download all the time. It's quite annoying: the progress circle seems to be working fine, but then when I check back later there's still a cloud icon. No error or warning that the episode failed to download. This is happening with lots of different podcasts. Streaming for those episodes seems to work fine, except that often when I'm out and about I put the phone in Airplane Mode (to save battery), and then the Podcasts app gets to the missing episode and suddenly stops.

Dec 7, 2015 11:36 PM in response to sjlawton

I am experiencing the same problem. I cannot figure any pattern : some episodes are definitlively failing to download locally : the circle starts then goes grey and disappear and the cloud sign stays. And sometime I can hear twice the same episode (probably an overwrite problem as described in the first post)


Any news about this issue ? I am on IOS 9.1

Dec 16, 2015 8:30 PM in response to sjlawton

I have the exact same issue with one of my podcasts, all of which I download manually over wifi within My Podcasts (iOS 9.1 on iPod Touch and iPad). I could not get it to download Friday, Dec. 11th, the same day I got notification that iOS 9.2 was available. I have not upgraded to 9.2. After the podcast download repeatedly failed, I checked that podcasts settings and noticed the Subscribe button was switched off (I never switched it off). I turned it back on but that did not fix it. I then tried restarts, unsubscribe/resubscribe, checked all settings in iTunes and all devices. As of now, it still won't download directly to My Podcasts, even though it will play streaming over wifi. My other podcast (a paid subscription) downloads fine. The one that won't download is free, don't know if that makes a difference. However, I discovered this workaround, which I hope I will only have to use temporarily:

Tap the Search tool within the Podcast app and enter your podcast. The listing there now includes download links to each podcast episode. Tap the cloud icon next to the desired episode. I found downloading from here willcomplete. A button will pop up that says Play, but you can now return to My Podcasts and the episode is now downloaded there (the cloud icon is gone). You can now turn off your wifi and listen offline. The only inconvience is that I noticed a new episode in the Search listing may not appear as quickly as it does in the My Podcasts feed. If this works for you, pass the word. I know it worked for another user as well.

Dec 17, 2015 2:06 PM in response to sjlawton

I am having this issue. It appears to be random, and it's happening about 20% of the time. Not on the same podcasts, and there is no consistent way of solving it. This has not been fixed by updating to 9.2


I generally have to try the following, in order.

* Delete the episode from My Episodes, go to the Feed and redownload.

* Delete the episode from My Episodes, mark as Unplayed in the Feed, restart the app and redownload.

* Delete the episode from My Episodes, mark as Unplayed in the Feed, close all apps, restart the phone, and redownload.


If none of this works, which is now happening with about 1 podcast a week and getting more frequent, then I am needing to download the mp3 from the podcasts website and listen to it using another media player. The more this happens, the less I will be using iTunes and the Podcast app, because it's just too annoying.


From what I can tell, the new Podcast app has a corruption in it that means a lot of files just won't download. I don't know what the cause is, but people I know who have not updated to 9, or are using iTunes but not the Podcast App are not seeing this problem. Also people using iOS 9 aren't getting consistent behaviour with the same episodes. So while I will never be able to download a certain episode without the error, someone else will be able to get that episode with no problem; but the episodes they fail at I can get. This is definitely at the app level.

Apr 2, 2016 2:55 PM in response to sjlawton

Yes I have this problems too ... using Windows version of iTunes, but I always download on my iPod Touch using Wifi.

Download will appear to be downloading until the end and then just stop or loop. Still remains as a 'Cloud' episode (will not complete the download).

I am running current iOS 9.3.1(13E238) version (as of April 2nd, 2016) on the Touch.

I am not subscribing to the podcast in question (This Week in Photo), so I haven't unsubscribed and re-subscribed <yet>.

I haven't gotten the download function to work for a while, days ... VERY frustrating.


The download function (directly from computer) doesn't seem to work <for me> anymore.

Podcast episodes failing to download - IOS 9

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