Hello,
My podcast (a series of MP3) just stopped working. Used to work perfectly.
Podcast Cast: https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/wip-glam-house/id492589022?mt=2
Podcast URL http://wippermann.net/WGHPodcast/WGH.xml
The tracks show but they won't play anymore.
Here is how my items are setup. Any help more than welcomed!
The URL of your top episode's media file is
http://wippermann.net/Download/Wip%20-%20The%20Platinum%20Mix.mp3
This leads to a 'Photography Wipperman' page saying 'file not found'.
Hi Roger,
Thank you so much for taking the time to help me!
I have removed all items from the XML that didn't have a file on the sever but the problems is still there.
The list appears correctly (per below) but there is a little explanation mark next to the list items and they won't start.
'French Kiss' won't play because there is no file on the server. I haven't checked any of the others. You need to check every episode actually plays - if it doesn't you need to track down why it's not on the server.
I think we are getting to the bottom of the problem here. Below is the URL I have in my XML for "French Kiss" and when I copy it in a browser it plays the track. Confirming the URL is correct and that the file is on the server, right ?
http://wippermann.net/Download/Wip%20-%20French%20Kiss.mp3
Thanks again for your help! I have literarily spent hours trying to solve this.
The URL you give, which is now the URL in the feed, works OK when accessed in a browser or downloaded. However iTunes will still not download it. I can't offer a solid reason for this, but there is an error in the feed which might or might not be relevant: the 'length' attribute in all your 'enclosure' tags is incorrect - it must be the file size in bytes without separators. At present you have stops, e.g. length="140.630.600".
Other than that, testing in Terminal I get a result suggesting the server is not handling byte range requests - this shouldn't affect iTunes on a Mac, though, only on an iPhone. It's possible your server is reacting improperly to requests from iTunes, and that's something you would have to take up with the people running it. I checked several of your episodes and none of them work in iTunes.
Oddly, iTunes is showing an episode called 'High on Life' - I cannot find this in the feed. The feed can be accessed in a browser, but if I try to access it in Terminal I get 'The requested URL was rejected. If you think this is an error, please contact the webmaster.' It occurs to me to wonder wether there is another version of the feed floating about to which iTunes but not browsers is being redirected - this is pure guesswork. Possibly the server logs will show what is going on.
One other point. You have an episode called 'Pure F****** Sushine'. You need to remove the middle word immediately. If the Store staff spot it they will remove your podcast. If you have any strong or sexual language within any of your episodes you must set the 'itunes:explicit' tag to "yes", but even if this is set you are not allowed such language in titles, subtitles or summaries.
I removed the bad words and changed the length but still no luck. I created a test file XML with one item that used to work well and still no luck:
http://wippermann.net/WGHPodcast/WGHTest.xml
What is the rejection message you get in terminal ? Just "rejected"? I could take this to the server Admin.
Thanks again
I looked at your test feed and there is an error which may be the cause of the trouble. Your 'enclosure' tag reads
<enclosure url="http://wippermann.net/Download/Wip%20-%20Balearic%20Beats%20II.mp3" length="74822240" type="audio/mp3" />
The 'type' attribute is incorrect. It should read type="audio/mpeg" and this might be enough to upset iTunes. This applies to the entries in your full feed. So the first thing to do is to correct that and see whether it solves the problem.
If it doesn't there are other oddities to investigate. The audio file in the test feed plays in a browser but iTunes will not download it. The feed appears to be OK when looked at in Firefox (my default RSS reader) but using curl in Terminal (which should display the entire contents) I get:
curl http://wippermann.net/WGHPodcast/WGHTest.xml
<html><head><title>Request Rejected</title></head><body>The requested URL was rejected. If you think this is an error, please contact the webmaster. <br><br>Your support ID is: 15793630651847968699</body></html
This is an error page generated by the server so the ID number it quotes should be included when you contact the people running your server.
None of this makes a great deal of sense, since the problem in iTunes isn't with the feed but with the media file. When testing that for byte-range requests in Terminal I get:
curl -I -r 200-300 http://wippermann.net/Download/Wip%20-%20Balearic%20Beats%20II.mp3
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Connection: close
Cache-Control: no-cache
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Length: 211
This at least indicates that the server is apparently not responding to a byte range request - the expected result would look like this:
curl -I -r 200-300 http://rfwilmut.net/podcasts/Soundof78s36.mp3
HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2015 10:50:01 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.12
Last-Modified: Sat, 20 Jun 2015 15:27:15 GMT
ETag: "57a161d-a3939a-518f4acea0eb7"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 101
Content-Range: bytes 200-300/10720154
Content-Type: audio/mpeg
I don't know what else the report on your file indicates, except that I would be suspicious of 'Connection: close'.
Thank you so much I send those errors to the webmaster (plus.net) let's see what they say.
You've corrected the 'type' attribute in the test feed but the problem still happens, so it's up to your server people.
The is the reply I got from Aplus. I'm afraid I'm not going to get to the bottom of this : (
Please be informed, that the file is requesting (POST) information from our server using invalid user agents (most likely blank user agent). Only a valid user-agent is allowed to connect to the domain.
What they appear to be saying is that their server is refusing to respond to requests from Terminal (which doesn't matter) and iTunes (which does). Nice. To be brutally honest, I should find another server. It's not rocket science to run a server which behaves itself - any properly run website server should be OK. My podcast is hosted on Godaddy and has never given any trouble. Plus.net appear to be letting you down.
(By the way, 'user-agent' is the information a browser passes along to the server together with the request for data - e.g. Firefox, or Safari. I don't know what user-agent, if any, iTunes sends but plainly Plus.net don't like it.)
Thanks for all your help! I'll test another server!
Kev, to add some more details here- the server where your audio files are located does not support byte-range requests. This is required in order to submit podcasts.
This site allows you to test your feed and you will recognize on the right side next to the audio file information: "byte range support: false".
http://castfeedvalidator.com/?url=http://wippermann.net/WGHPodcast/WGH.xml
Another great testing site is:
This site explains a bit more about a byte-range request.
Consider using the links above to test when you move servers.
Happy podcasting!
-Fan
Podcast Stopped Working
