Q: Podcast update inquiry on iTunes

It would help if you posted the URLs of your Store page and feed. Is this your podcast? -

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/cheapshow/id1022348979?mt=2

This is using the feed at http://rss.acast.com/cheapshow

There are 12 episodes, the latest being October 31, in both the Store and the feed. So if you are seeing more episodes, you are looking at a different feed, not the one the Store is using.

Gannon,

When you change your feed, you should update iTunes and your subscribers using the steps here:

https://help.apple.com/itc/podcasts_connect/#/itca489031e0

You migrate existing subscribers using:

• The <itunes:new-feed-url> tag. For more information, see RSS tags for Podcasts Connect.
• Your web server. You can set your web server to return an HTTP 301 redirect response when it receives a request for the old feed. This response updates the iTunes Store with the new feed URL and your subscribers continue to receive new episodes automatically.

Be sure to maintain the <itunes:new-feed-url> tag and the HTTP 301 redirect response for at least four weeks to ensure that most subscribers have attempted to download your most recent episodes and received the new URL.

Before you change to the feed you link to you need to get it working correctly. The URL given for your top episode's media file is

http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:157831157/sounds.rss/http://f eeds.soundcloud.com/stream/248934730-cheapshowpod-ep-16-80s-flashback.mp3

Obviously this is not correct. The correct URL is the latter part of that one:

http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/248934730-cheapshowpod-ep-16-80s-flashback.mp 3

This error exists in all your episodes.

However when you enter the URL in a browser it downloads instead of playing within the browser as it should. This means that although it works in the iTunes application, the Store can't play it within its own page.

You need to set each file not to download. eiznem has posted the process:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/26564459#26564459

There is an additional step you should carry out to move the feed. Go to https://podcastsconnect.apple.com (sign in if necessary) and click on your podcast. This will bring up an info page with a field containing the current URL of your podcast. Replace this with the new URL and click 'Save'. Then click 'Update' and the page will check that your feed is valid. If there are any errors you should correct them, then click 'Save' and 'Update' again. This will change the Store to using the new feed, but it will take 1-2 days to do so.

Note that doing this does not change anything for your subscribers (since their iTunes applications read the feed directly), so you should also add the 'itunes:new-feed-url' tag as indicated above. The 301 can also be used to redirect anyone subscribing in another feed reader.

Certainly the Store is using the acast feed. I don't see any reason why it should revert to this if you've gone through the process to change the Store to using the Soundcloud feed. The Soundcloud feed can be subscribed to manually in iTunes and doesn't revert (so there is no redirect back process set up there).

Did you go through both processes - the Podcasts Connect page and (if possible) adding the itunes:new-feed-url tag to the acast feed? - the process is described in detail here:

http://wilmut.uk/move

Incidentally you should be aware that when subscribing to the Soundcloud feed the top two episodes don't download (file not found) and possibly this applies to all of them. The media files do work in the acast feed.

Once you have corrected that I suggest you go through the process again. Make sure you follow the method exactly. Then check that the Store is using the Soundcloud feed. The way to do that is described in the fifth paragraph at http://wilmut.uk/submit

Note the exact time you did the redirect. Then check periodically (re-subscribing each time) and if it reverts note the time and date. Then report it to Support. Go to https://itunespartner.apple.com/en/podcasts/overview and click the 'Contact Us' link at the bottom of the page.

I already explained, in my post on March 4th, that the reason your files were not working in the Soundcloud feed is that you have a ludicrously incorrect URL in the feed, so of course iTunes is getting the 'file not found' error.

The Store is indeed still using the acast  feed. I can only assume that the fact that the episodes files error in the Soundcloud feed is causing the Store to reject the feed and revert to the acast one. I suggested a procedure to investigate this in my last post, but you need to get the episode URLs sorted out first or you won't get anywhere. You should correct all the URLs and then subscribe manually to the Soundcloud feed in iTunes and make sure the episodes work before you go any further.

Incidentally if you enter the correct URL for a file - I posted one above - in a browser it's still forcing a download.

I think you may be confusing the feed and the media URLs. let's break it down. I'll put all the URLs in as it's a useful reference for me.

1. The feed currently in use is http://rss.acast.com/cheapshow . This works OK though you say it's not up to date.

2. The feed you want to move the Store to using is

http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:157831157/sounds.rss

If you want to change the Store to using this you must follow the first method set out in the page I linked to and which you quoted from above. This will move the Store (provided the feed you are moving to is OK, more on that in a moment) but it will not move subscribers. To do that you need to add the ''itunesnew-feed-url" tag to the acast feed - if you can. You may not be able to, in which case you can't automatically move your subscribers.

3. So far so good, however the Soundcast feed is currently not usable. Just looking at your top episode, the URL given in the feed for the media file is:

(I've had to post an image of it as the forum software keeps truncating it; of course there are in practice no line breaks in it). You can see for yourself that it's incorrect as you have http:// in there twice - in fact it's two URLs glued together and obviously not going to work. The actual URL of the media file is

http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/251677311-cheapshowpod-cheapshow-episode-17-b atmans-anger-management.mp3

so you need to change the feed to using that URL, and the equivalent for every other episode. The URL works but forces a download, so you need to deal with that. If you have already applied the method linked to above I don't know where you go from there, you would need to take that up with Soundcloud.

4. You should not try to change the Store to the Soundcloud feed until you have corrected the problems and tested it by subscribing in iTunes, and by entering the URL of one of the media files in a browser and making sure it plays there, not downloads. The reason the Store keeps changing back to the acast feed may well be that when it evaluates the Soundcloud feed it finds it's not working and hence removes it.

Neither the URL for your Store page I posted above nor searching on CheapShow finds your podcast in the Store. The URL brings up the message that it is not available. If you have started over as a new podcast please post the URL of the Store page.

The acast feed has episodes up to number 12 of Oct 2015. Your top episode is flagged as 'explicit' but that tag for the entire podcast is set to 'no' and it should be 'yes' if any of the episodes are explicit. There are also a couple of instances of strong language in the description tags (though not in the 'itunes:summary' tags on a quick check) - I don't know whether they are concerned about the 'description' tags (which iTunes doesn't show) but you should note that you are not allowed strong or sexual language in the 'itunes:subtitle' or 'itunes:summary' tags whatever the 'itunes:explicit' tag is set to. Certainly the overall explicit tag being set to no is enough to get your podcast removed, though I can't say whether this is actually what has happened.

As to the number of episodes, the page you link to, http://www.acast.com/cheapshow , has only episodes up to no. 12.

You say

Now, I have removed the rss acast feed from the "Stats-service URL prefix" box on Soundcloud - but it is still telling me that it is sourcing the episodes from ACAST - I can therefore only imagine that the problem is with acast at this point

As it's the acast feed you have submitted to the Store I don't know what Soundcloud has got to do with it.