midmarket
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Q: iTunes giving error Can’t download episodes from your feed.

iTunes is giving forllowing error when I try to add it.

Can’t download episodes from your feed.


The feed url is http://www.midmarket.org/feeds/midmarketradio/itunes


Not sure why it can't download from feed. Can anyone help me to resolve it.


Thank you.

Posted on Jul 1, 2016 10:48 PM

by Roger Wilmut1,Solvedanswer
Roger Wilmut1 Roger Wilmut1
Level 9 (78,198 points)
iTunes
A:

That's not the result I get with CastFeedValidator, indeed it complains it can't parse the feed because of invalid XML in line 1, though two other validators do not confirm this, and I can't see anything wrong. However you definitely do not have any enclosure tags in your feed.  Please look at the actual coding - the easiest way to do this is to look at this FeedValidator report.

Posted on Jul 5, 2016 6:47 AM

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Q: iTunes giving error Can’t download episodes from your feed.

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Roger Wilmut1,Helpful

    Roger Wilmut1 Roger Wilmut1 Jul 5, 2016 4:08 AM in response to midmarket
    Level 9 (78,198 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 5, 2016 4:08 AM in response to midmarket

    You have introduced a fatal error into your feed which renders it unreadable. The first 'description' tag in line 13 reads:

     

    <description>The Hub for Midsize Companies, Vendors, Capital Providers & Influencers Worldwide</description>

     

    You cannot have an ampersand ('&') by itself in a feed because in XML it signifies the beginning of a code sequence. Since this is never completed it looks to RSS readers as if the rest of the feed is the code. You need to replace it with either the word 'and' or the code

     

    &amp;

     

    as you have done in a number of other instances. I haven't checked to see whether there are any other loose ampersands in the feed.

     

    There is an additional point which might well cause problems. Your enclosure tags contain only the URL of the media file. The need also to contain 'length' and 'type' attributes, like this:

     

    <enclosure url="THE FULL URL OF THE MEDIA FILE FOR THE EPISODE" length="FILE SIZE IN BYTES" type="FOR AN MP3 FILE - audio/mpeg" />

     

    The 'length' attribute may not matter so much with the Store, but it needs the 'type' to recognize the file.

     

    Also, your media files are hosted on Amazon and use https (secure connection). This is inadvisable; if in each case you change the https to http it should still work. There have been problems with the use of Amazon, so if you still get problems after correcting the two points above that would be the next place to look.

  • by midmarket,

    midmarket midmarket Jul 5, 2016 4:24 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Publishing
    Jul 5, 2016 4:24 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

    Hi Roquer , Thanks for replying.

     

    I have removed the & from the description and also moved podcast files from amazon server to web server. Also made the enclosure to look exactly like you have told.  It is still giving the error.

    Can’t download episodes from your feed.


    The url of the feed is http://www.midmarket.org/feeds/midmarketradio/itunes


    The feed is successfully validated on http://podba.se/validate   and https://validator.w3.org/feed/

    I'm trying to find what could be wrong with feed , so that it is not downloading in iTunes.


    Thank you.

  • by Roger Wilmut1,

    Roger Wilmut1 Roger Wilmut1 Jul 5, 2016 4:35 AM in response to midmarket
    Level 9 (78,198 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 5, 2016 4:35 AM in response to midmarket

    Most validators only check that the actual XML is valid. It's worth using http://castfeedvalidator.com/ which checks the media files as well.

     

    Your problem is that you now have no 'enclosure' tags, so no media files accessible to iTunes. You had these tags before, so you've done something to get them removed.

  • by midmarket,

    midmarket midmarket Jul 5, 2016 5:03 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Publishing
    Jul 5, 2016 5:03 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

    Hi Roger,

    I have checked with http://castfeedvalidator.com/ with my feed http://www.midmarket.org/feeds/midmarketradio/itunes and it is saying feed items with enclosure exist . But it says invalid enclosure.

    Below is the enclosure in my feed.

     

    <enclosure url="http://www.midmarket.org/sites/default/files/E17A1_MP3.MP3" length="4177152" type="audio/mpeg" />

     

    Not sure what is not validating in my enclosure.

     

    Thank you.

  • by Roger Wilmut1,Solvedanswer

    Roger Wilmut1 Roger Wilmut1 Jul 5, 2016 6:47 AM in response to midmarket
    Level 9 (78,198 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 5, 2016 6:47 AM in response to midmarket

    That's not the result I get with CastFeedValidator, indeed it complains it can't parse the feed because of invalid XML in line 1, though two other validators do not confirm this, and I can't see anything wrong. However you definitely do not have any enclosure tags in your feed.  Please look at the actual coding - the easiest way to do this is to look at this FeedValidator report.

  • by midmarket,

    midmarket midmarket Jul 5, 2016 10:36 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Publishing
    Jul 5, 2016 10:36 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

    Thanks a lot Roger,

     

    Finally it was worked. Although I could see the enclosure tags as I logged in as adminstrator, for anonymous users 'enclosure' tag was not visible in feed. Hence it was not validating. After clearing the cache in the website. It worked and http://castfeedvalidator.com and apple iTunes successfully validated the feed.

     

     

    Regards.