randorfer
Level 1 (4 points)
iTunes

Q: Podcast Feed from Feedburner Rejected by iTunes

I work for the State of Michigan and am trying to get our podcasts onto iTunes.  I created a feed on Feedburner as the direct XML code from our website did not seem to work.

 

Page where podcasts are stored:

http://www.michigan.gov/mdard/0,1607,7-125-1572_28248---,00.html

 

Podcast page XML url:

 

http://www.michigan.gov/podcast/0,2348,7-125-28248--58532-,00.xml

 

Feedburner url that was submitted and rejected by iTunes:

 

http://feeds.feedburner.com/MichigangovPodcasts-MdardPodcasts

 

I can listen to the podcasts at the Feedburner feed, but it does not show the lengths of the podcasts, only 0s. (Not sure if that is an issue.) The rejection email only said that "The podcast located at the URL shown below has been blocked or removed from the iTunes directory as a result of technical problems with the feed. " So that doesn't really give me much to go on.

 

I followed the directions in the email and attempted to subscribe to the podcast manually in iTunes and I was able to do that.  Because of the way the Michigan.gov website is set up, I am not really able to go into the code and make changes. I may be able to request that be done, but basically we can just post HMTL content to our pages, but the overall site structure is managed by someone else.

 

Any insight would be helpful.

Posted on Jul 12, 2016 1:55 PM

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randorfer

Q: Podcast Feed from Feedburner Rejected by iTunes

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  • by Roger Wilmut1,

    Roger Wilmut1 Roger Wilmut1 Jul 13, 2016 12:45 AM in response to randorfer
    Level 9 (78,198 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 13, 2016 12:45 AM in response to randorfer

    Validators throw up minor errors but nothing which would cause the error message you got. You don't have 'itunes:subtitle' or 'itunes:summary' tags for your episodes, your 'lastBuildDate' and 'pubDate' tags should say 'EDT' not 'Eastern Daylight Time', and you don't have any 'itunes:duration' tags (so the Store wouldn't know the duration and the iTunes application doesn't show the duration until an episode has been downloaded).

     

    None of these should be fatal, though the absence of 'itunes:subtitle' tags leaves that column blank when subscribing and the Store may baulk at their absence. While sometimes there are problems between servers and the Store this isn't at all likely with a Feedburner feed.

     

    The media file in the top episode is OK and is correctly referenced. Your 'itunes:image' is compliant with requirements. I'm afraid I can't see what is causing the problem. It's not unknown for glitches to happen in the submission process, so I suggest addressing the issues I mentioned and trying again in a couple of days. If you still get a problem you could try contacting Support, though I can't promise they will be helpful. Go to https://itunespartner.apple.com/en/podcasts/overview and click the 'Contact Us' link at the bottom of the page.


    You may find it helpful to read my 'get you started' page on podcasting, which includes a basic sample feed so you can see what one should look like: http://wilmut.uk/pc