Partially-played podcasts deleted! Also, auto-delete flips randomly

Question

Level 1

8 points

Partially-played podcasts deleted! Also, auto-delete flips randomly

I put off upgrading to iTunes 7 until a couple of weeks ago. Since upgrading I've noticed two problems with podcasts; these problems did NOT exist with iTunes 6...

First, if I listen to only part of a podcast it gets deleted from my iPod on the next sync. Previously I could listen to part of it on the iPod, then part through iTunes, then pick up again with the iPod, just where I left off. Now I have to manually mark the podcast "unplayed" in iTunes and reload it onto the iPod. Then I have to manually scroll to where I left off -- assuming I remember the timestamp.

The second problem is with auto-deleting of played podcasts. I have iTunes set to auto-delete, but many podcasts seem to get this bit turned off and fail to auto-delete. If I right-click on the podcast I see that the "Allow auto-delete" selection is available; I click on that, then right-click again and update the podcast -- then the played episodes delete as they should. No I am NOT accidentally turning auto-delete off, it's turning itself off for no apparent reason.

Windows XP Pro

Posted on Dec 11, 2006 1:28 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Crash Gordon Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 9, 2007 9:26 AM in response to Crash Gordon

Version 7 insists on clobbering partially-played podcasts no matter what I do. If I right-click on a podcast and select "Get Info" and click the "Options" tab there is a check in the "Remember playback position" box -- yet it doesn't remember!

So now my question is: How do I downgrade to iTunes 6 without losing my podcasts? I'm not concerned with preserving the music files as I can easily re-import them.

Reply

Answer 2

camoracer

Level 5

4,274 points

Jan 9, 2007 11:18 AM in response to Crash Gordon

The deleting from iPod when partially played happens depending on your settings. If set to only keep unplayed episodes, the 'played' status changes as soon as you start listening to the episode. This happened this way even with version 6. The only way around this I have found is to set iTunes and iPod to keep all then manually delete when you are done with an episode. I do this based on playcount since playcount doesn't increment until play finishes.

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 11, 2007 10:03 AM in response to camoracer

That's not true. iTunes 6 did not delete them this way. In fact, neither did iTunes 7 for me until about a week ago.

Now it deletes any podcasts that I've started playing as well.

This is really great "feature" Apple, thanks for that. Who would want to finish a whole podcast anyway? 😟

Reply

Answer 4

Jan 11, 2007 11:25 AM in response to Vertigo50

Okay, so I tried a complete reinstall of iTunes and a Restore of my iPod, and it's STILL deleting unfinished podcasts.

iTunes has become so ridiculously broken at this point that I'm switching to Winamp with the ml_ipod plugin. It puts your podcasts in the Podcasts section of the iPod, and it only deletes them once they've been played. Isn't that an amazing option? 😉

Also, Winamp will scan your folders for changes and update, unlike iTunes. Anyone having these problems, I recommend you try Winamp/ml_ipod.

www.winamp.com
www.mlipod.com

Reply

Answer 5

Jan 13, 2007 9:42 PM in response to Crash Gordon

The second problem is with auto-deleting of played
podcasts. I have iTunes set to auto-delete, but many
podcasts seem to get this bit turned off and fail to
auto-delete. If I right-click on the podcast I see
that the "Allow auto-delete" selection is available;
I click on that, then right-click again and update
the podcast -- then the played episodes delete as
they should. No I am NOT accidentally turning
auto-delete off, it's turning itself off for no
apparent reason.

Windows XP Pro

I'm having a similar, if not the same issue with my 30GB iPod. Some podcasts transfer to my iPod even when I have not selected those podcasts in question. Also, I'm having issues with podcasts not being removed even after being played, as well as those that transfered to my iPod that I didn't want to transfer to my iPod.

Does anybody have any advice that they can share that would help out in this matter?

Thanks!

Reply

Answer 6

Mar 8, 2007 8:47 PM in response to TractorDr.

This is a very unsatifactory 'solution', but here goes.

Every time you're about to sync:

1) Select all podcasts (ctrl-a)
2) Right-click and select 'do not all autodelete'
3) Right-click and select 'mark as unplayed'
4) Sync

Horrible...horrible...to think I just bought another iPod because of it's awesome podcast support.

Reply

Answer 7

Mar 19, 2007 8:20 PM in response to Soccer Shout Phil

Another 'hack' is to create a Smart Playlist for each podcast.

Again, very unsatisfactory but it works.

Reply

Answer 8

Mar 24, 2007 6:07 PM in response to Soccer Shout Phil

Glad to know that I'm not alone in experiencing this issue. I wanted to add that in addition to the described issue, I'm I'm also getting podcasts that are being deleted that I've never even listened to yet! I've tried reinstalling, resetting auto-delete, etc. but the auto-delete turns on by itself even though I've selected it to not allow auto-delete and to keep all episodes.
I have some management and photoshop podcasts that I'd like to keep but they keep getting deleted!
Apple, please fix this now!
Dave

P.S. I'd like to know how the smart playlist is a workaround. Until this is fixed, I've been regularly copying the podcasts to a non-itunes folder but it is frustrating that I should have to do that! Glad to know that I'm not alone with this issue.

Reply

Answer 9

Apr 1, 2007 1:38 PM in response to Davesterx

I wanted to add that in addition to the
described issue, I'm I'm also getting podcasts that
are being deleted that I've never even listened to
yet!

You know, I just started trying to work with podcasts, and no matter what settings I select, I can't manage to keep multiple episodes of a certain podcast that I download. Whether it's by subscription or by manually obtaining the podcast, the brand-new, never-listened-to existing podcast is replaced by the new one that I download. I find this extremely frustrating, and it makes the "Subscribe" function pretty useless if a person wants to keep previous podcast episodes beyond the time that a new episode is released.

I would certainly appreciate any suggestions anyone might have beyond "Do not allow Auto Delete," which doesn't seem to be working.

HP m1072n Windows XP Media Center PC

Reply