iTunes won't import some OPML files (podcast subscriptions) from other podcatcher

iTunes (12.6.1.27 on Yosemite) will not import OPML files (podcast subscription lists) from other podcatcher apps.

Background:
I primarily use my (Android) phone to listen and subscribe to podcasts. It works great. The podcatcher app (Podkicker) allows importing/exporting of OPML files to backup and import podcast subscriptions. I used this function initially to set up my phone with podcasts I'd subscribed to in iTunes on my laptop, exporting the podcast subscriptions from iTunes as an OPML file, and importing it into Podkicker on my phone.

For several years now I use my phone for all my podcasting needs, and only occasionally listen on a desktop computer to save phone battery. My phone is now loaded with great podcast subscriptions, and I'd like to transfer these to my laptop's iTunes by exporting an OPML file from my phone, and importing it into iTunes.

Problem:

iTunes ostensibly supports the import of OPML files. To export OPML files, one executes "File > Library > Export Playlist…". To import OPML files it is said to work in reverse: "File > Library > Import Playlist…", point to the OPML file, then allow the import of the playlist as podcast subscription.

But it doesn't work. No error, no dialogue, no feedback. Just no new subscriptions.

Research:
I've looked at the OPML file generated by the podcatcher, and it seems fairly straightforward. XML info with an OPML header string at the beginning.

I then created an OPML from iTunes, and looked at the code using TextEdit

It seems the iTunes OPML file differs slightly. Whereas the OPML generated from my podcatcher is OPML version 2.0, iTunes uses version 1.0. Looking further, each line — each subscription— in the iTunes OPML file includes the tag “type="rss"”, which is missing from the podcatcher's OPML code. Additionally, the date formatting differed in the header "Creation Date"/"Modified Date" tags.

Solution:

I opened the podcatcher-generated OPML file in TextEdit, and made the following changes:

1. Added some linebreaks to match the iTunes OPML and to make it easier to read.
2. Added the tag “type="rss"” (without the enclosing quotes) to each entry.
3. Copy/pasted the creation/modification date from the iTunes OPML file, so that the formatting would match.
4. Copy/pasted the header info from the iTunes OPML file, including changing the version to OPML version 1.0

The podcatcher-generated OPML file included some other tags which the iTunes file did not. I chose to ignore these as the seemed to refer to podcatcher-specific functions such as updating, synchronization and download preferences which iTunes may not support.

I saved the new file to my desktop as “Podcasts_Podkicker_[date]”, and imported it as above (“File > Library > Import Playlist…), and it worked perfectly! In fact, event though some of the subscritions already existed in my iTunes library, these did not create any duplicates. So, in all, it was a fairly painless process.

Conclusion:
It seems the only real issue was the date formatting and the inclusion of the “type="rss"” tag. I had tried importing the file with only the tag included (date format incorrect) and got an error from iTunes. Once I corrected the date formatting, it imported. As a test, I also tried it with the correct date format, but with the rss tag removed. This file would not import at all (same as the original problem). So it seems those are the two requirements.

In the end, it's easier to import an OPML file than re-subscribing via iTunes, but it is necessary to edit the OPML file first.

I finally exported a new OPML file from iTunes with the new subscriptions, and inspected the code. It was now formatted as the original iTunes OPML file I had used as a model. So I just keep a copy of both these OPML files in my cloud backup in case of trouble.