deleting podcast episode in iTunes deletes entire podcast

This is a bug with the classic list view of podcasts when using the context menu. Select and delete with the keyboard and it should only delete the selected items. Use iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > Reset Warnings and make sure to review the text of the dialog box before committing to action.

tt2

After restoring files disconnect from the Internet before you launch iTunes. In iTunes go to Edit > Preferences > Store and turn off Sync podcast subscriptions and settings. Connect to the Internet, then try unsubscribing and resubscribing to the podcast. Finally try syncing setting again if that is what you want, it might keep the series now.

tt2

I had the same problem in iTunes 12.9 on Windows 10 about fifteen minutes ago. Thankfully I have backups of my iTunes library that I can restore (but it may take over an hour). I do not recall any of the wording in the dialog boxes showing any indication that the entire series, and not the two selected episodes, would be deleted.

You only need restore the state of the affected podcast folder and the iTunes Library.itl file, assuming there weren't other major changes to the library you also want to undo.

Here is an example of the warning when using the context menu.

Using the delete key asks about deleting the specific episode.

tt2

Wow -- I had no idea that iTunes syncs podcast information over the Internet. Your tip to disconnect from the Internet did the trick. The Internet synchronization actually came in handy in that it was able to mark as watched some podcasts that I watched after my last backup. I'll be watching the dialog boxes carefully to see how they read when I attempt to delete a single episode.

I'm now on my fourth attempt at restoration. I tried using what appeared to be a shadow copy of the iTunes Library.itl file from just before the deletion, and I've tried doing partial file restoration (including your recommendations) with a slightly older version of the library file. When I open iTunes after the file restore finishes, it shows the restored podcasts briefly, starts to update their watched status, and then the podcasts vanish again (including almost all of the files in the actual folders). I'm now attempting to restore the entire iTunes folder to the last actual File History backup from an external drive. I'm not sure if maybe there's a Windows-specific behavior I'm triggering that causes it to "remember" what I've deleted. The library is roughly 170 GB, and I'm restoring from a USB 2.0 external drive, so it's not exactly a quick process.