Couple of problems with Podcast app on iPhone

[Laimbeersux]

Recently I have noticed a few inconsistencies in the operation of the Podcast app and figured I'd ask here to see if anybody had any ideas. The two problems that I have are as follows:

1. Sometimes I'll download a podcast on my house's wifi so I don't have to use my data plan. I will then try to play the podcast on my iPhone during my 1.5 hour one way commute, only to find out that the podcast has mysteriously been deleted from the phone for no reason, and definitely not by my hand. I'm thinking there's a setting that I'm not seeing, but I have no idea what it is.

2. The opposite problem. Other times I will download a podcast, say the one for Monday, listen to it, then on Tuesday when the new episodes are available, download the new episodes, and sync the phone via my computer. I have it set up so it will only sync the podcasts that are unplayed, but after a sync, most of the times it won't delete the previous day's podcasts, even after multiple syncs. I'm left to just delete them from the phone. It'd be nice to have it work as expected, sync all the podcasts to the computer, and only the unplayed ones to the phone.

Any ideas on either issue? I love podcasts and they help my ungodly commute (3 hours total daily) to feel a little less like the soul-draining time that it really is.

[DefBref]

Cant really help you with your problem, the apple podcast was so buggy and inconsistent when I used it, I switched to a third party app (Downcast).

I suggest you look at alternatives rather than using apples podcast app. I find downcast brilliant and it has so many more features than the apple podcast app.

[hobx]

Had the same problems so ditched it in a second. Currently I download the podcasts through itunes and sync that way. A problem if you're away from the computer but at least they're always there!

[Laimbeersux]

Originally Posted by hobx

Had the same problems so ditched it in a second. Currently I download the podcasts through itunes and sync that way. A problem if you're away from the computer but at least they're always there!

I'm not usually away from the computer for long enough for it to matter, and likely will be away from it even less because of my new Air purchase. I'm just going to download them onto the computer for now and see if I have the same problems. It's frustrating because I, like many others most likely, never had these kind of problems with podcast syncing when the podcast player was integrated into the itunes app.

[hobx]

Originally Posted by Laimbeersux

I'm not usually away from the computer for long enough for it to matter, and likely will be away from it even less because of my new Air purchase. I'm just going to download them onto the computer for now and see if I have the same problems. It's frustrating because I, like many others most likely, never had these kind of problems with podcast syncing when the podcast player was integrated into the itunes app.

Exactly, and it is still integrated in itunes. If you download the way I mentioned they sync to the normal music player rather than the podcast apps. Its just downloading direct to the ios device that has been removed in leiu of the Podcasts app.

[Laimbeersux]

The last two days i've been just using the computer to download and sync them, and it has worked flawlessly. Weird problems, wish it actually worked like it was supposed to.

[madsci954]

Originally Posted by DefBref

Cant really help you with your problem, the apple podcast was so buggy and inconsistent when I used it, I switched to a third party app (Downcast).

I suggest you look at alternatives rather than using apples podcast app. I find downcast brilliant and it has so many more features than the apple podcast app.

I second Downcast. Before, I used to download via iTunes, sync, and play with the Music app. This was becoming a hassle in the mornings before work so I switched to Downcast. Now I just launch the app, swipe down to refresh, and that's it. Plus it has iCloud support to sync between all your iOS devices.