Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Download folder for Podcast app
- Thread starter liev_
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
In Catalina Podcasts are "Hidden" and stored in the "Cache" folder in ~/Library/Group Containers/243LU875E5.groups.com.apple.podcasts
This new organization does not seemed designed to be user managed, FWIW podcast files do not display the original file names and changing any meta data does not seem to be availble in the new podcast app.
Most of the files I have found so far are .mp3 or .mv4 and can be copied to the desktop to edit or manually manage the file ( edit meta data etc.)
This new organization does not seemed designed to be user managed, FWIW podcast files do not display the original file names and changing any meta data does not seem to be availble in the new podcast app.
Most of the files I have found so far are .mp3 or .mv4 and can be copied to the desktop to edit or manually manage the file ( edit meta data etc.)
mikzn,
this is a bad idea from Apple. it makes organising and renaming the files much more time consuming
is there anyway round it so it was like the 'good old days' in itunes where:
1. name of the podcast is there, without us having to go through each individually to rename them to original name and date?
2 can we direct podcasts so it downloads to the external HD like when we had itunes? l have checked preferences and all the menu, but no option can be seen my mbpr has limited space, and has gone down from ~90GB free to 15GB free since downloading catalina 10.15.
3. to delete podcasts can we just go to ~/Library/Group Containers/243LU875E5.groups.com.apple.podcasts OR just click the 3 horizontal circles in 'podcasts' and choose 'Remove'. Is 'remove download' same as 'delete from library' so it frees up the space?
3b and to download do we choose 'save episode'. all previous downloads from podcasts was done automatically, but l have turned this feature off.
please let me know asap. thanks
this is a bad idea from Apple. it makes organising and renaming the files much more time consuming
is there anyway round it so it was like the 'good old days' in itunes where:
1. name of the podcast is there, without us having to go through each individually to rename them to original name and date?
2 can we direct podcasts so it downloads to the external HD like when we had itunes? l have checked preferences and all the menu, but no option can be seen
my mbpr has limited space, and has gone down from ~90GB free to 15GB free since downloading catalina 10.15.3. to delete podcasts can we just go to ~/Library/Group Containers/243LU875E5.groups.com.apple.podcasts OR just click the 3 horizontal circles in 'podcasts' and choose 'Remove'. Is 'remove download' same as 'delete from library' so it frees up the space?
3b and to download do we choose 'save episode'. all previous downloads from podcasts was done automatically, but l have turned this feature off.
please let me know asap. thanks
I’m so glad Apple spent a decade turning Mac OS X into iPad OS and now with Catalyst it’s dumbing down is nearly complete. Killing the desktop, blocking users manage their files. <frown>
is there anyway round it so it was like the 'good old days' in itunes where:
1. name of the podcast is there, without us having to go through each individually to rename them to original name and date?
2 can we direct podcasts so it downloads to the external HD like when we had itunes? l have checked preferences and all the menu, but no option can be seen
3. to delete podcasts
1) the files are stored in the cache folder with very long file names for reference and sync and it makes it hard to identify the files - especially if you have a lot of downloaded podcasts - see screen shot below - you can edit the files if you can find the one you are searching for with any tag editor (VLC ?) but I am not sure how that will affect the synchronization with iOS devices ? Probably not a good idea - I have not tried it
2) Redirecting to external drive - again not sure how this will affect the synchronization with iOS devices ? Duplicates? it will definitely take up more space if you store a lot of back issues of the podcasts
3) I think it is best to use the Podcasts app to delete files so that they don not reappear form icloud / iOS devices
Initially i thought the separation of Podcasts in Catalina was a really good idea and thought that Apple would offer more features and improvements - but the opposite has happened - "Podcasts" has been "nerfed" to be more like the iOS app
- to make it worse I find out my iPP 12.9 on iOS 13 is no longer recognized on Mojave - so no going back mikzn, thanks for reply. so for:1) the files are stored in the cache folder with very long file names for reference and sync and it makes it hard to identify the files - especially if you have a lot of downloaded podcasts - see screen shot below - you can edit the files if you can find the one you are searching for with any tag editor (VLC ?) but I am not sure how that will affect the synchronization with iOS devices ? Probably not a good idea - I have not tried it
2) Redirecting to external drive - again not sure how this will affect the synchronization with iOS devices ? Duplicates? it will definitely take up more space if you store a lot of back issues of the podcasts
3) I think it is best to use the Podcasts app to delete files so that they don not reappear form icloud / iOS devices
Initially i thought the separation of Podcasts in Catalina was a really good idea and thought that Apple would offer more features and improvements - but the opposite has happened - "Podcasts" has been "nerfed" to be more like the iOS app
View attachment 872663
1. I do have VLC, what is the difference between using it or just the cache folder where all the podcasts are and renaming them there so can be identified, as the podcasts' names are now meaningless by default. so why use VLC? I don't make use of syncing. guess just a bit to naive!
2. understand the podcasts are stored in cache folder as you directed (thanks) but is there a way to direct it to an external drive, rather than my mbpr which has very limited space!
as l said, l dont sync / use the icloud (have 5GB and all used up), so
3. to delete podcasts can we just go to ~/Library/Group Containers/243LU875E5.groups.com.apple.podcasts OR just click the 3 horizontal circles in 'podcasts' and choose 'Remove'. Is 'remove download' same as 'delete from library' so it frees up the space?
3b and to download do we choose 'save episode'. all previous downloads from podcasts was done automatically, but l have turned this feature off.
thanks again for help mikzn 👍
I haven't updated to Catalina yet, but it is still possible to save downloaded podcasts - the "physical" mp3 files - forever without having them deleted after listening or a specific period of time? I neither want to have my previous downloaded and saved podcast files deleted when upgrading to Catalina nor do I want to have future podcast downloads deleted as every music podcasts I subscribed to should be archived on my hard drive.
Is this still possible the same way with the new dedicated Podcasts app as it was before im iTunes? Thanks a lot in advance for the info, highly appreciated!
Is this still possible the same way with the new dedicated Podcasts app as it was before im iTunes? Thanks a lot in advance for the info, highly appreciated!
Welcome to Apple, it was bound to happen eventually, sadly. I'm waiting for a macOS jailbreak that'll allow you to access your computer's file system.
1) I just mentioned VLC because you can use it to edit the meta data - with VLC you can edit both video podcasts and audio podcasts but it is very clunky (confusing to use) and not a very good solution if you wish to edit more than 1 or 2 files
2) I don't know how to redirect the storage of podcasts to an external drive on Catalina - maybe a symlink - but it would probably be broken each time there is an upgrade of catalina? not sure
3) Yes use the 3 dots (•••) in the "Downloaded" menu in the sidebar to remove or save a Podcast to the local drive - I have noticed that to remove a local podcast I had to remove it 2 times (not sure why)
Might be a good idea to check the "Downloaded" folder to make sure the files are actually saved - it does seem easy to save the files locally
Last edited:
yes still possible to save "Podcasts" as per above comments and screen shot - FWIW I did not lose any podcasts when upgrading from Mojave to Catalina - it must have pulled them from the previous iTunes folder
that said IMHO, I would make a very good back up (on a separate unconnected drive) of the complete iTunes folder before upgrading
Here is something I just noticed - In Catalina you can still drag the Podcast file from the Podcasts app to another folder and it will create a copy of the file to where ever you dragged and released the file
Unfortunately it will not play in "Podcasts" App from that location - but could be an easy way to save to an external drive.
Unfortunately it will not play in "Podcasts" App from that location - but could be an easy way to save to an external drive.
Last edited:
Thanks a lot for the info – definitely will be sure that my Time Machine and Carbon Clone Copy backups are up to date before upgrading to Catalina!
mikzn, thanks for your helping again. we arent as knowledgeable or techno'phobes' like me, actually love tech just not very smart!
so to remove podcasts, l choose 'Remove...' 1a. whats the difference between the 2 choices 'remove download' and 'delete from library'? since l want more space on my mbpr, l transfer podcast from the app to the external drive first, (the original english podcast name happily transfers) l tried both 'delete / remove' methods, the download cloud icon reappears, but theres nothing in my trash
and the HD size doesnt seem to increase in size. however when l delete from the default cache folder for podcasts where they have, time wasting, difficult to identify random alphanumeric names (Apple think it's users have too much time on their hands??) , it goes to the trash where, when l delete space is immediately restored to mbpr HD does space immediately restore when you delete / remove from app?there is 1 podcast which has many 'programmes' in it, few which l never watch or want to have the option to download, 1b. do l just click the 3 horizontal dots next to the cloud download icon and choose 'delete from library' so l dont have to see these specific podcasts again in future? 2. for future downloads, can podcasts be directed to specific drive (l want to automatically download to my external drive like l did before with itunes), l tried dragging it from the podcasts app to the drive, then deleting from podcasts and redownloading, but it goes back to the default cache folder with the random alphanumeric name.
thanks again for help mikzn