iPod Podcasts randomly get exclamation marks and stop updating

[rogersmj]

I searched around but couldn't find this, apologies if it has been asked.

For as long as I can remember, podcasts in my subscription list will randomly get an exclamation mark next to them and stop updating. I've lost count of how many times this has happened. This week, it's Diggnation (MP3) and Galactica Watercooler. The only way I can fix it is to delete the podcasts and resubscribe.

This is really annoying. Does anyone know why this happens?

 

[atszyman]

I searched around but couldn't find this, apologies if it has been asked.

For as long as I can remember, podcasts in my subscription list will randomly get an exclamation mark next to them and stop updating. I've lost count of how many times this has happened. This week, it's Diggnation (MP3) and Galactica Watercooler. The only way I can fix it is to delete the podcasts and resubscribe.

This is really annoying. Does anyone know why this happens?

I've found it usually happens to podcasts that I have not listened to an episode in awhile. But I've also found that by clicking on the exclamation point it opens a dialogue box that says something to the effect of "You haven't listened to any of the podcasts in this subscription in awhile, do you want to continue updating?" When I click OK it the exclamation point goes away and updates resume.

You may also have to right click on the podcast and tell it to update now to catch some episodes that it may have missed in it's downtime.

 

[gavd]

What does it say if you click on the exclamation mark? I had this happen once where I hadn't listened to a few podcasts from a subscription. Think the message I got when I clicked the exclamation mark was along the lines of because I hadn't listened to the last few, it had stopped downloading them.

Edit: Too slow.

 

[rogersmj]

I've found it usually happens to podcasts that I have not listened to an episode in awhile. But I've also found that by clicking on the exclamation point it opens a dialogue box that says something to the effect of "You haven't listened to any of the podcasts in this subscription in awhile, do you want to continue updating?" When I click OK it the exclamation point goes away and updates resume.

You may also have to right click on the podcast and tell it to update now to catch some episodes that it may have missed in it's downtime.

Wow I feel dumb Thanks. I didn't even know you could click on the exclamation mark for a message. I just assumed it meant the same thing as in my music library when it can't find the song. I kept hitting the Refresh button at the bottom, but as soon as I right-clicked and manually selected Update Podcast on those it worked.

I think it's doing this in a not-so-great way. Diggnation, for example, I listened to on my iPod just last week. Oh well, at least there's an easy fix.

Thanks both of you!

 

[andiwm2003]

a bit off topic. but is there a way to tell itunes what podcasts to keep and what to delete for each podcast? i can only find a setting for all podcasts.

what i want is to keep all episodes of a photoshop podcast and only keep the most recent episode of a news podcast. but the settings apply to all podcasts. so i either lose the photoshop episodes or i have old news episodes on my HDD.

 

[gavd]

a bit off topic. but is there a way to tell itunes what podcasts to keep and what to delete for each podcast? i can only find a setting for all podcasts.

what i want is to keep all episodes of a photoshop podcast and only keep the most recent episode of a news podcast. but the settings apply to all podcasts. so i either lose the photoshop episodes or i have old news episodes on my HDD.

I'm don't think this can be done but I'm at work so can't check at the minute. I guess in your case it's better to keep all and manually delete the news podcasts. At least that way, you get to keep the photoshop ones you're interested in keeping permanently.

I guess another way would be to do something in Automator or AppleScript to delete the news episodes and have it run once a week / month / whatever.

 

[andiwm2003]

I'm don't think this can be done but I'm at work so can't check at the minute. I guess in your case it's better to keep all and manually delete the news podcasts. At least that way, you get to keep the photoshop ones you're interested in keeping permanently.

I guess another way would be to do something in Automator or AppleScript to delete the news episodes and have it run once a week / month / whatever.

the problem is just that stupid itunes starts to redownload the old news episodes as soon as i delete them. then i have tons of old news that are marked as not heard yet and will never automatically deleted. i hope a future version of itunes allows to say for each podcast what to keep and what to delete. technically it should be easy.

 

[210]

Podcasts

I also find that really annoying. I always have to keep watch on what's downloading and stop the ones I have already heard/watched. Doing this all the time is getting on my nerves.

 

[gavd]

the problem is just that stupid itunes starts to redownload the old news episodes as soon as i delete them. then i have tons of old news that are marked as not heard yet and will never automatically deleted. i hope a future version of itunes allows to say for each podcast what to keep and what to delete. technically it should be easy.

Hadn't appreciated iTunes would do that! I guess you're pretty stuck for now then. Hopefully you'll get what you want in a new version of iTunes then.

 

[iscripter]

a bit off topic. but is there a way to tell itunes what podcasts to keep and what to delete for each podcast? i can only find a setting for all podcasts.

what i want is to keep all episodes of a photoshop podcast and only keep the most recent episode of a news podcast. but the settings apply to all podcasts. so i either lose the photoshop episodes or i have old news episodes on my HDD.

iTunes can already do this just fine for me. Just right click or control click on the podcast episode you want to keep then select from the drop down menu "Do Not Auto Delet". Now when iTunes goes through and does a auto delete it will not delete those episodes.

 

[andiwm2003]

iTunes can already do this just fine for me. Just right click or control click on the podcast episode you want to keep then select from the drop down menu "Do Not Auto Delet". Now when iTunes goes through and does a auto delete it will not delete those episodes.

seems to be a good workaround. i could set all my podcasts to only keep the most recent episode. and then mark all the episodes that i want to keep for "do not auto delete".

the problem is just i'm sometimes not at my mac for several days. so no way to change the settings for the episodes i want to keep. i could turn the mac off and then start downloading and autodeleting stuff when i'm home. that would block my mac for hours. this is all so "non apple" like. all they have to do is allow you to set the options for every podcast separately.