Where It's AT – Assistive Technology Blog

The Case of the Vanishing Podcasts

Contributed by Joel Zimba, Special Projects Coordinator, MDTAP

When Apple released an app for managing podcasts a few months ago, I checked it out, found it lacking and forgot about it.  In the flurry of recent upgrades, I didn’t notice a new version of the podcasts had appeared.  This is a busy time of year for podcasting as it relates to the world of assistive technology.  They pour in as quickly as all of the new software and hardware of the Fall season.  That is, until my podcasts vanished.

They weren’t entirely gone.  They still downloaded perfectly nicely on my Mac.  And, once I thought to check, they even showed up in the Podcasts app.  Where they no longer appeared was in the Music app.  This also means they didn’t appear in my New Podcasts Smart Playlist, which lets me listen to the most recent episode of every podcast as it arrives.  To re-cap, podcast section of Music app–empty.  New Podcasts Playlist-empty.

So, I tried to make the switch to the Podcasts app, but I still find it lacking.  Things just don’t work for me.  After some research, I found out how to fix this problem.  Apparently, it’s not quite enough to just delete the Podcasts app and continue as usual.  I had to do the following:

1.  Sync my iPhone

2.  Turn off podcast syncing in iTunes

3. Sync my iPhone again

4. Delete the Podcasts app from my iPhone

5.  Turn on syncing of podcasts

6.  Finally, sync my iPhone once more.

Then all was back to  normal.

Now everything I wasn’t downloading over the past 10 days is back where it ought to be.

I thought it was just me.  At dinner yesterday, I discovered two of my friends were having similar problems.  If your podcasts are missing, or if you don’t care for Apple’s Podcasts app, follow these directions to get your podcasts back to where they belong–in the Music App.

Until Apple gets Podcasts working perfectly, you could try DownCast, which is quite a good Podcatcher.  And, it has the added benefit of not having to sync with a computer.  For now, I’ll stick with the old fashioned way.