iTunes Skipping Podcast Downloads - Technology Evangelist

Sometimes I wonder why Apple makes the choices they do for default settings in iTunes. For example, if I subscribe to a podcast feed, it's probably because I want to listen to the podcasts in that feed, correct? So why does iTunes only download the latest podcast in the feed, rather than all the new podcasts in the feed since the last time it checked the feed? Because of this, iTunes skips podcasts I expected to receive. This is most commonly a problem when podcasters publish multiple new podcasts in the same day. For example, if you subscribe to receive Technology Evangelist's video or audio feeds through iTunes, you may miss some of our content next month when we're reporting from the 2007 CES show in Las Vegas.

Here's the trick to getting all that you expect from your subscribed feeds:

Click into your Preferences menu in iTunes. Toggle to Podcasts, then change the "When new episodes are available:" menu to "Download all" instead of "Download the most recent one." Problem solved.

I imagine iTunes does it the way they do because infrequent podcast listeners may find the flood of content overwhelming. Regardless, I think they should make this option more visible for all users.

Good point. I think the default for a new subscription should definitely be one file. That gives people a chance to preview the show and download past shows if they want to catch up.

Deleting stuff you don't want isn't difficult, so I think defaulting to on is a better choice, but it's not the end of the world. Making the option more visible would improve the experience regardless of which is the the default. Actually, setting the option at the feed level is probably a better option than at the application level.

Good work -- I thought this was going to turn into one of those 2-hour workarounds, where I can't ever find another person who was having the same trouble.

Comments

1. Posted by: hoberion on December 13, 2006 2:24 PM:

I dont agree, when you subscribe to some video podcasts you realize that some are around 400MB+ (1up.com) a novice user might download 6 or 7 episodes in 1 try and not everyone has a super fast flatfree connection... so the default is ok.

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember personal info?

Comments:

HTML Tags you can use in your posts:
<b>Bold</b> = Bold
<i>Italicized</i> = Italicized
<a href="http://www.othersite.com">Link to Other Site</a> = Link to Other Site

Please keep comments on-topic. Contact authors or other commenters
directly for off-topic conversations.

Notify me of future comments via e-mail

Technology Evangelist Digest - Free Newsletter

Sign up for the free Technology Evangelist Digest to receive daily updates, editorials, and practical advice on emerging technology trends in hardware, software, webware, marketing and beyond.

Technology Evangelist Digest will keep you up to date on the technology trends that will help make you more productive and efficient both in business and your personal life.

Let's face it: If you made it to this line, you must have found something valuable on this page, right? Think about how cool it would be to have something free and interesting to read every day from Technology Evangelist by signing up today.

1. Fill in your email below,
2. Then click on the confirmation email you receive.
3. That's it. Your first Technology Evangelist Digest will arrive within 24 hours.