I've managed through every usability regression of Podcasts.app -- until now.
With the loss of playlists I can't figure out how use Podcasts.app without cellular streaming. In particular, I can't figure out how to create a set of on-device episodes I can play sequentially while driving without streaming.
Does anyone have a method to do this?
(I usually load episodes onto the device through iTunes sync.)
I also tried Overcast & didn't like it. That is why I tried RSSRadio (and others). It has a free version (with banner ads at bottom) and an upgrade to remove the ads. It has tons of settings (they are mostly useful and can be applied per feed) but I think it is pretty simple once you learn how to use it.
Option 1
I haven't tried Google Drive. If you really like that as a solution you should investigate 'workflow' apps or workflow services. I suspect an IFTTT job could see new episodes in a podcast feed & save them to a folder, otherwise Apples Workflow app may do something similar (not tried any of these, just a thought).
IFTTT helps your apps and devices work together - IFTTT
Workflow — Powerful automation made simple.
Obviously you are now 'reinventing the wheel' and you may have weird edge case issues, like when an episode gets reuploaded or feeds get redirected etc.
Option 2
Dropcaster is a script to create a podcast feed from files in a folder (intended to be in Dropbox, but GDrive may work too). GitHub - nerab/dropcaster: Simple Podcast Publishing with Dropbox
That could be another option I guess. This assumes you still want to download from a feed.
Option 3
If you are intent on syncing downloaded files from iTunes on a computer to a device you can consider changing the media type of episodes from 'podcast' to audiobook or music (get info in iTunes). That will cause them to sync to the Audiobooks app or the Music app. That is a horrid workaround IMO but sometimes you have to do what makes you happiest 🙂
These seem convoluted to me, I don't understand why you cannot grab episodes via Wi-Fi on the iOS device. Does it have to be synced from iTunes?
I also tried Overcast & didn't like it. That is why I tried RSSRadio (and others). It has a free version (with banner ads at bottom) and an upgrade to remove the ads. It has tons of settings (they are mostly useful and can be applied per feed) but I think it is pretty simple once you learn how to use it.
Option 1
I haven't tried Google Drive. If you really like that as a solution you should investigate 'workflow' apps or workflow services. I suspect an IFTTT job could see new episodes in a podcast feed & save them to a folder, otherwise Apples Workflow app may do something similar (not tried any of these, just a thought).
IFTTT helps your apps and devices work together - IFTTT
Workflow — Powerful automation made simple.
Obviously you are now 'reinventing the wheel' and you may have weird edge case issues, like when an episode gets reuploaded or feeds get redirected etc.
Option 2
Dropcaster is a script to create a podcast feed from files in a folder (intended to be in Dropbox, but GDrive may work too). GitHub - nerab/dropcaster: Simple Podcast Publishing with Dropbox
That could be another option I guess. This assumes you still want to download from a feed.
Option 3
If you are intent on syncing downloaded files from iTunes on a computer to a device you can consider changing the media type of episodes from 'podcast' to audiobook or music (get info in iTunes). That will cause them to sync to the Audiobooks app or the Music app. That is a horrid workaround IMO but sometimes you have to do what makes you happiest 🙂
These seem convoluted to me, I don't understand why you cannot grab episodes via Wi-Fi on the iOS device. Does it have to be synced from iTunes?
You still use Apples app?
There are many alternatives, I prefer this…
It will download over Wi-Fi if you configure it that way. Give some of the competing apps a test you may find one that isn't frustrating.
The loss of syncing play status back to iTunes is something I miss but frankly losing that is better than trying to make Apples app do what I want, they only go and ruin it again 6 months down the line.
I just tried Overcast premium. Alas, wasted $10 there. I'll keep looking.
http://tech.kateva.org/2017/12/overcastapp-upload-feature-in-premium.html
Maybe I can sync my old iPod to iTunes and use the Podcast app on that thing. Another option -- use one of our old iPhone 4s for podcasts and leave it in the car.
I'm not sure how practical this really is, but it's simple and different.
I can drag a set of podcast files from iTunes to Google Drive on my Mac. Google Drive sync uploads automatically.
On my iPhone the new gDrive client has a slightly obscure but effective way to quickly select a set of files to keep locally.
When I view in Google Drive and tap on a podcast I get a reasonable UI with 30 sec forward/rewind. If I turn my iPhone to landscape I can view long podcast titles. When I'm done listening I delete the file.
It may be my best solution. (iCloud Drive doesn't work as well, I get a less useful playback UI and I can't set all files to be local to the iPhone).
Thanks Drew, superb response. My other Plan B is to revive an old iPod with very old version of Podcast.app and use that as a dedicated podcast tool. Yes, I am stuck on using iTunes because I have so much in there already and I like the management tools there. I do need to get unstuck. Thanks again,
john
Has anyone figured out how to use Podcast.app without streaming over cellular?
