I’ve had a few times now when something has happened while I’ve been copying podcasts to my iPod Touch from iTunes and it’s got corrupted and doesn’t show up on the device. Each time this has happened, I’ve spent ages trying to get it fixed, so this is a guide to myself for the next time it happens and to try and save anybody else pulling their hair out. Note: this only applies if you’re managing your podcasts and music manually.
- In iTunes, find the file in your Podcasts section that isn’t appearing on the device. Right-click it, select “Get Info” and select the Options tab. Set the “Media Kind” to be “Music”
- The file will now move from the Podcasts section in iTunes to the Music section. Find it again and drag it over the iPod/iPhone. The file won’t be copied, but its meta-data should be updated
- Go to the Music section on your device and find the file (where it should now appear!) and delete it
- Back in iTunes, change the Media Kind back to Podcast, find the file in your Podcasts and drag it to your device.
With a bit of luck, that should have fixed it and the file should appear correctly under the right podcast.
Have I mentioned lately how much I hate iTunes and the whole locked Apple ecosystem?
If you’re looking to get out of the Apple/iTunes ecosystem, then why not consider Android. There’s an app called Listen, developed by Google, that downloads podcasts whose subscriptions are kept in a special folder in Google Reader, directly to your Android Phone over either WiFi or 3G, cutting out the computer altogether. It’s still a labs project, so isn’t exactly polished, but it works. Over the past 15 months I’ve been using it, it’s only broken once, and it was quickly fixed by the developers. Read more about it here: http://listen.googlelabs.com
What do you think. Are you ready to pick up a smartphone?
I certainly am going to get a smartphone this year, probably in the summer. And it almost certainly will be Android-based (probably HTC, unless something else comes along that’s better); I’m just waiting to see what this year’s crop is like (and if I wait until June, I can legitimately say that I’ve had my current phone for a decade 🙂 ).
Thanks for the recommendation for Listen, I’ll certainly give it a shot when I get my new phone.