How iOS 14.5 broke Apple’s Podcasts app

Apples Podcasts app in iOS 14.5 is missing out on episodes, does not have appropriate show notes, and falls well brief of third-party podcast apps– and so far, Apple appears indifferent in actively repairing the problems.During Apples “Spring Loaded” occasion they announced a Podcast Subscriptions platform that will be offered to developers this month. Those subscriptions will only be available inside the official Apple Podcasts app, and its presently extremely broken.After the iOS 14.5 upgrade went live on April 26, many users have experienced bugs with Apples Podcasts app. Formerly, when a user would pull-to-refresh in the Apple Podcasts app, Apples service would gather brand-new information from the users subscribed podcast feeds. Now, according to Podnews, “… the Apple Podcasts app on your listeners phone constantly uses Apples database, even if theyre subscribed. In addition to the Apple Podcasts app, creators attempting to access the revamped Apple Podcasts Connect control panel have actually experienced problems since the “Spring Loaded” event.

Apples Podcasts app in iOS 14.5 is missing out on episodes, does not have correct show notes, and falls well except third-party podcast apps– therefore far, Apple seems indifferent in actively repairing the problems.During Apples “Spring Loaded” event they announced a Podcast Subscriptions platform that will be offered to developers this month. Listeners will have the ability to pay for exclusive material right in the Apple Podcasts app making purchases fast and simple. But those subscriptions will just be offered inside the official Apple Podcasts app, and its presently very broken.After the iOS 14.5 upgrade went reside on April 26, various users have experienced bugs with Apples Podcasts app. The most crucial concern being some podcast episodes disappointing up in users apps for days after they are released.This positions a significant issue for podcasts like ours considering that 70% of our subscribers utilize Apples Podcasts app. A representative inside Apple sent us a personal message saying, “… the team is working round the clock to fix this problem.” Our newest episode, launched Friday at 2:00 AM Eastern, did not show for Apple Podcasts users till at the earliest Saturday night or perhaps with others informing us that it appeared on Sunday. Some users claim the episode is still unavailable– while every other third-party podcast app delivered the episode Friday early morning.
Podcast apps delivered our newest episode, except Apple Podcasts
Research study carried out by website Podnews describes how the iOS 14.5 update changes how the Apple Podcasts app and servers gather episode information from RSS feeds in a different way. Formerly, when a user would pull-to-refresh in the Apple Podcasts app, Apples service would gather new data from the users subscribed podcast feeds. Now, according to Podnews, “… the Apple Podcasts app on your listeners phone always uses Apples database, even if theyre subscribed. Your listeners phone never looks straight at your RSS feed.This habits is shared by other third-party podcast apps also, such as Overcast and PocketCasts, but it appears Apples servers are examining much less frequently than other services. According to Podnews, an app like Overcast appears to crawl a podcasts RSS feeds “every 1 minute” instead of Apples crawling service known as “iTMS” that crawled the same feed “every 2.1 hours.” Developer Marco Arment, maker of Overcast verified the behavior appears to have actually changed, stating that “previous to 14.5, Apple Podcasts constantly pulled the feed contents from each copy of the app straight from the publishers feeds.” Arment went on to state that “it appears that Apple Podcasts might have changed to this model, but the issue seems that they might not be crawling RSS feeds regularly enough.” There is also no chance to manually ask Apples Podcasts app to inspect your subscribed shows for updates. Pulling to refresh in the iOS 14.5 variation of the app only re-checks Apples iTMS server and does not retrieve new information from a shows RSS feed. Contrary to this habits, Overcast says that it “also obeys pull-to-refresh on specific podcast pages in the app (triggering an instantaneous upgrade), and has actually a publicly recorded Ping API that publishers can use for near-instant updates when they release brand-new episodes.” We likewise talked to makers of third-party podcast app Castro on their behavior of a manual refresh.” We altered it to also do a complete refresh of the podcast feed,” they stated to us. “This implies that if a feed is acting oddly and one user does a pull to revitalize and finds a brand-new episode, then all other customers benefit from that.” In addition to brand-new episodes not appearing in Apples Podcasts app, other concerns have actually appeared given that iOS 14.5. Users seeing an episodes program notes can no longer click on HTML links inside the app unless the full link is shown:
HTML reveal links are broken in iOS 14.5
There are now several screens in the app that show the current episodes, however they are irregular. Navigating to the Library tab inside the app and then clicking “Latest Episodes” shows the most recent HomeKit Insider episode, while the “Listen Now” tab does not consist of the show.
Prior to iOS 14.5, users could scroll to the bottom of the “Now Playing” screen to find “Episode Notes.” That choice has been eliminated in the current upgrade and users need to either browse to the podcast show page and tap the episode, or learn that tapping the scrolling title of the episode will bring them to the Episode Notes.
Episode notes are missing from Now Playing
In addition to the Apple Podcasts app, developers attempting to access the redesigned Apple Podcasts Connect control panel have experienced problems given that the “Spring Loaded” event. Podcasting platformTransistor has actually put together a list of those problems and a few of Apples responses.Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, “Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider,” and youll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for “AppleInsider Daily” rather and youll hear a fast update direct from our news group. And, if youre interested in Apple-centric house automation, state “Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider,” and youll be listening to our most recent specialized podcast in moments.