How iOS 14.5 broke Apple’s Podcasts app

Apples Podcasts app in iOS 14.5 is missing out on episodes, does not have proper program notes, and falls well except third-party podcast apps– therefore far, Apple appears disinterested in actively fixing the problems.During Apples “Spring Loaded” event they announced a Podcast Subscriptions platform that will be available to developers this month. Listeners will have the ability to pay for unique content right in the Apple Podcasts app making purchases simple and fast. Those subscriptions will only be readily available inside the official Apple Podcasts app, and its currently extremely broken.After the iOS 14.5 update went live on April 26, various users have experienced bugs with Apples Podcasts app. The most vital problem being some podcast episodes not revealing up in users apps for days after they are released.This presents a major concern for podcasts like ours given that 70% of our subscribers utilize Apples Podcasts app. A representative inside Apple sent us a private message stating, “… the group is working round the clock to solve this problem.” Our latest episode, released Friday at 2:00 AM Eastern, did not reveal for Apple Podcasts users until at the earliest Saturday evening and even with others informing us that it appeared on Sunday. Some users declare the episode is still unavailable– while every other third-party podcast app delivered the episode Friday early morning.
Podcast apps provided our most current episode, other than Apple Podcasts
Research carried out by site Podnews describes how the iOS 14.5 upgrade changes how the Apple Podcasts app and servers gather episode data from RSS feeds in a different way. Formerly, when a user would pull-to-refresh in the Apple Podcasts app, Apples service would collect brand-new data from the users subscribed podcast feeds. According to Podnews, because iOS 14.5 “the Apple Podcasts app on your listeners phone always uses Apples database, even if theyre subscribed. Your listeners phone never ever looks directly at your RSS feed.” This habits is shared by other third-party podcast apps also, such as Overcast and Pocket Casts, but it seems Apples servers are checking much less often than other services. According to Podnews, an app like Overcast appears to crawl a podcasts RSS feeds “every 1 minute” rather than Apples crawling service called “iTMS” that crawled the very same feed “every 2.1 hours.” Developer Marco Arment, maker of Overcast confirmed the behavior seems to have altered, saying that “previous to 14.5, Apple Podcasts always pulled the feed contents from each copy of the app directly from the publishers feeds.” Arment went on to state that “it seems that Apple Podcasts might have switched to this model, however the concern seems that they may not be crawling RSS feeds often enough.” There is also no method to manually ask Apples Podcasts app to examine your subscribed programs 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 data from a shows RSS feed. Contrary to this behavior, Overcast says that it “also follows pull-to-refresh on private podcast pages in the app (setting off an instant upgrade), and has an openly documented Ping API that publishers can use for near-instant updates when they release new episodes.” We also talked to makers of third-party podcast app Castro on their habits of a manual refresh.” We altered it to likewise do a full refresh of the podcast feed,” they said to us. “This means that if a feed is acting strangely and one user does a pull to refresh and discovers a brand-new episode, then all other customers take advantage of that.” In addition to brand-new episodes not appearing in Apples Podcasts app, other issues have actually appeared considering that iOS 14.5. Users seeing an episodes show 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 numerous screens in the app that show the most recent episodes, however they are inconsistent. Browsing 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 include the show.
Prior to iOS 14.5, users could scroll to the bottom of the “Now Playing” screen to find “Episode Notes.” That option has actually been gotten rid of in the latest update and users should either navigate to the podcast program 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 out on from Now Playing
In addition to the Apple Podcasts app, creators trying to access the revamped Apple Podcasts Connect dashboard have actually experienced problems because the “Spring Loaded” event. Podcasting platform Transistor has assembled a list of those concerns and some of Apples responses.Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod.

Apples Podcasts app in iOS 14.5 is missing out on episodes, lacks appropriate program notes, and falls well short of third-party podcast apps– and so far, Apple appears disinterested in actively fixing the problems.During Apples “Spring Loaded” event they revealed a Podcast Subscriptions platform that will be offered to creators this month. Those subscriptions will only be readily available inside the official Apple Podcasts app, and its presently really broken.After the iOS 14.5 update went live on April 26, numerous users have actually experienced bugs with Apples Podcasts app. Formerly, when a user would pull-to-refresh in the Apple Podcasts app, Apples service would gather new information from the users subscribed podcast feeds. According to Podnews, considering that iOS 14.5 “the Apple Podcasts app on your listeners phone always 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 experienced problems since the “Spring Loaded” event.