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– and so far, Apple seems disinterested in actively fixing the problems.During Apples “Spring Loaded” occasion they announced a Podcast Subscriptions platform that will be readily available to developers this month. Listeners will be able to spend for unique content right in the Apple Podcasts app making purchases simple and quick. However those memberships will just be available inside the main Apple Podcasts app, and its presently extremely broken.After the iOS 14.5 update went reside on April 26, many users have actually experienced bugs with Apples Podcasts app. The most important problem being some podcast episodes disappointing up in users apps for days after they are released.This positions a significant concern for podcasts like ours since 70% of our subscribers use Apples Podcasts app. A representative inside Apple sent us a personal message stating, “… the team is working round the clock to resolve this concern.” Our most current episode, released Friday at 2:00 AM Eastern, did disappoint for Apple Podcasts users up until at the earliest Saturday night and even with others telling 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 latest episode, other than Apple Podcasts
Research study performed by site Podnews explains how the iOS 14.5 update modifications 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 new information from the users subscribed podcast feeds. According to Podnews, given that iOS 14.5 “the Apple Podcasts app on your listeners phone always utilizes Apples database, even if theyre subscribed. Your listeners phone never looks straight at your RSS feed.” This behavior is shared by other third-party podcast apps also, such as Overcast and Pocket Casts, but it seems Apples servers are examining much less often 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 understood as “iTMS” that crawled the exact same feed “every 2.1 hours.” Developer Marco Arment, maker of Overcast confirmed the habits seems to have actually changed, stating that “prior to 14.5, Apple Podcasts always pulled the feed contents from each copy of the app straight from the publishers feeds.” Arment went on to say that “it appears that Apple Podcasts may have changed to this design, however the concern appears to be that they might not be crawling RSS feeds frequently enough.” There is likewise no method to manually ask Apples Podcasts app to examine your subscribed programs for updates. Pulling to revitalize in the iOS 14.5 version of the app only re-checks Apples iTMS server and does not retrieve new data from a shows RSS feed. Contrary to this habits, Overcast says that it “likewise follows pull-to-refresh on specific podcast pages in the app (setting off an instantaneous update), and has actually a publicly documented Ping API that publishers can use for near-instant updates when they release brand-new episodes.” We also spoke 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 means that if a feed is acting oddly and one user does a pull to revitalize and discovers a brand-new episode, then all other customers benefit from that.” In addition to new episodes not appearing in Apples Podcasts app, other issues have appeared since iOS 14.5. Users viewing an episodes show notes can no longer click HTML links inside the app unless the complete link is displayed:
HTML show links are broken in iOS 14.5
There are now several screens in the app that display the most recent episodes, but they are irregular. Navigating to the Library tab inside the app and then clicking “Latest Episodes” shows the most current 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 choice has actually been gotten rid of in the current update and users should either navigate to the podcast show page and tap the episode, or find out 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 actually experienced problems because the “Spring Loaded” occasion. Podcasting platform Transistor has actually compiled 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 episodes, lacks appropriate show notes, and falls well short of third-party podcast apps– and so far, Apple appears indifferent in actively fixing the problems.During Apples “Spring Loaded” event they revealed a Podcast Subscriptions platform that will be offered to developers this month. Those subscriptions will just be offered inside the official Apple Podcasts app, and its currently really broken.After the iOS 14.5 upgrade went live on April 26, various users have actually experienced bugs with Apples Podcasts app. Previously, when a user would pull-to-refresh in the Apple Podcasts app, Apples service would gather brand-new data from the users subscribed podcast feeds. According to Podnews, because iOS 14.5 “the Apple Podcasts app on your listeners phone constantly uses Apples database, even if theyre subscribed. In addition to the Apple Podcasts app, developers trying to access the redesigned Apple Podcasts Connect dashboard have experienced problems considering that the “Spring Loaded” event.