Podcast Sync Issues

[buzz4infinity]

Hello all I have a winxp machine and a 30g iPod Video. My itunes for podcasts are set to check for new episodes manually which i do every day before i go to bed. When new episodes are available it says to download all. And it should keep all unplayed episodes. My ipod is set to sync all unplayed episodes and there is a check mark next to all the podcasts i want to sync to my ipod.

My problems are:

1. i can get all unplayed episodes to sync to my ipod but i have to manually delete old episodes off my ipod, is there a way for after i watch them and i sync for them to delete themselves?

2. all viewed episodes in itunes stay in my podcast directory and i have to manually delte them as well. Is there a way that they can be deleted after viewed.

I have the latest updates for my ipod and itunes

thank you for your help

[Sparkee]

Are you playing the podcast right through to the end?

The playcount must be one or more before iTunes will auto delete and need to be played to the end to increase the playcount. Podcasts are also set to not auto delete if you have clicked the get button in iTunes to download them. These files need to be set to allow auto delete by right clicking on them and choosing the correct option or just delete them manually. I added a playcount column to my Podcast section in iTunes to help me manage the occasional episode that doesn't auto delete.

[buzz4infinity]

THANK YOU

I added the play count and found out that was the issue. i had a habit of when the podcast was over just exiting it and not letting the credits roll, now i know just to hit the forward button to go all they way to the end

thank you again

[Thumbtwiddler]

So just adding play count column to the podcast section fixes things? I have created smart playlists that work, but have (yet) to get the podcast/iphone sync thing to work well recently.

If you play a podcast from within iTunes with the play count showing, and live update, you can see the point at which the counter flips. I noticed that at least when playing podcasts from a smart playlist (in which case, the podcast button on the iphone may see nothing), that some sort of truncation was happening due to short space between tracks (I did not cross fade any, but may have had space between tracks as less than two seconds), and that the play count was apparently not flipping.

I was not rushing to the end physically but the iphone apparently was on playback, I imagine, and playcount was not being recorded.

Now if I can only figure out how to keep some podcasts and audio books out of my Music Library (especially in Cover View).

[Sparkee]

Adding a Playcount column to the Podcast section doesn't really fix anything, it does nothing more than provide an indicator to whether the episode has been played or not. You are then able to quickly distinguish whether an episode has been played or has been set to "Not Auto-Delete" if they are not being removed.

I also believe there are Smart Playlist bugs with the Touch, iPhone and possibly the new nano's and Classics that prevents them from working properly.

[Thumbtwiddler]

Actually that seems like small potatoes compared to half of my 'purchased on iphone' tracks disappearing on a recent sync.

Some of the sync and smart playlist issues with podcasts I thought might be related to three (or more) separate apparent places for preferences to occur. There are iTunes prefs. There are the iPhone prefs in the iTunes>iPhone sync dialog. I think there are also prefs on the iphone itself (which I would imagine to match those in the iTunes>iPhone sync dialog. These different prefs CAN conflict, apparently.

What is working best for me currently is a smart playlist for date added (I manually refresh podcasts) playcount of zero, smart update. I am still not sure if the iphone smart playlist -is- updating properly, but at least podcasts will play one after another this way, and I will not have to navigate to the next one. (I think any crossfading or manipulation of the space between tracks might be keeping a playcount from toggling). Recently the podcast prefs for syncing also seem to be acting as expected.

If you do not allow for some reason, the last few seconds of a podcast to play (some authors leave dead air at the end as well), a playcount may not toggle, so any smartlist, user created or built in offered from apple, may not work properly.

[laz305]

my problem is I have The Soup Podcasts right but it shows in Podcasts Tab 1 Box with 7 Videos in it and I just want to sync 1 Video. When I connect my iphone and toggle Sync All or Selected it just shows one box and syncs all 7 Videos instead of 1. Help plz I'm sure it's something simple lol

[Sparkee]

If you want to sync 1 episode of a Podcast with multiple episodes you will need to set it to sync with one of the sync "1 most recent/least played or unplayed episodes" or "least/recent new episode", which ever one best applies. Unfortunately this will apply to all podcasts syncing to the iPod.

[Jesse307]

Okay I know the charging won't work in my car Alpine system or BOSE Sound dock. However, I played my new NANO for a party yesterday and 6-7 hours of playing only used about %40 of the batter life. The one thing that I love is the CROSSFADE feature. I was excited to use it, yet disappointed that CROSSFADE was not part of our software updates on my older IPODS. This should be a software feature and not a hardware feature. Can we please get Apple to make the CROSSFADE feature part of all software updates!!??

[Sparkee]

Crossfade feature on new Nano

Jesse, your post is completely off topic for this thread. You should have posted it in it's own thread in the iPod nano section here where it would have been more appropriate.

The charging issue can be fixed by using the Scoche passPort adapter which fits between the iPod and cable. But it's battery life is pretty good anyways.

It is unlikely Apple will add the crossfade feature to older iPods, it is very rare for software feature to be added to older iPods. This is not how they work, it keeps you buying new iPods.

[Thumbtwiddler]

Also, I think the crossfade feature IS hardware related. The first iPods used different chipsets that could not play one file as another was playing, necessary for crossfading. Crossfading did not show up for a few generations of iPod because of this- not because of the software. Also, the software available to an ipod is limited to the Hardware of that particular iPod. Naturally, you couldn't have CoverFlow on a black and white screen iPod; other features are related to the hardware underneath.