Podcast Missing files/ images

[pursuant]

I have an old Ipod classic. I use it to listen to podcasts, nothing else. I synch it with the current version of Itunes. Ive been having problems getting rid of files Ive heard already. The specific folder they are in shows 47 files while there should be only 15. I went through the files on the ipod without Itunes and found them and deleted them. But they still show up on my ipod. When i try to play the files they dont work, so I did delete them. So it seems there are some kind of images still on the ipod? Maybe a png file that is associated with these missing files? How do I find them and delete them?
Thanks
Mark

 

[cjmnews]

Usually these are managed by iTunes.

If the played files are deleted in iTunes, the next sync will delete them from the iPod.

The iPod is not intended to be altered directly like you did. The files are referenced internally, and you have removed the files, not the reference. A sync with the played tracks removed from iTunes should remove the references.

I used to manage my podcasts on an iPod with smart playlists to ensure they fell out of the iPod with a weekly sync. When I moved to an iPhone, and they took smart playlists out of the Podcast app, I moved to a 3rd party app. No iTunes involvement.

Let me know if the deletion of played tracks from iTunes and a sync does not fix this. I'll set up some podcasts and get out an iPod to test with.

Now if you are one of those that wants to keep the old episodes in iTunes, and sync with the iPod, the smart playlist option may be your only option.

 

[pursuant]

Thanks for the advice. I wasn't aware that I shouldn't alter files directly on my ipod. This has been a problem in the past and I had done this before to solve it. This only happens with certain files and only those files. When I import them to iTunes as mp3 files I have to convert them to podcasts . When I do this Itunes creates a folder specifically with these files. When I open itunes to synch I go though this folder first and delete individual files. My solution was to delete the folder and reimport files. This seems to have done the trick. In Itunes the old file names show up when in "feed" mode, when I go to unplayed and saved files they are gone. Do you think there is a way to clean these up in Itunes. Ive attached a screen shot to show you what I see.
Thanks
Mark

 

[cjmnews]

These are not real podcasts. That makes things more difficult.

I used to make my own "podcast feed" years ago, where I would download a file, make it a podcast and put it into a feed. Let me see what those scripts do, as I have not seen them in 10+ years.

I think there is a way to clean the feed, but I don't recall at the moment.

Out of curiosity, why Podcasts? Is it that the source does not have a Podcast feed to automatically download?
Could you get the functionality you want as audio books?

 

[pursuant]

The source of the files is an archive that holds all the episodes of an old radio series. There are over 1300 files that are zipped. I downloaded these zipped file to my pc. So I regularly unzip 15 or so and add them to iTunes. I have other files like this too. All archive of various old radio stations. When I import these files they show up as individual files in itunes and not within a folder. Ive never been able to figure out why itunes makes a folder for one of these specific files but not the others.

 

[cjmnews]

I see what I had done to get around this. I found a podcast without a feed, they expected me to log into their website to listen to it, I wanted it on my iPod instead, so I made a feed for myself.

I made several scripts that ran automatically.

1. I created a scheduled batch file to:
   1. Execute a javascript program to generate an XML file that was an RSS Feed to look like a podcast feed with any data I wanted. So the script created the date so the feed would be in order, and pointed to the file that was located online.
   2. Execute FTP commands to upload the XML file to a web server I had access to.
2. Then scheduled batch file that executed a javascript program that told iTunes to get the feed after the batch file was executed.

There are some limitations to this:

• The audio files need to be online (Google Drive could be used for this, though it may need additional software)
• The XML file needs to be generated for the tracks you want to have in the feed. (could be done through scripting and selections of the tracks)
• iTunes would need to subscribe to your feed (not sure if Google Drive would support this or not, I would have to experiment)
• You would have to be OK with the files being on Google drive, but they would not need to be public, so there is no concern about others getting to your files.
• Apple's iCloud does not support FTP or web access for the RSS feed.
• FTP is inherently insecure as the password is not protected. For better security, SFTP should be used, and I don't know if that can be automated or not.

To go back to your questions:
- The folders are based on the ID3 tags in the files. If you set the Album tag on the file and saved it to the file, then it would go into the folder with the album name. You can do this with an ID3 tag editor, Windows Explorer, or iTunes.

iTunes instructions:

Set the Album Tag:​

Select 1 or more tracks, right click and choose Song Info (if it is still a song) or Podcast Info (If it is a Podcast already)​

In the window enter the album name you want them to have, click OK to save.​

iTunes does not save the tags automatically, you have to force it to write out the tags.​

Select the tracks, click on File->Convert->Convert ID3 Tags, check ID3 tag version, set the drop down to v2.4, click OK.​

If the album name is set in the ID3 tags and saved to the MP3 file it will go into the folder of the album name every time you import it into iTunes.

 

[pursuant]

Thanks for the information. Some of this can be attributed to my calling them podcast when what they really are are just mp3s I have on my pc. I do have subscriptions for many podcast that are retrieved online. So If Im reading you right, in order to have them show up as individual files in iTunes they need to be retagged in itunes after Ive imported the mp3 s. Where do I retag them, under details or sorting?

 

[cjmnews]

You said that they currently are individual files and you wanted them in folders. The album name would put the tracks into a folder.

I gave instructions on how to add the Album Name using iTunes, and write the Album Name to the file making it permanent, so you don’t have to do it every time you import the file into iTunes.

You would retag them with Song Info (details).

 

[pursuant]

Im sorry for the misunderstanding. The particular files that I import from my pc go into a folder that Itunes makes. Thats how it operates now. Going into that folder and deleting those files has been the problem Ive been having. A solution I thought might work would be to prevent them from going into this folder and have them show up as individual files that I can delete. I never seem to have a problem deleting these files ( they are shown at the bottom of this image)

 

[cjmnews]

That picture looked like iTunes not a file manager view of a folder.

You should be able to delete these from iTunes. Select the episodes, press the Delete key on the keyboard. iTunes should ask if you are sure, then click the delete button. Then you should get a prompt to see if you want to move it to the Recycle Bin, click Move to Recycle Bin. That will remove the episode from iTunes and your hard drive at the same time. The next sync will remove it from the iPod too.

If you are on Mac, the Recycle Bin is called Trash.

iTunes does not handle manipulating files behind the scene well. It leaves the files in the UI syncs phantom files to devices, and more silly stuff. If you use iTunes, you need to use iTunes for all of the media management.

 

[cjmnews]

Crud, when I tried doing this is I ran into the issue where iTunes does not delete the file.

Apparently, my kid had marked this as a saved episode. I had to right click it, then choose Remove from Saved Episodes.

Then on top of that I find that Apple fails to delete the files!
I found a post on that: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253030078?answerId=255695891022#255695891022
And the header does not get removed either: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253030078?answerId=255697067022#255697067022

I would recommend not using Podcasts as your method of managing these shows as iTunes has broken the interface.

I would use audiobooks as the method, which allows a clean delete when you want to delete them. iTunes has broken the podcast interface which is why I am remembering that I stopped using iTunes or Apple apps for Podcasts.

If you are going to use Podcasts, you can manually delete the files using a file manager. Then right click the header for the Podcasts and choose Delete from Library. That will remove the episodes from iTunes but not the Podcast itself.