Forcing iTunes to Download an Episode
I use iTunes on a PC and could not, by any means, convince iTunes to download again a podcast episode that was uploaded the first time with bugs. The episode should have been 3 minutes but only the first 20 seconds play). How do I get the re-uploaded file?
If the podcast producer has re-uploaded a correct file with the SAME file name, iTunes will not see it as an episode to download again. You can force it to download by requesting a single file.
Click on the subscription name. An arrow will appear. Click on that, and it will take you to the show’s iTunes page.
Then find the individual episode you want, and click “Get Episode”. It’ll appear in your subscription list.
Note to Podcast Producers: If you upload a bad file (we all do!), make sure you name the good file differently. I usually put “repost” in the title so people know there was an issue, and they won’t have to force a download, it will come to them automatically.
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Hi guys.
Here’s another great tip shown to me by our friend Chris Marquardt:
If you get a bad episode then delete it from iTunes (or you deleted an episode you want to get again) then do this:
In your podcast library, click the little grey triangle next to the show name to collapse it or have it point to the right so that you cannot see all of the episodes. Now, while holding the option key down (on a mac, on a pc I’m guessing the alt key) click on the triangle again. iTunes will think for a second and then show all of the episodes posted to the current RSS feed and allow any not in your library to be downloaded…including episodes you’ve deleted!
Man, for the podcast producer it’s like GOLD!.
Also, some of my viewers have been getting bogged down with problems when discovering my show and then trying to download ALL of the available episodes. My show is a series and episode 000 is as important as episode 050, etc.
Usually people will choose to get all of the episodes simultaneously and iTunes will get confused and not download all of ‘em. It puts an exclamation point next to several and leaves them greyed out, unavailable to download. What a pain!
So, I researched and found a solution to this (although the fix I posted above may work as well, haven’t tested it.)
PC: Navigate to the folder My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Download\Podcasts and see if there’s a folder in there called “The Rest of Everest” or something similar. If there is, then delete it. This will get rid of some temp files iTunes is freaking out about and will allow you to resume the download of the episodes you’re missing.
MAC: Go to /username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Downloads/Podcasts and see if there’s a folder in there called “The Rest of Everest” or something similar. If there is, then delete it.
Obviously, this happens to other podcasts as well, so just look for the folder named whatever show you’re having issues with.
Podcasting is still a new frontier, and new problems arise every day. I hope this helps some people out!
Take care,
Jon
The Rest of Everest Video Podcast
How about podcasts who host on services like TalkShoe? They don’t have a nice download button that works inside iTunes; instead they open a web page in your browser where you can manually download each episode.
It’s actually SHIFT on the Windows version of iTunes to unlock this very helpful feature. I also discovered that CTRL click on the arrow opens *all* of your lists (repeating closes them all). Enjoy.
[...] to this website, I learned the trick: first delete the episode that did not download fully. In your podcast [...]