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Podcast Download Issues

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gaurand

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Posts: 6
Location: San Diego

I love the look of the new app for iPhone, but since you added it, none of the Let's Talk Bitcoin shows will open and play in my native iTunes Podcast app. Episodes often show up listed twice in the app, and I can download one or the other version of the episode, but when I try to play a show I always get an "Episode Unavailable" error message.

I was able to listen to several shows from your new app, but I get frequently interrupted while listening and there's no way for me to rewind 15 (or 30) seconds, or play from where I left off. If I return to the app later to play an episode where i left off, I have to start over, and I don't see any way to fast forward.

Starting a couple of days ago, new shows quit showing up in app, so now I have no way of listening :-(

Let's Talk Bitcoin is my favorite podcast, and I've listened to nearly every episode of the past 3 months. I haven't been able to listen to any of your shows for over a week now, and I'm feeling really frustrated.

I can't be the only one who is having this issue on iPhone. Got any suggestions??

Thanks, Greg

Posted on June 17, 2014 at 7:30 AM

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• adam

  

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  Posts: 1980
  Location: California, USA

  Hey,

  the timing of the app and the feed shift is coincidental not a conspiracy :) We hit the item limit on Feedburner (a RSS feed that is 600kb or larger stops working) so we had to do this manual fix where I started pulling earlier episodes, but it was requiring a lot of my time. Additionally, it meant all podcasts MUST go through my personal soundcloud account since that was what was generating the podcast feed.

  We changed away from this and to a system where we were creating our own feed, which let us up the quality of many parts of it and make it easy for people to subscribe to any mix of shows they want. Doing this broke iTunes for what seems to be about 5% of our users. We've attempted a few fixes and for the vast majority of people it seems to work, but there are a few stragglers I have no idea how to deal with.

  The app is a first iteration, 2x and skip are on the feature list but we're launching LTBCOIN at the end of the month before the next development cycle kicks into gear.

  Posted on June 17, 2014 at 11:58 AM
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• Malagodi

  

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  Looks I'm part of that 5%. Haven't been able to listen to any LTB Network shows with my Itunes podcast app.. except MMM, which is 'native' to Itunes. I can't get anything else to work.

  I really, really, really, miss the show. :-(

  Posted on June 20, 2014 at 7:43 PM
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• Bazmcgov

  

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  I'm part of the 5% too. I can't play any episodes through my native podcast app linked to iTunes.

  Playing podcasts means I have to stream the podcasts while I'm driving. I struggle to play episodes when passing through areas where 3G signal is poor.

  I have been listening to LTB since last sept and I have not missed one episode, this change is a real nuisance for now.

  Posted on June 22, 2014 at 9:28 AM
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• adam

  

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  Posts: 1980
  Location: California, USA

  Well I'm open to suggestions, otherwise we can just start putting direct download links in the posts. it really is just iTunes by all accounts, and only some mobile devices - desktop iTunes still works.

  Posted on June 22, 2014 at 12:30 PM
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• Peter Clarke

  

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  Posts: 1
  Location: Canberra, Australia

  I'm another part of the 5%. The frustration is that this is the only Podcast I cannot listen to, all 3 the other podcasts that I subscribe to work perfectly ok. If were not for the fact i am between jobs and have an active interest in BTC, I would just quietly give up on the podcast. I'm sure it is in all of our interests to keep as many listeners as possible engaged with BTC. So Adam, I for one, would be deeply appreciative if you could address the issue and I am sure I speak on behalf on a broader audience.

  Posted on June 23, 2014 at 11:33 PM
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• deweller

  

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  Posts: 347
  Location: Nashville, TN

  I am also experiencing issues with the Podcasts app repeatedly downloading the same episode and it loses my place in episodes so I have to start over.

  I think what is happening is that SoundCloud is generating temporary links for the files hosted on their CDN. These links expire and are regenerated regularly.

  iTunes and the PodCast app might be seeing the new links and treat the downloads as completely different files.

  You might try setting the element for each episode in the feed. I don't know if this will help prevent this, but it is worth a shot.

  Posted on June 24, 2014 at 5:55 PM
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• adam

  

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  Posts: 1980
  Location: California, USA

  So.... Should we use a different file-host than Soundcloud? That might be a simple solution, but it does create the centralized podcast upload problem where we have to have someone who has trusted access to the account.

  We were paying someone 900 USD/mo to manage that, our new system (which lets podcasters put their Soundcloud Track ID from their own account, which means they can manage it themselves and control their own stats)

  again, the download links are there for everyone regardless of your device.... Tell me what kind of person to hire, I'm willing to throw resources at this.

  Posted on June 24, 2014 at 9:59 PM
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• Cryptonaut

  

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  Location: Canada

  Hey guys, im aware of the frustrations. looking into possible solutions. hopefully we wont need to switch file hosting setup as adam mentioned.

  will report back

  Posted on June 24, 2014 at 11:36 PM
  Last Edited: June 29, 2014 at 12:26 AM
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• locksmith9

  

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  I've been in the same boat for about 2 months now I think. I haven't been able to listen to a single LTB episode on iTunes. I’ve religiously listened to LTB since before it was called LTB and was an, ahem daily show. I’d love to see this be fixed.

  Posted on June 26, 2014 at 4:23 PM
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• Cryptonaut

  

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  Posts: 1944
  Location: Canada

  @adam so I just tried the most obvious attempt at a fix which is getting rid of the extra "?" at the end of the URL. worth a shot.

  any luck guys?

  Posted on June 28, 2014 at 8:25 AM
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