How can I setup iTunes' sync to only remove podcasts from my iPhone if they've been played completely?

April 6, 2009 6:52 PM

How can I setup iTunes' sync to remove podcasts from my iPhone only if they've been played completely?

I've setup iTunes to sync new podcasts to my iPhone. However, once they've been played for even a second, another sync will remove them. I listen to some podcasts that are 1-1.5 hours long and having to time my syncs to fall between completed casts is pretty annoying.

I'd like to be removed only if they've been played completely. Any ideas? I realize I could do all the management manually, but that's something that really should be automated.

All the search results I found on Google were several years old and it's possible something has changed in iTunes since. Thanks!

posted by Nelsormensch to technology (5 comments total)

When you have your iPhone connected, on the podcasts tab of iTunes you can configure what podcasts are copied over. Instead of syncing all, change the drop down to select unplayed.

That should achieve what you are hoping for.
posted by snarkle at 6:58 PM on April 6

Also.. when you listen to a podcast, iTunes marks it as "not new". Even if you've only listened to part of it.

I just tried on my phone, and there is no way to reset that.

So I don't think there is any way to do it.
posted by snarkle at 7:01 PM on April 6

The way to do it is to set it up so that you always keep the last five episodes of the podcast, whether you've listened to them or not. This is what I do for the exact reasons that you've stated. When a new podcast comes out, it bumps the oldest one off the list, but if you play part of a podcast it will not get bumped on the next sync for that reason alone.

Unless you subscribe to a butt load of them, this really isn't that big a deal in terms of the space it wastes.

I don't have my iPod plugged in right now so I can't tell you exactly how to do this, but it's there on the podcasts tab somewhere.
posted by crapples at 7:41 PM on April 6

Okay, it looks like the sync "All unplayed" was the option I wanted. That's annoying ambiguous, but it looks like it will suit my purposes. Thanks guys, I should have poked at this more, sorry.
posted by Nelsormensch at 9:21 PM on April 6

Don't use the podcast tag in the sync panel is my advice.

I have a smart playlist which lists all podcasts (with the appropriate genre tag) and a playcount of zero (iTunes only increments the playcount at the end of the track).

Add that playcount to the list being synced.

One advantage here is that the iPhone inherits the logic of the playlist so is able to on-the-fly update the list when you're navigating through the player when out and about.

It doesn't include any you download directly to the iPhone, though, but that's not been a huge issue for me.
posted by unsliced at 5:07 AM on April 7