♪ Helen and Olly, answer me THIS! ♫

February 26, 2010 3:17 PM

I can't seem to be able to download certain episodes of the Answer Me This! podcast from the iTunes Store. Although the titles show up in my iTunes podcast library, they seem to be streaming links with no mp3 files actually copied to my machine.

I'm trying to download some back episodes of Helen and Olly’s great podcast Answer Me This! [iTunes link].

Although the episodes all say free on iTunes, and I can click on the "FREE" button to download them, certain episodes (specifically, episodes 69-121) show up in my iTunes library, but in fact only seem to be links to the files online. That is, there are no mp3 files copied to my machine for those episodes. (episodes 61-68 and 123 & 124 download just fine)

Additionally, next to these non-downloaded episodes there is a little grey icon that says ":30". This made me think that perhaps they were just "preview" links that would only play 30 seconds (like the way you can preview a iTunes track before deciding to buy it), but clicking on them seems to play the entire episode. That would be semi-workable*, if I was planning on listening to them at home where there is internet, but I like to listen to podcasts when I'm out and about. Since there are no physical mp3's to copy to my iPod, this rules that out. There is a little "GET" button next to the ":30", but clicking it does nothing.

I know I can go through the various Answer Me This! web pages and download each mp3 individually, but aside from being a little time-consuming, it usually winds up being more kludgy—podcasts are treated as music files (not in the podcast section), you’re not being able to see the episode information, etc.

Anyone else run into anything like this with podcasts from the iTunes Store? If you think the problem’s on my end, what should I try? (trash preferences? rebuild library?) I’m on a Mac running iTunes 9.0.3 and OS 10.6.2.

[Here’s an ImageShack link showing a clip of both the iTunes page for the podcast as well as the episode titles in my iTunes library]

*I say semi-workable because with these streaming episodes, there is no way to pause them; if you stop the episode 20 minutes in, it starts from the very beginning the next time you play it)

posted by blueberry to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Best answer: It wasn't with the podcast you're asking about, but when I had problems with podcasts, I've gone into iTunes and unsubscribed to the podcast. Then subscribe to it again and push the get all button. They'd all be downloaded again.
posted by birdherder at 4:39 PM on February 26, 2010

Response by poster: That seemed to do it—thanks birdherder!
posted by blueberry at 11:52 PM on February 27, 2010