Make 10g of podcasts play nice.

August 21, 2008 6:58 PM

Why won't my ipod touch update my podcasts properly?

I just got myself a shiny new 16gb ipod touch, and i can't get the podcasts properly synched up.

i have properly checked Synch all unplayed episodes of the selected podcasts, but the touch keeps downloading all of the old, listened to, saved podcasts (how can bring myself to delete TAL and Radiolab?!).

Why on earth is this happening....normally i wouldn't care, but I went from 30 down to 16gb, so space is at a premium.

Help me hive-mind-kenobi.

posted by furnace.heart to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Do the listened-to episodes still have the blue dot next to them? Either way, what if you manually select the old podcasts, and select "Mark as not new" from the contextual (ctrl-click) menu?

Just brainstorming....
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 8:11 PM on August 21, 2008

I have to play around quite a bit with the sync settings in iTunes every time the Touch OS and/or iTunes gets updated to a new version. It seems a little wonky that way. I'm away from my home computer now, but if I remember correctly, aren't there separate settings for each individual podcast and how you want each one managed in terms of what is saved and what is downloaded? (I also have an attachment to my old TALs than is emotionaly healthy!)
posted by DawnSimulator at 8:14 PM on August 21, 2008

I think it only marks a podcast as "played" if you have played up to the last five seconds.
posted by cwhitfcd at 8:59 PM on August 21, 2008

cwhitfcd is right, which is probably your main issue.

Try setting the podcasts up to only sync new items, and then right click and mark the old podcasts as not new, and it won't sync all of it.

The other option (which is how I do it) is setting iTunes to use the "only sync checked items" option. Put checkmarks on all your music and on the podcast episodes you want to sync, and uncheck the others.

I would recommend using the checkmark system over the "mark new/mark not new" system, as it gives you a lot of flexibility for music files too, not only for podcasts.
posted by gemmy at 9:18 PM on August 21, 2008

One issue with "Sync New Items" is that it will remove half-listened podcasts.

I sync on unplayed episodes and have gotten into the habit of quickly seeking to the end of a podcast if there is a lot of outro music etc.
posted by cwhitfcd at 9:25 PM on August 21, 2008