How to manually add files to an iTunes podcast feed?

December 5, 2006 10:05 PM

Some of the long-running podcasts I subscribe to via iTunes do not list all of their back episodes in their RSS feed, although you can often still download the mp3 files from their website. If I download these files, is there a way to manually add them to iTunes so they'll show up along with the rest of the podcast feed?

For example, if a podcast feed only goes back to episode 20, there's no way to download episodes 1-19 through iTunes. However, often the podcast home page will have the files available individually. If I download episode19.mp3, how can I add it to the specific Podcasts section in iTunes along with the rest of the files from that Podcast?

posted by tirade to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

My understanding is that iTunes distinguishes podcasts from ordinary music by the id2V2 tags which include podcast as a comment or elsewhere. I saw an article on this recently on Lifehacker? or maybe even in Mefi? but can't find the source right now. If you examine the tags of podcasts and regular files, maybe you can deduce the difference, retag your downloads and sail on. Good luck.
posted by SamFrancisco at 8:03 AM on December 6, 2006

Aargh! Thats ID3 tags, of course
posted by SamFrancisco at 8:03 AM on December 6, 2006

I believe that in addition to the tag, you need to force the RSS feed to recognize its existence. Since iTunes is continually updating that feed from the server, I don't think this is possible.

I run into this issue occasionally, and just wind up adding them to iTunes manually. Yeah, it sucks that they don't show up in the feeds, but they're still lumped together if you search by Artist.
posted by mkultra at 8:09 AM on December 6, 2006

I had the same problem, and the only way I could see around it was to set up a local httpd serving a modified rss feed, previously downloaded direct from the site. It's an amazing pain in the arse, but it also gets around iTunes being mysteriously unable to download above dialup speeds on a broadband connection (on my machine at least).
posted by claudius at 8:36 AM on December 6, 2006