Leave a Review Apple Podcasts
Downloads do not work properly
While I generally find the app to be clear and easy to use, there are some critical bugs with downloads. For serial shows which have to be played in order, while the podcast creator can designate that as the intended play order, the Podcasts app doesn’t recognize it for downloads. There is no option to download the “next” set of episodes, but there is a bug with the strings. When you switch to, for example, “download 3 most recent” and then go back, the string on the outer menu is “download next 3 episodes”. You can go in and out of the menu and it will change back and forth between “next” and “most recent”. In any case, whichever you choose, it just downloads the most recent. I’m on episode 3 of a story podcast that is marked as needing to be listened to in order, and download “next/most recent 3” downloads episodes 11-13. There is simply no way to get it to download 3-5, or even just 3. This is frustrating enough that I’m deducting 2 stars. There is another flaw that has caused me to remove another star. You cannot mark a podcast series as “played up to this point”. If I’ve listened to a series on another app and am hundreds of episodes in, I can’t switch over to this app and mark those first 200 as already played. I have to do every episode manually, which is infuriating if I, again, want to listen to episodes in order.Show lessHellsChicken
bug
iOs 18 has forced continuous playback even though I have never selected it and it is still not selected. PLEASE fixjlsca
Intimate tracking and data sharing is unavoidable with this app .
There is a privacy issue here which I feel has been overlooked . Unlike Apple News , you can't clear your browsing history or reset advertising identifiers - Apple Podcast settings are very limited . I have had many adverts embedded in my favourite podcasts which have not only been specific to my city , but locations for places and services literally within a mile from my house , and intended to be appropriate to my age / interests . As I have said , this app doesn't give you privacy but obviously does collect location and use other personal information . I feel Apple needs to address this . Apple's Private relay only protects whilst web browsing . It would seem to keep your Podcast and personal information private you may need a router-installed VPN to prevent this sort of tracking to begin with . Doubt Apple will publish this review , but it may have brought it to their attention - being a privacy-first company which relies upon customer's trust ? I wait to see . I should mention that I have all location services turned off except ' Find My ' for iOS and Mac devices - so the source of tracking must be from ISP ID or ' Find My ' . Very much like podcast apps but am considering switching to another provider . I like to keep my location and interests apart from intrusive advertisers and the triangulation of trackers . Apple doesn't seem to be honouring that with their Podcasts app .Show less665madeupnameagain