All downloaded podcasts just disappeared.

  • Unknown's avatar
    angballoon · Member ·

    Hi. On three occasions over the last year or two, Pocket Casts loses all my downloaded podcasts. Previously I have dealt with it by doing a reinstall and syncing my play history, but all the lost files then need to be downloaded again. Very frustrating.

    This time I had a look in my Android file system and the 5GB of podcasts are still there (/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/au.com.shiftyjelly.pocketcasts/files/PocketCasts/podcasts) so I’m thinking maybe it’s a corrupted index file?

    is there a way to access these files that I still have on my phone? Or at least to stop these wipeouts happening again? If I do a reinstall I expect that data will be overwritten.

  • Unknown's avatar
    angballoon · Member ·

    Update. Logged out and back in. Now my history is available, but still showing no files downloaded.

    If I attempt to download a podcast that is already on my phone but hidden, Pocket Casts is able to find the file without having to download again! It’s a win of sorts, but ideally I would like PC to just rebuild the index.

  • staff-frank · Staff ·

    This sounds like there was a corrupt Android database. We’re going to need the app logs to look into this further, so I’ve reached out to you via email.

    Please expect an email from us on the email address you used for this forum (i.e. email address for your WordPress.com account).

  • Unknown's avatar
    jjjprogrammer · Member ·

    I’m having the exact same issue. My subscribed podcasts won’t load. I can’t subscribe to anything new, the search page won’t load.

  • staff-cara · Staff ·

    Hi, @jjjprogrammer! Yours appears to be a different issue, but are you also on an Android device? Can you tell us more about the following?

    • The OS version on your device – you can usually find this from your phone’s Settings
    • Your Pocket Casts app version – you can see this from the Pocket Casts app’s Profile > Settings (gear icon) > About

    In the meantime, can you try connecting to a different network or even mobile data and check if app screens load for you as expected?

  • Unknown's avatar
    jayd1z · Member ·

    I have this same problem. I was having an issue with the app, and uninstalled and reinstalled it, but now get an error for all my previously downloaded/paid for patreon episodes for a show I no longer subscribe to but hadn’t listened to yet. The files are still on my phone, but the app gives an error saying it cannot be downloaded again. How do I remedy this so I have access to the content I already paid for without having to resubscribe to their patreon again?

  • staff-frank · Staff ·

    Hi @spammenjunc! When you uninstall the Pocket Casts app, all your downloaded files get deleted. This is why the app is trying to download the episode again.

    Unfortunately, when a Patreon membership term ends, access to the entire feed is revoked. Pocket Casts doesn’t cache data on our servers.

    You may want to contact Patreon to see if there’s anything they can do for you.

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