Apple Watch questions.
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have just got an Apple watch and am a bit lost as to how Pocketcasts integrates with the watch. Some questions / issues / feedback:
how can I download episodes to the watch?
I have a smart playlist that filters in specific podcasts in the past week. When I set the playback source to the watch this playlist correctly shows 21 episodes, (the same as when viewing on the phone). When setting the playback source to the phone, this playlist only shows about half the episodes, and frequently says it is empty. This issue occurs for most other playlists.
When browsing the playlists while the source is set to watch, the number of episodes is show next to the playlist name. When the source is set to phone, the numbers are missing.the design of the Apple podcasts now playing screen is much nicer. It shows the artwork and the necessary controls, placing the additional controls in a secondary menu.
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Hi there, @happygun
1. Downloading episodes to the watch
Downloading episodes directly onto your Apple Watch needs Pocket Casts Plus (which you’ve got) and the Watch play source, which is for cellular Apple Watch Series 3 or later. The first time you switch to Watch source, open Pocket Casts on your iPhone and tap Refresh Account on the watch so it can pull your credentials. After that, the watch syncs straight with our servers.
Once you’re in Watch source, you can:
- Manually download an episode: tap the episode, then tap Download on the Episode Details screen.
- Auto-download your Up Next queue: on your iPhone, go to Profile > Settings > Apple Watch and turn on Auto Download Up Next. New episodes added to Up Next will then download to the watch automatically.
Downloads go quickest over Wi-Fi, so it can help to put your iPhone in Airplane mode or pop the watch on its charger to force a Wi-Fi download.
Full guide here: Apple Watch: Watch Play Source
2. Smart Playlist episode counts differing between Watch and Phone source
A couple of things going on here:
- When the play source is set to Phone, the Apple Watch app is mirroring what’s on your iPhone, but it also hides archived episodes and caps each section at 50 items. That can pull the visible count below what the same playlist shows when you open it in the iPhone app itself.
- That said, you’re seeing the playlist drop to “about half” or even appear empty, and the per-playlist episode counts disappear from the list. That goes beyond the usual archive/cap behaviour and sounds more like a sync bug.
The most useful things to send through are: which playlist filter rules you’ve set, roughly how many episodes the playlist shows in the iPhone app, and your Pocket Casts version. You can do that from Profile > Help & Feedback > Contact Support in the app, which will also attach diagnostic logs.
Background on filters here, in case it’s useful: Smart Playlists
3. Now Playing screen design
Thanks for the feedback! I’ll pass it on to the design team.
Pocket Casts Forum 