Certain podcasts unable to be played on phone, for no obvious reason.
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So for two podcasts I follow in particular (Creepy/Creepypod and SCP Archives) and pretty consistently I go to play them on my phone I keep getting a second or two of it ‘buffering’ then throwing up a “Streaming Failed, try downloading the podcast.” error.
Attempting to download an episode doesn’t work either though, as it simply sits in pending download indefinitely. It isn’t an issue with my device or internet connection as other podcasts work fine without this issue.
As far as my device (Sony Xperia L1) tells me, my OS and the app are both up to date.
One thing that’s baffling and annoying is that the issue doesn’t happen all the time, occasionally I can listen to an episode or two without the problem before it goes back to weeks or months of being unavailable.I’d like to be able to just listen to the stuff I like, I’d rather not switch to another app but as time goes on I am starting to consider it.
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Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention, @firstbonr000! To help us investigate further, could you please share the podcast’s share link with us? You can find this by clicking the share icon next to the podcast title on the podcast page.
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Hi there, sorry for the delayed reply. The podcast share links are https://pca.st/GbzC and https://pca.st/SSE9
(different account because I mistyped my email for the first one and thus it immediately became inaccessible, further responses will be from this one) -
No worries about the delay response. I’m sure this is an annoying, but not top priority issue in your life. I’m just glad you gave us a chance to work on it with you!
Looking into this, I see that both podcasts are from the same podcast host, Megaphone. This does indicate that it could be something about how your device is connecting to their servers to stream that’s causing the issue.
The next time you get stuck like this with a podcast, please head to Profile> Help & feedback and tap the WiFi-looking icon in the top right corner. This will give you a Status Page where you can check your connection. Try tapping Run Now and let us know the results.
I’m also curious, can you let me know exactly what version of Android your Sony Xperia L1 is on? We have seen some issues with older versions of Android having trouble with the way some hosts set up their downloads, which I’d like to check for in your case.
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Okay so for some reason the status page is saying I have no internet connection? but I can access everything else through the internet, including all my other podcasts through the app itself.
Also the device says it’s on Android version 7.0, which according to it, is up to date as of today when asked to check for any. Though google says we’re up to 14, which is concerning. But still, why does it only randomly not work? (or I guess, randomly start to work since the default is apparently ‘not working’) what can be done on either end to make sure it just continues to work?
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@firstborn000 thanks for sharing the additional information with us!
Can you confirm that you aren’t using a VPN or firewall, which might affect your connection?
Additionally, you mentioned the issue is affecting just certain podcasts sounds like an issue our team have recently worked on fixing here: https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-android/issues/2569
We hope to have the fix for that available soon, but to clarify, that is actually caused by the SSL certificate of the podcast author. -
I do usually have a VPN going but I did have the thought it was maybe the source of the issue and previously tested if turning it off affected anything, it didn’t seem to make a noticeable difference but I can try some more for good measure.
The error message for the linked problem seems to be different from what I’m experiencing, but hey if the fix solves my problem too that’d be great! Save many a headache if it does. -
@firstborn000 – sounds good!
The error message for the linked problem seems to be different from what I’m experiencing, but hey if the fix solves my problem too that’d be great! Save many a headache if it does.
The fix should be out in 7.72, so I’d give that update a try when its out and then report back to us on whether it helped or not.
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I’m having this issue only on one podcast. Others are fine. I’ve tried the latest episode. I’ve cleared cache. Switched on and off. No hidden blockers and besides was working one day and not the next. Tried using web based on phone rather than app. Tried different browser. Tried other episodes. Link to app episode as an example is here: https://pca.st/episode/7bb510ce-15dc-46d6-b835-109fe180d813
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I just tested that episode on a Samsung Galaxy S23 and was able to play it without any trouble, so it doesn’t appear to be a widespread issue with the episode itself.
Could you please let us know the following:
- Your device model and Android version
- The version of the Pocket Casts app you’re currently using (
- Whether this happens on both Wi-Fi and mobile data
- If you’ve downloaded the episode or are streaming it when the issue occurs
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Hi it’s a Google Pixel 8, android version 15
pocket cast version 7.88
Happens both on WiFi and mobile data
I can’t download or stream. Download fails and says to retry, streaming gets the same streaming failed as mentioned at the start of this thread.
None of the other podcasts I listen to fail to download or to stream.
Also now tried this podcast on a different podcast app with no issues.
It’s really annoying because otherwise the app is great!
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@bristowjenny If you’re still experiencing an issue with this episode, since we’re unable to recreate the problem on our end, we may need to take a look at your app logs to dig into this further.
Could you reach out to us through the app by navigating to Profile > Help & Feedback > scroll down and tap on “Get in touch”.
Please make sure to reference ticket #9770944 in your message, so we have the full context of the situation. You may receive an automatic response with answers from our documentation, but you can reply to that message to escalate it to our team directly.
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Thanks for the response. It’s started working again. I have no idea why. I didn’t do anything different or retry any steps previously undertaken.
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I’m also encountering this error. This is my second time experiencing it. I have never managed to recover an episode.
I believe that the issue occurs when you attempt to download one or more episodes of a podcast with spotty reception, as the first time it happened I was on a ferry, and the second time (just now) I was in a train tunnel. Once it happens, the episode seems permanently tainted. No matter what you do, up to and including uninstalling the app, you can never play the episode again.
I’m confident that failed downloading is at least A trigger for this issue, since I was listening to the episode in question just hours ago.
I’m on Android 14, Galaxy A52
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Thanks, @bristowjenny, for letting us know that the issue with that episode resolved itself for you!
@stuartrjurquhart, thank you for providing such detailed information, especially your theory about failed download attempts in areas with spotty reception.
To help us dig into why these episodes might be getting “permanently tainted” on your Galaxy A52 (Android 14), could you please let us know:
- Which podcast(s) and episode name(s) are currently affected by this issue for you?
- What version of the Pocket Casts app are you using?
- After an episode fails to download and becomes “tainted”, if you try to manually delete the download entry, does trying to stream or download it again (on good Wi-Fi or stable mobile data) still result in an error?
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The Podcasts this has happened to me on are “Naddpod Patreon Exclusives” from Not Another D&D Podcast, and 8-Bit Book Club.
Naddpod Episodes: All of them. This is new. I thought it was just the Episodes that I tried and failed to download, but upon further spot checking, it seems to be all of them.
8-Bit Book Club: “**Monster Mix-Up [w/ Jasper William Cartwright | Super Mario Bros. | Adventure Book Theatre
Other 8-Bit Book Club eps play just fine.
PocketCasts ver 7.88 (9336)
As for removing the download, when I reinstall the app, the download isn’t listed, and trying to download it fresh fails the same way. After that, the episode DOES appear in the downloads, but it seems impossible to remove. I can swipe on it to expose the red “remove” option, but neither clicking on it nor pulling it further actually removes the episode from the list.
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I’m having a similar problem. My private (Patreon) feed for The Saucer Life, the majority of episodes provide the following error when attempting to stream:
“Streaming failed try downloading the podcast”
and when attempting to download:
“This episode may have been moved to deleted. Contact the podcast author.”
No VPN in use, this occurs using either wifi or cell.
Galaxy s24 / Pocket Casts 7.88 (9336)
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This started happening to me yesterday May 19 as well for one single Patreon personal feed. At first, some old episodes were still playable while others weren’t but eventually I was unable to find any episode that worked except for the latest three episodes. This has persisted into today and at different times and locations, and with no other podcasts/feeds have I observed this issue.
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@stuartrjurquhart @scarecrow411 @onewingwazi We pushed a fix yesterday that should have resolved these issues with Patreon feeds. Please let us know if you’re still having trouble. Thanks!
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Pocket Casts Forum 