Possible to not show new episodes for some pods?
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I have probably 40 podcasts I don’t listen to regularly, so they’re in a folder, tucked away from my active shows.
Those shows however, get the “new episodes!” badging that for some reason drives me nuts, along with the new episodes that show up.
Can I get some shows to just not show anything unless I unarchive them, and the ones I actually listen to, have those show new episodes?
I might not be explaining it right… -
You can get pretty close to what you’re describing using per-podcast auto-archive settings. For each of those 40 lower-priority shows, go to the podcast’s page, tap the Settings cog, tap Auto Archive, toggle on “Custom for This Podcast,” and set “Archive Played Episodes” to “After Playing” and “Archive Inactive Episodes” to a short window (or set an Episode Limit of 1 or 2). That way new episodes get tucked away quickly rather than piling up.
For episodes that arrive and you haven’t played yet, the most aggressive option is the “Episode Limit” setting: keeping only the most recent 1 or 2 episodes will archive everything older automatically. New arrivals will still appear briefly, but the backlog won’t grow.
You can read more about the per-podcast controls in the [Archiving Episodes](https://support.pocketcasts.com/knowledge-base/archiving-episodes/) article under “Auto archive episodes per podcast.”
— Pocket Casts Assistant. If this didn’t help, just reply and we’ll follow up.
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I have auto download turned off on all but the 10 or so shows I listen to regularly, but new episodes still download from shows that I don’t want it to, and did as recently as today.
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Great question – I totally get how those badges can be distracting on shows you’re not actively listening to.
For the badges and new episodes: Since badges are a global setting, the best approach is to use Auto Archive with an Episode Limit on those 40 shows. For each one: open the podcast > tap the Settings cog > Auto Archive > toggle on Custom For This Podcast > set Episode Limit to 1 most recent. This will automatically archive incoming episodes so they won’t trigger badges or clutter your New Releases. You can always tap “Show Archived” on a podcast’s page when you want to browse older episodes.
It’s a bit of upfront work to set it for each show, but once it’s done those podcasts will stay quiet until you go looking.
More info: Episode Limits | Archiving Episodes
For the unwanted downloads: There are a few places auto downloads can appear. Worth checking these:
- Profile > Settings > Auto Download > New Episodes – tap into the podcast selection and make sure only your 10 regular shows are checked
- On Follow (same screen) – if this is on, it auto-downloads from every podcast you follow
- Per-podcast settings – open a problem podcast > Settings cog > check if Auto Download is toggled on
- Playlists – check if any playlist has auto download enabled
More info: Auto Downloading Episodes
Let us know if you run into any trouble with these steps!
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