iTunes only sees 65 of our 80 episodes
by Seth Hancock
on
Jan 19, 2008 at 7:43:44 pm
Hey all,
I have searched on Apple's site and tried looking in other places to find my answer. So here I am...
We have a video podcast that started in March of 2006. To date we have 80 episodes of our show. Our URL, RSS feed, storage location, etc. has NEVER changed yet iTunes only recognizes the 65th episode and nothing since August 2007. We are getting ready to start our third season of shows and I want to try and remedy this prior to the launch.
Has anyone experienced this before? What can we do to get all episodes under the same location within the iTunes directory. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I cannot find the answer to remedy this.
Thanks.
Seth
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison
Re: iTunes only sees 65 of our 80 episodes (one more thing) by Seth Hancock on Jan 21, 2008 at 3:51:59 pm
One thing I also wanted to mention is that if you subscribe to the podcast, the episodes are still sent weekly. So, the RSS feed is still pointing to and downloading the weekly content. However, the problem still exists that iTunes is not supplying all the episodes in its directory. Is there a limit on the number of items/episodes that iTunes will post in its directory? This is just perplexing to us. Thanks.
Seth
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison
Re: iTunes only sees 65 of our 80 episodes (one more thing) by Jonathan Miller on Jan 23, 2008 at 3:50:34 pm
Hi Seth,
I don't believe iTunes has an official episode limit but it's possible the directory does have a size limit on the xml of your feed. I would stick to less than 256KB. Since yours is not that large then I'm going to say that's not the issue going on here.
What I did notice was that your feed does not validate. I'm not sure how long it's been that way but I would start there and correct those issues and see if that will force iTunes to refresh your episode lineup.
I do know that iTunes is very picky about valid xml and will stop refreshing the feed in the directory if there's a problem. The the good thing is that for all current subscribers, it's only the directory that freezes, all new episodes will still get pushed to subscribers computers.I think that's what you've been seeing. It's only prospective subscribers browsing your podcast directory page that don't see all of the new content. Once they subscribe, they get access to everything that's in the feed.
I hope that helps!
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA
Currently producing these popular podcasts:
"The Rest of Everest" Video Podcast *Voted as one of iTunes' "Best of 2006" & "Best of 2007 Classics" podcasts
*Nominated for "Best Video Podcast" in the 2007 People's Choice Podcast Awards
www.therestofeverest.com
Re: iTunes only sees 65 of our 80 episodes (one more thing) by Seth Hancock on Jan 23, 2008 at 4:05:28 pm
Thanks guys.
I am the creative one behind the show so I will have to forward this to our IT people to fix. This was valid for a while but looking at the validation stuff is overwhelming. I appreciate you assistance with this.
Peace,
Seth
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison
Re: iTunes only sees 65 of our 80 episodes (one more thing) by Jonathan Miller on Jan 23, 2008 at 4:31:25 pm
No problem Seth. If you guys run into some issues trying to get it all valid, just post again.
My first child, Samuel was born last week so I'm a bit busy (read: sleepy) so it may not be immediate help, but I'll do my best!
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA
Currently producing these popular podcasts:
"The Rest of Everest" Video Podcast *Voted as one of iTunes' "Best of 2006" & "Best of 2007 Classics" podcasts
*Nominated for "Best Video Podcast" in the 2007 People's Choice Podcast Awards
www.therestofeverest.com
Re: iTunes only sees 65 of our 80 episodes (one more thing) by Seth Hancock on Feb 25, 2008 at 11:04:51 pm
Jonathan,
Our IT people were able to make this happen and fix it. It is nice that FINALLY all episodes are listed and posted on iTunes. Thanks for pointing out the deficiencies in our RSS Feed. Everything is back to normal and now I feel better. I like being able to manage this process and someday hope to be able to understand it completely so that I can just do it myself.
Again, thanks.
Seth
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison
Re: iTunes only sees 65 of our 80 episodes (one more thing) by Jonathan Miller on Feb 26, 2008 at 12:41:09 am
Hi Seth,
I was totally confused by the XML when I first decided to get into podcasting but decided I needed to figure it out.
It looks much more difficult than it actually is. I'd be happy to help translate it all for you if you ever decide you have to learn. Then you'd be able to troubleshoot by yourself if you ever run into a problem.
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA
Currently producing these popular podcasts:
"The Rest of Everest" Video Podcast *Voted as one of iTunes' "Best of 2006" & "Best of 2007 Classics" podcasts
*Nominated for "Best Video Podcast" in the 2007 People's Choice Podcast Awards
www.therestofeverest.com
Re: iTunes only sees 65 of our 80 episodes (one more thing) by Jonathan Miller on Feb 26, 2008 at 12:41:46 am
Hi Seth,
I was totally confused by the XML when I first decided to get into podcasting but decided I needed to figure it out.
It looks much more difficult than it actually is. I'd be happy to help translate it all for you if you ever decide you have to learn. Then you'd be able to troubleshoot by yourself if you ever run into a problem.
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA
Currently producing these popular podcasts:
"The Rest of Everest" Video Podcast *Voted as one of iTunes' "Best of 2006" & "Best of 2007 Classics" podcasts
*Nominated for "Best Video Podcast" in the 2007 People's Choice Podcast Awards
www.therestofeverest.com