Podcasts

Your server follows podcast feeds itself. It checks the shows for new episodes, keeps the list, and plays episodes through to every app. You do not need a folder of files, though a folder of episodes you already have scans too.

Adding the library

Settings → Libraries → New library, choose Podcasts. A folder is optional. One podcast library serves the whole house: anyone with access to it can add shows, and each person follows their own.

The library’s settings (owner only) set:

• How often feeds are checked: every hour by default, anywhere from 15 minutes to once a day.
• Server copies: off by default, which streams each episode from the show’s own host through your server. Turn it on to keep the newest episodes as files on your server.
• The default episode order, newest or oldest first. A serial is better oldest first.

Following shows

Open the podcast library and go to Browse. There are three ways to add a show:

• Search by name. Type the show or the host.
• Paste the feed address, for a show search does not find, or a private feed.
• Import your list from another app. Export an OPML file from the app you use now and import it here. It offers to mark the episodes already out as played, so you start with what comes next rather than a backlog of hundreds.

Adding a show follows it for you. Follow and Following on a show’s page change that for your profile only.

To take the list elsewhere, the owner can use Export OPML on the podcast library in the browser, which saves every show in the library as one file.

Browse

Browse shows:

• Featured on this server: shows the owner has picked. Open a show and use Feature to add it.
• Recommended by shows you follow, from the recommendations shows publish in their feeds.
• The top shows in your country from Apple Podcasts, and its categories.

Open any show from Browse and you can play an episode straight away before you follow it. Follow it and it joins the library, with your place in that episode kept.

The chart country is a server setting, and a profile can choose its own in Settings.

A profile with a rating cap never sees a show marked explicit, in Browse, in search or in the library.

TVs can browse, play from a show, and follow it. Adding by feed or OPML, show settings and removing shows are on phones and the browser.

Up Next

Up Next is the first row on home. It holds one episode from each show you follow: the one you are partway through, or else the oldest one you have not played since you followed the show. Following a show never pulls in its back catalogue.

They are ordered newest release first, except that the episode you most recently started sits at the front until it ends. When an episode ends, the player plays the next one in Up Next.

Tap a card to play it. Long-press it (or use its menu) to open the episode, Remove from Up next, or Mark played. Removing skips that episode without marking it played, and the show’s next one takes its place.

A show’s page

The page lists the episodes newest or oldest first, and Unplayed only hides the ones you have heard. From there you can play any episode, Mark played (one episode, that one and every older one, or the whole show), and read the show notes.

Show settings, while you follow a show:

• Speed for this show.
• Skip the first seconds and skip the last seconds of every episode, for a theme tune or a closing ad read.
• Episode order for this show.
• Keep copies on the server, overriding the library setting (owner).
• Download the newest on this device, on a phone or tablet (below).

When a show publishes a transcript, the player shows a Transcript tab that follows along as the episode plays. Tap a line to jump there. Chapters published by a show work the same way as an audiobook’s.

A show that publishes video episodes plays them in the video player.

The player itself, with speed, skip intervals, the sleep timer and smart rewind, is the same one books use. See Audiobooks.

Automatic downloads

On iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets, new episodes can download on their own.

1. Turn it on for the device: Settings → Automatic downloads → Download new episodes automatically on this device. It is tied to the profile that was open when you turned it on.
2. Pick how many to keep per show: in Show settings, Download the newest on this device, then a number. The phone keeps that many of the newest unplayed episodes.

What happens then:

• When a followed show posts an episode, your server tells the phone, and the phone downloads it in the background.
• Wi-Fi only unless you turn on Allow on cellular. An episode waiting for Wi-Fi says so, with Download now to fetch it over cellular anyway.
• One quiet notification sums up what arrived. It makes no sound and does not interrupt what you are listening to. Turn it off with Notify me about new episodes.
• An episode downloaded this way is removed from the device a day after you finish it. Episodes you downloaded by hand are never removed for you.
• Nothing downloads when the device has less than 2 GB free.

The notification that wakes your phone carries no show or episode names. Your phone looks them up from your server and writes the line itself, so Apple, Google and Multipass do not see what you listen to.

Downloads are part of the paid tier, automatic ones included. See Downloads.

Listening offline

With no connection to your server, the app opens as usual, showing only what is downloaded: Up Next lists your downloaded episodes and plays through them. Where you got to, and any bookmarks, go back to the server as soon as it is reachable.

When something goes wrong

	What to do
That address is not a podcast feed	The link is to a web page, not the feed. Look for an RSS link on the show’s site
Could not reach that feed	The show’s host did not answer. Check the address, or try again later
The podcast directory is busy	Search is rate-limited. Wait a minute, or paste the feed address
The charts are being put together	The first time a country is asked for, its charts take a minute
An episode never downloaded automatically	Check the device switch, the number in Show settings, Wi-Fi, and free space