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Apple’s official Podcasts iOS app broken for many users (Update: Resolved)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9CdISVlWGs&feature=youtu.be

Update: the app seems to be back to normal now.

Several users have reported that Apple’s official Podcasts app has suddenly stopped working on iOS. Users experiencing the issue report that the latest version of Apple’s Podcasts app, version 2.1.2 released on May 29th, no longer launches or functions on iOS 7.1.1, the latest stable version of the iPhone software.  While the Podcasts app will download from the App Store, opening the app quickly crashes it after a few seconds as seen in the video above.

Both versions are public releases and not beta releases of preview software and the trouble seems to have originated longer after either version of the app or operating system received an update.

We’ve reached out to Apple for more information on the apparent issue with Apple’s official Podcasts app.

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Comments

  1. Yup. Worked fine yesterday, just tried to open it and it crashes within 3 seconds. Could be back to Instacast if this keeps up.

  2. Adam Simon - 10 years ago

    I was having this problem earlier today, but only on wifi – as soon as I switched to LTE, it stopped crashing. My app is still set to download podcasts over LTE, so it’s not just the download check that triggers the crash, but might be related to something server-side for this to crop up suddenly.

  3. markpetereit - 10 years ago

    Same app-crashing problem here. However, if, instead of launching the app, I use Siri from the lock screen and say, “Play Mac Power Users Podcast” it picks up where I left off and plays fine.

    I’m on iOS 8 beta 2, so your mileage may vary.

  4. Lee (@leemahi) - 10 years ago

    I was listening to it all morning then it just broke. I thought it was because I just yesterday put Pangu’s jailbreak on my iPad Air. OMG Speed Intensifier and NoSlowAnimations brings the love back to tablet computing.
    And I found out intune radio is 100 times better

  5. Ian Waring (@ianwaring) - 10 years ago

    Yep. Same here. Mid “This week in Google” video podcast. Can’t get it working at all :-(

  6. Justin Goodman - 10 years ago

    Doesn’t work on IOS 8 either.

  7. Brian - 10 years ago

    Entering Airplane mode “fixes” the issue for now. https://twitter.com/bmbufalo/status/482278309074862083

  8. ctxppc - 10 years ago

    No problems here. State: Benelux store, 1 audio podcast (76 items), aeroplane mode doesn’t trigger it, quitting app & restarting doesn’t trigger it either, latest stable iOS/app versions, iPhone 5S.

    I’m not sure why I’m attempting to trigger it in the first place.

  9. Suddenly stopped working? This app never worked right, it’s literally the worst app I’ve ever installed on any iOS device. I encourage everyone to quit using this app and download DownCast. It actually works and the feature set far surpasses this POS.

  10. Mine craches

  11. sinja1729 - 10 years ago

    Nooooooooooooooooooooo!😭😭😭😭😭😭💔

  12. Avenged110 - 10 years ago

    Mine’s working perfectly fine over here. v1.1.2 for life 😂 You’ll never take my reel-to-reel tape deck!

    • aeronperyton - 10 years ago

      I actually miss that little animation! It was such an Apple touch.

      • Avenged110 - 10 years ago

        It’s my favorite part of the app. Gives me something to watch when I listen to podcasts haha

  13. Bryant Rydberg - 10 years ago

    I Reset All Settings on my iPad and Podcasts worked fine afterward. Weird thing was that when I pressed the Home button to leave Podcast app my iPad would reboot. So after reseting all it worked normally.

  14. reidglanzer - 10 years ago

    Turn on airplane mode start the app wait 10-20 seconds and turn airplane mode off.

  15. Stacy Taylor - 10 years ago

    works for me in airplane mode, but not wifi or lte.

  16. Chris Denny (@dennyc69) - 10 years ago

    Yes I can also confirm that “Reset All Settings” does seem to solve the crashing problem in iOS 7 and iOS 8, so far

  17. Lee (@leemahi) - 10 years ago

    It’s back! I didn’t know how to download eps on intune podcast app. The app would just stop when I got out of wifi. Im glad it’s back.

  18. aeronperyton - 10 years ago

    I guess I missed all the fun, the app works as well as it ever has. But for me, the app works acceptably well while it seems like the rest of the world has downloaded some bootlegged clone that is absolutely terrible. Since version 2.0, I’ve never had any of the issues I keep hearing some people complain about.

  19. mcdonaldmorgan - 10 years ago

    Yup, this is NOT a surprise. This app and Apple’s handling of podcasts in iTunes and the Podcasts App has been nothing but a gong show the last two years

  20. Justin Jose Caraang - 10 years ago

    Who acutally uses the official app? I prefer Downcast for my podcast needs

  21. Buck Link - 10 years ago

    Well, I searched earlier for some reason why the podcast app was crashing and found only old stuff from earlier problems. Thus, I thought it was my iPhone and restored it. Working for now, and I got 2GB of spare space from something. So all is not lost. But, I’m tired of this crap with apple’s apps. May go looking at the recommended alternatives. Do they sync well with iTunes?

    • I use downcast and they do transfer your podcasts over when you back your device up, syncing them across I’m not really sure about. But Downcast is vastly superior in every way to this app. Mostly being because it actually works.

  22. Mark Leeds (@markleeds) - 10 years ago

    Mine just started crashing today. I was listening to the second episode of the Debug podcast interview with Nitin Ganatra and I thought that Apple was purposely crashing the app while playing that episode because of the inside discussion about the development of the iPhone. I thought I would never get to hear the rest of the interview. Fortunately, I was wrong, Debug podcasts were still available through the website. I was able to stream from where I left off with Safari.

  23. Kyle Hayes - 10 years ago

    Same. Worked after about the tenth try.

  24. Dave Snowden - 10 years ago

    I had the same problem yesterday and reinstalling didn’t work. However waking up this morning the problem seems to be resolved. First time there has ever been a problem

  25. sheldon mains - 10 years ago

    Mine is still crashing. What does “(Update: Resolved)” mean? It isn’t for me (or a lot of people on the comments

  26. Bruce Toombs - 10 years ago

    it’s not that it crashes, but that it has simply stopped downloading podcasts. I get “download error. tap to retry” for every podcast episode. Very frustrating, and I haven’t found a solution that works. iPad 2 on the latest IOS

Author

Avatar for Zac Hall Zac Hall

Zac covers Apple news, hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and created SpaceExplored.com.