Saving podcasts in iTunes

[Russell Nash]

This probably doesn't belong here, but here goes.

I use iTunes to get my podcasts (it's kind of neccessary with my iPod).  I have a huge list of Podcasts and it's even worse because of my massive backlog.(currently over 9 days).

I want to keep certain episodes of EP and other podcasts, but I want to get them out of my Podcast Library.  I only want un-listened-to podcasts in there.

I've tried a few different conversions to one format or another and that hasn't worked.  The only thing that has worked was opening them in Quicktime and re-saving them as a normal mp-3s.  This reduces the quality and is a pain. Can anyone help?

Edit
(I'm copying my post about the solution here to the first post. This way if anyone just wants to now how to save podcasts, they don't need to read the whole thread)

OK, I found the solution (on the iTunes forum. Thank you, Jim) and it was a variation of Michael's suggestion. I just had to Macify it a bit. It's something I tried before on iTunes 6 (probably) and it didn't work, but it works now.

You use the convert to MP3 function (like Michael said) this puts a copy in the Music library (even if the original was MP3) then chuck the original. No need to go out of iTunes and pull files around it's already there.

Before when I did it the copy would also come up as a podcast, no matter what I converted it to. I had a couple of AIFF podcasts for a while once.

[jrderego]

This probably doesn't belong here, but here goes.

I use iTunes to get my podcasts (it's kind of neccessary with my iPod).  I have a huge list of Podcasts and it's even worse because of my massive backlog.(currently over 9 days).

I want to keep certain episodes of EP and other podcasts, but I want to get them out of my Podcast Library.  I only want un-listened-to podcasts in there.

I've tried a few different conversions to one format or another and that hasn't worked.  The only thing that has worked was opening them in Quicktime and re-saving them as a normal mp-3s.  This reduces the quality and is a pain. Can anyone help?

All I do is highlight the podcast I want, ctrl+click and choose "show in finder" it shows me the mp3 of the EP Episode, and I can drag it out of the folder to anywhere I like on the computer. Are you using Windows or Macintosh? The podcasts I pull down, all of them, come in as mp3 files so no conversion is necessary.

[Russell Nash]

This probably doesn't belong here, but here goes.

I use iTunes to get my podcasts (it's kind of neccessary with my iPod).  I have a huge list of Podcasts and it's even worse because of my massive backlog.(currently over 9 days).

I want to keep certain episodes of EP and other podcasts, but I want to get them out of my Podcast Library.  I only want un-listened-to podcasts in there.

I've tried a few different conversions to one format or another and that hasn't worked.  The only thing that has worked was opening them in Quicktime and re-saving them as a normal mp-3s.  This reduces the quality and is a pain. Can anyone help?

All I do is highlight the podcast I want, ctrl+click and choose "show in finder" it shows me the mp3 of the EP Episode, and I can drag it out of the folder to anywhere I like on the computer. Are you using Windows or Macintosh? The podcasts I pull down, all of them, come in as mp3 files so no conversion is necessary.

Forgot that piece of info. I'm using OSX.

I can open the files in any program as an MP-3. That's not the problem. I use iTunes to play all of my files and I want to be able to have a playlist of old podcasts in iTunes without having them in the Podcast Library.

[jrderego]

This probably doesn't belong here, but here goes.

I use iTunes to get my podcasts (it's kind of neccessary with my iPod).  I have a huge list of Podcasts and it's even worse because of my massive backlog.(currently over 9 days).

I want to keep certain episodes of EP and other podcasts, but I want to get them out of my Podcast Library.  I only want un-listened-to podcasts in there.

I've tried a few different conversions to one format or another and that hasn't worked.  The only thing that has worked was opening them in Quicktime and re-saving them as a normal mp-3s.  This reduces the quality and is a pain. Can anyone help?

All I do is highlight the podcast I want, ctrl+click and choose "show in finder" it shows me the mp3 of the EP Episode, and I can drag it out of the folder to anywhere I like on the computer. Are you using Windows or Macintosh? The podcasts I pull down, all of them, come in as mp3 files so no conversion is necessary.

Forgot that piece of info. I'm using OSX.

I can open the files in any program as an MP-3. That's not the problem. I use iTunes to play all of my files and I want to be able to have a playlist of old podcasts in iTunes without having them in the Podcast Library.

Hmmmm... I'd originally written out a bunch of steps to make this happen, then tested them to make sure I was right and they didn't work. I even renamed the file and it didn't work.

LOL.

What I do is keep a playlist called "Jeffstories" in iTunes where I have all the UD stories and Ambient Sleaze, and I just drag the podcasts to that. I clean up my podcast directory every few weeks so space isn't much of a problem. I just have to make sure not to delete the ones I want to keep (I am guessing here).

I know I used to be able to do what you're asking, but either iTunes doesn't allow it anymore, or I've completely forgotten how to do it.

Sorry man.

[Jonathan C. Gillespie]

There is no way to do this in iTunes; I know because I've tried the same thing.

[Bdoomed]

i know a way
it might not allways work but try it
go to file, create new smart playlist
then select under match the following rule, select podcast--is true
then you limit the list to x items (25,30, whatever seems best) selected by least often played.
this will put all of the podcasts that havnt been listened to at all into a playlist.
this should help more than anything.

[Russell Nash]

i know a way
it might not allways work but try it
go to file, create new smart playlist
then select under match the following rule, select podcast--is true
then you limit the list to x items (25,30, whatever seems best) selected by least often played.
this will put all of the podcasts that havnt been listened to at all into a playlist.
this should help more than anything.

That would help if I wanted to keep take of which ones I haven't listened to yet, but that doesn't help at all with what I was after.

[Michael]

Okay, here is another way.  Change your encoder in itunes from AAC to something else... I would suggest MP3.  (edit, preferences, advanced, importing.)  highlight all the Podcasts you want to archive and right click, (or whatever you apple guys do to get a menu on files selected) and select convert.  Itunes will crank them all into good quality MP3's and then you can move them out of you itunes directory and store them someplace that Itunes doesn't know about (if Itunes is organizing your directories it might move them right back).  I am assuming you will have different icons for AAC and MP3 or on a list view you can find them easily to move them. 

 

[Russell Nash]

Okay, here is another way.  Change your encoder in itunes from AAC to something else... I would suggest MP3.  (edit, preferences, advanced, importing.)  highlight all the Podcasts you want to archive and right click, (or whatever you apple guys do to get a menu on files selected) and select convert.  Itunes will crank them all into good quality MP3's and then you can move them out of you itunes directory and store them someplace that Itunes doesn't know about (if Itunes is organizing your directories it might move them right back).  I am assuming you will have different icons for AAC and MP3 or on a list view you can find them easily to move them. 

 

Tried it. The problem is trying to play the files in iTunes without them showing up in the podcast directory. When you do what you suggest (almost all podcasts are already MP3)  iTunes just puts it back in the podcast directory.

[Michael]

Doesn't the Mac have some other player?  I would only convert the file format to make them compatible with another player.  So personally I would play converted ones in Windows Media player, and further make the mp3 default player windows media player so m4a's opened with itunes and mp3's opened with Windows Media when I clicked on them.

You can have windows media player for MAC OS X for Free Here:

http://www.download.com/Windows-Media-Player/3000-2182_4-10242701.html?tag=lst-0-7

You do know you can set Itunes to only put Checked selections onto you Ipod, right?  You can batch check and uncheck selections.  If you do that, the extra podcasts aren't really in the way even if they are in the directory...   

[Russell Nash]

Doesn't the Mac have some other player?  I would only convert the file format to make them compatible with another player.  So personally I would play converted ones in Windows Media player, and further make the mp3 default player windows media player so m4a's opened with itunes and mp3's opened with Windows Media when I clicked on them.

You can have windows media player for MAC OS X for Free Here:

http://www.download.com/Windows-Media-Player/3000-2182_4-10242701.html?tag=lst-0-7

You do know you can set Itunes to only put Checked selections onto you Ipod, right?  You can batch check and uncheck selections.  If you do that, the extra podcasts aren't really in the way even if they are in the directory...   

Will somebody PLEASE read the original post. I want to use iTunes, because it is my normal player and updates my iPod.

There is no need to use bloatware like windows media player.
      1) no playlists
      2) quicktime does everything WMP does, but better.

I want to keep the podcasts in my playlists, in the simple and elegant iTunes set-up, but want them out of the podcast directory.  I can remove them from iTunes and play them in quicktime far easier then all of the window ideas listed here, but I want to keep using iTunes until somebody can point me to a jukebox program that works better.

[SFEley]

I want to keep the podcasts in my playlists, in the simple and elegant iTunes set-up, but want them out of the podcast directory.  I can remove them from iTunes and play them in quicktime far easier then all of the window ideas listed here, but I want to keep using iTunes until somebody can point me to a jukebox program that works better.

Hi Russell,

I don't know if this meets your requirements, but have you considered downloading the episodes you want to keep straight off the Web site? 

With Escape Pod you can do this just by right-clicking on the podcast icon in each entry and choosing "Save As..." (in Firefox/Camino) or "Download Linked File" (in Safari).  Once the file's downloaded to your hard drive, you can just drag it into iTunes and whatever playlist you want. 

It's not terribly elegant -- but you're right.  I haven't figured out any way yet to disassociate a "podcast" file from the iTunes podcast features either.

[Michael]

Okay, Russell, stay calm, I am here to help.      Just change the genre.  Highlight them all, click "Get Info" and change the genre from "Podcast" to "Audio book"--that will take it out of your Podcast Directory.

If you want to keep them all together, change the artist (to like all EP), otherwise they will disperse by authors name around your directory.  Another way to find them is to sort by genre and the audio books will all clump together again.

[Russell Nash]

I want to keep the podcasts in my playlists, in the simple and elegant iTunes set-up, but want them out of the podcast directory.  I can remove them from iTunes and play them in quicktime far easier then all of the window ideas listed here, but I want to keep using iTunes until somebody can point me to a jukebox program that works better.

I don't know if this meets your requirements, but have you considered downloading the episodes you want to keep straight off the Web site? 

This is what I do. I was just hoping there was a command that would make it easier. Also not all podcasts can be downloaded like this.

Okay, Russell, stay calm, I am here to help.      Just change the genre.  Highlight them all, click "Get Info" and change the genre from "Podcast" to "Audio book"--that will take it out of your Podcast Directory.

Tried that second after using "convert to". It doesn't work

[Startrekwiki]

Yes, this works. I personally prefer simply copying the EP episodes that I like into my library [using the "iTunes Folder" method] then changing the settings to automatically prune the amount of Podcasts in my directory to "Month Old" ones. I put "Month Old" in brackets, because EP episodes are really great and timeless! The ones I lose to being away for a month, I download onto my laptop from the EP site.

[Russell Nash]

Yes, this works. I personally prefer simply copying the EP episodes that I like into my library [using the "iTunes Folder" method] then changing the settings to automatically prune the amount of Podcasts in my directory to "Month Old" ones. I put "Month Old" in brackets, because EP episodes are really great and timeless! The ones I lose to being away for a month, I download onto my laptop from the EP site.

I think the problem here is that I'm using iTunes 7. There are seperate libraries for music and podcasts. No matter how I change the genre, it doesn't let me move a podcast into the music library. When I delete it from the podcast library, it is gone. Even if I choose keep files, the files are left in the computer folder, but removed from iTunes.

I would appreciate a idiot's step guide with every tiny step included, but I don't think that will make a difference.

[Jim]

Have you posted this question at the iTunes forum on Apple's discussion boards?

I bet someone there would have a perfect solution, perhaps involving Automator.

[Russell Nash]

Have you posted this question at the iTunes forum on Apple's discussion boards?

I bet someone there would have a perfect solution, perhaps involving Automator.

Originally, I was just thinking, "there's probably some trick that's common knowledge. I'll throw the question up here and if somebody has the answer they'll post it." I didn't expect any conversation other than that. If nobody posted in a week or so I would have gone there. I don't have a lot of time to be checking too many forums and since I already am here as moderator, this would be easier.

Next time I'll go straight to the most appropriate place.

[Jim]

Originally, I was just thinking, "there's probably some trick that's common knowledge...

That goes to show you, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. 

[Startrekwiki]

Really? I think that there are some quite stupid questions, such as

"What is our Moon called?". Oh, wait. That's Luna in Greek. Is the moon called anything else?

[Reap3r]

Really? I think that there are some quite stupid questions, such as

"What is our Moon called?". Oh, wait. That's Luna in Greek. Is the moon called anything else?

I heard someone say, "What's Hitler's last name?" Though, after he got all the looks, he realized his mistake.

[Startrekwiki]

I suppose that my question makes no sense. What it is meant to say, is something more like, "Are there any more root words for the word "Moon"'? I suppose that this is just a stupid question, what it was meant to be!

[Jim]

Aaaaaand we've jumped the tracks. 

[Startrekwiki]

Yep. So, I'd say that means that we've finished helping with the iTunes PodCast problems.

[Russell Nash]

OK, I found the solution (on the iTunes forum. Thank you, Jim) and it was a variation of Michael's suggestion. I just had to Macify it a bit. It's something I tried before on iTunes 6 (probably) and it didn't work, but it works now.

You use the convert to MP3 function (like Michael said) this puts a copy in the Music library (even if the original was MP3) then chuck the original. No need to go out of iTunes and pull files around it's already there.

Before when I did it the copy would also come up as a podcast, no matter what I converted it to. I had a couple of AIFF podcasts for a while once.

[kenryan]

...(it's kind of neccessary with my iPod).

Actually it isn't, at least with mine. :-)  I've had my ipod for about a year.  I installed itunes on an old win2k laptop for the sole purpose of coverting the ipod to FAT format, then deleted itunes and have never used it since (I've since learned that I didn't even need to do that much, had I done a little more research).  My ipod has never been registered, and my only presence in Apple's databases is a few postings in their user forum.

Linux based (SuSE then, Fedora now), castpodder for receiving podcast feeds, and gtkpod for managing my ipod.  It's not as pretty as itunes but I can do anything I want.  CDs, podcasts, radio shows (via my radioshark), movies, almost everything.

DRM? What's that?

ken

[Russell Nash]

...(it's kind of neccessary with my iPod).

Actually it isn't, at least with mine. :-)  I've had my ipod for about a year.  I installed itunes on an old win2k laptop for the sole purpose of coverting the ipod to FAT format, then deleted itunes and have never used it since (I've since learned that I didn't even need to do that much, had I done a little more research).  My ipod has never been registered, and my only presence in Apple's databases is a few postings in their user forum.

Linux based (SuSE then, Fedora now), castpodder for receiving podcast feeds, and gtkpod for managing my ipod.  It's not as pretty as itunes but I can do anything I want.  CDs, podcasts, radio shows (via my radioshark), movies, almost everything.

DRM? What's that?

ken

I have a mac for the ease of use and elegant interface. I don't like to spend time wrestling with a computer. I'm a photography geek not a computer geek. If the only choices were windows or linux, I wouldn't even have a computer. (More likely I would have one for email and some surfing, but that's it)

iTunes has all the things I want in one simple package. With the last upgrade I even got my automatic conversion of podcasts to music files.

My problem came from not retrying things I had tried in iTunes 6 after I switched to iTunes 7. Einstein said the definition of insanity was doing the same thing again and expecting a differet result. He obviously never had a personal computer. (I'm sure he or one of his assistants used one of those massive vacuum tube machines, but that doesn't count)

The conversion of video podcasts is still spotty. It works, so far, about 25% of the time, even when Ii try to convert the same file types.

[Startrekwiki]

Einstein said the definition of insanity was doing the same thing again and expecting a differet result. He obviously never had a personal computer.

VideoCasts are pretty cool... Anyway, that definition is wrong. A good example is politics: we always ask for results, but we never get them. Then we hate the person in charge, we love the opposition, then the opposition gets elected, and here we go again.

Does that make sense to you?

Or is the definition correct, and we are all insane?

[ClintMemo]

Einstein said the definition of insanity was doing the same thing again and expecting a differet result. He obviously never had a personal computer.

VideoCasts are pretty cool... Anyway, that definition is wrong. A good example is politics: we always ask for results, but we never get them. Then we hate the person in charge, we love the opposition, then the opposition gets elected, and here we go again.

Does that make sense to you?

Or is the definition correct, and we are all insane?

Not to nitpick, but that's not really a good example.  The 'we', i.e. the majority of voters, doesn't always ask for the same thing. Voters are notoriously finicky.

[Startrekwiki]

Einstein said the definition of insanity was doing the same thing again and expecting a differet result. He obviously never had a personal computer.

VideoCasts are pretty cool... Anyway, that definition is wrong. A good example is politics: we always ask for results, but we never get them. Then we hate the person in charge, we love the opposition, then the opposition gets elected, and here we go again.

Does that make sense to you?

Or is the definition correct, and we are all insane?

Not to nitpick, but that's not really a good example.  The 'we', i.e. the majority of voters, doesn't always ask for the same thing. Voters are notoriously finicky.

You're right to point that out. What I mean is that at least a good percentage of voters like candidates because of their promises, coupled with other things. In other words, whoever gets elected, we expect to fulfill his promises. I've noticed that they don't usually do that. Or so goes the stereotype.

PS. You're right to nitpick on everything I say, because I'm kind-of new to forums.

[Planish]

Aaaaaand we've jumped the tracks. 

Right after someone said "Hitler", too. Whoah, creepy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_Law

[Michael]

I am having an annoying side effect which is exactly what this question was about.  I tell Itunes to automatically organize my library, then if I dump some music in the "My Music" folder that it defaul and "Add Folder" to the library, and select "My Music"...  the software automatically moves my podcasts to my music library and organizes them by who read them--which I don't even want it to do.   

[Planish]

I thought this was going to get me somewhere.

When I deleted a podcast, I got this alert:

Do you want to move the selected podcasts to the Trash, or keep them in the iTunes Music folder?
Only files in the iTunes Music folder will be moved to the Trash
[Cancel] [Keep files] [Move to Trash]

So, I thought it was going to lose it's podcastiness and become a plain-old-vanilla mp3 file, but when I double-clicked on it in the Finder to open it with iTunes, it plopped itself right back into the list with the other Escape Pod podcasts, except it got stripped of the show description.

The versions I download manually from the web site via the browser get dumped into the iTunes general Music library, and they do not behave like podcasts.

PS. If one limits (ie. rations) one's consumption of podcasts, is that called "podcastration"?

[Russell Nash]

I thought this was going to get me somewhere.

When I deleted a podcast, I got this alert:

Do you want to move the selected podcasts to the Trash, or keep them in the iTunes Music folder?
Only files in the iTunes Music folder will be moved to the Trash
[Cancel] [Keep files] [Move to Trash]

So, I thought it was going to lose it's podcastiness and become a plain-old-vanilla mp3 file, but when I double-clicked on it in the Finder to open it with iTunes, it plopped itself right back into the list with the other Escape Pod podcasts, except it got stripped of the show description.

The versions I download manually from the web site via the browser get dumped into the iTunes general Music library, and they do not behave like podcasts.

PS. If one limits (ie. rations) one's consumption of podcasts, is that called "podcastration"?

That was the last thing I tried before I started this thread.  "The Convert selection to MP3" is the only thing I've found that does the job short of redownloading manually.

[stePH]

I tell Itunes to automatically organize my library,...

That's a mistake I won't be making a second time, let me tell you.  It took over an hour to put everything back where it was supposed to go. 

[CGFxColONeill]

I have a question along these lines
when I put a podcast on my ipod it automatically puts it in reverse order ( the oldest one last) no matter what the order is on ituens
any ideas?

[Russell Nash]

I have a question along these lines
when I put a podcast on my ipod it automatically puts it in reverse order ( the oldest one last) no matter what the order is on ituens
any ideas?

If you're talking about in the podcast library, just click on the button on the top of the release date column.  I believe the little triangle is currently pointing up.  When you click it, it will point down and you'll be all set.

[eytanz]

I have a question along these lines
when I put a podcast on my ipod it automatically puts it in reverse order ( the oldest one last) no matter what the order is on ituens
any ideas?

I think the only choice is to switch to a different podcast player. iPods just don't allow much control over the interface as far as podcasts are concerned (I want the video podcasts to be listed with the regular podcasts. Is that too much to ask?).

Not that I have any ideas if there are other devices that do have the option to control the podcast order.

If you're talking about in the podcast library, just click on the button on the top of the release date column.  I believe the little triangle is currently pointing up.  When you click it, it will point down and you'll be all set.

No, he said he has them in the correct order in iTunes but that the iPod doesn't recognize that.

[Russell Nash]

I have a question along these lines
when I put a podcast on my ipod it automatically puts it in reverse order ( the oldest one last) no matter what the order is on ituens
any ideas?

If you're talking about in the podcast library, just click on the button on the top of the release date column.  I believe the little triangle is currently pointing up.  When you click it, it will point down and you'll be all set.

No, he said he has them in the correct order in iTunes but that the iPod doesn't recognize that.

I meant in the library from the iPod when looking at it in iTunes.  Doesn't matter, I just tried it and it didn't switch it. 

I create playlists of podcasts instead of using the podcast menu on the iPod.  This allows me to put them in whatever order i want and to mix the podcasts, so I don't need to listen to all of one podcast or mess around with the menus while I'm driving.

[CGFxColONeill]

ok thanks I will have to try making playlists w/ them thanks for the info ( btw sorry for dragging us at least partially back on topic lol)