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Thread tagged as: Problem, Podcasts

Podcast - "Can’t download episodes from your feed."

Hello there.

I'm setting up a Podcast for a client, and the Podcast validates in iTunes, but I keep getting the message "Can’t download episodes from your feed."

The URLs to the mp3 files, listed in the RSS, load fine on their own, so I don't understand the issue.

I've checked that the server allows URL rewriting, I've checked that the SSL certificate is one that iTunes recognises.

I'm stuck. Can anyone help please?

Tim.

Tim Rex

Tim Rex 0 points

  • 2 years ago
Drew McLellan

Drew McLellan 2638 points
Perch Support

Where's your feed?

Tim Rex

Tim Rex 0 points

Sorry. That would be helpful:

https://www.peterboroughtn.org/podcasts/rss.php?s=peterborough-talking-news

As a side note, your RSS feed template seems to be missing the explicit tag, which I added in: <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>

Thanks.

Drew McLellan

Drew McLellan 2638 points
Perch Support

What's issuing that error?

It looks like it should be ok to me. The only thing slightly odd is that the length in the RSS feed doesn't match the size of the file on the server. I'm not sure that would be a big issue though.

Tim Rex

Tim Rex 0 points

Thanks for looking. The error is being thrown up during the validation process when trying to submit the podcast to iTunes.

https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/new-feed

Annoyingly it doesn't give any further details, it just says "Can’t download episodes from your feed."

Yes, the length seemed to be set to '1' so I tried entering the file sizes in bytes. Didn't make a difference anyway.

Bit of a pain really. I saw from an old forum thread that another Perch user switched to a Podcast hosting service in the end, after experiencing a similar issue, but I want to get it working.

I've contacted my hosting company to make sure there are no restrictions that would be affecting this. They say not.

Their latest comment was: "Nothing on the server is blocking the requests, though it may be having a hard time following the redirection setup in /home/peterboroughtn/public_html/podcasts/.htaccess as I can see the 301/302 redirects in the access logs"

But the URL rewriting seems to be working, so I don't think that's it.

Drew McLellan

Drew McLellan 2638 points
Perch Support

Have you tried subscribing to your feed?

Tim Rex

Tim Rex 0 points

Yes. It loads the feed correctly, but can't download any of the audio files. Give me an exclamation mark icon.

Drew McLellan

Drew McLellan 2638 points
Perch Support

I don't know what might cause that, I'm afraid.

Is there anything more you can tell me?

Tim Rex

Tim Rex 0 points

Hi. Yes. So, to see if URL rewriting was an issue, I edited the rss_items.html template, using a URL to one of the audio files in the resources folder instead of a Perch content tag. Doing this it then worked in iTunes. This doesn't help much other than to highlight that it's the URL rewriting that's stopping iTunes accessing the audio files. What do you think?

Drew McLellan

Drew McLellan 2638 points
Perch Support

iTunes should follow the redirect. Have you tried in any other user agents?

Tim Rex

Tim Rex 0 points

No, I haven't. Following the client's instructions.

Drew McLellan

Drew McLellan 2638 points
Perch Support

Ok, I'll leave it with you.

Tim Rex

Tim Rex 0 points

Is it possible to change the settings/templates to link straight to the audio file in resources instead of using the URL rewriting? If so, how would I go about that please?

Drew McLellan

Drew McLellan 2638 points
Perch Support

Are you currently using episodeTrackedURL in your template?

Tim Rex

Tim Rex 0 points

In the 'rss_items' template? Yes, currently have this:

    <item>
        <title><perch:podcasts id="episodeNumber" type="text" label="Episode number" size="s" /> <perch:podcasts id="episodeTitle" type="text" /></title>
        <itunes:author><perch:podcasts id="PERCH_EMAIL_FROM_NAME" /></itunes:author>
        <itunes:subtitle><![CDATA[<perch:podcasts id="summary" type="textarea" textile="true" striptags="true" />]]></itunes:subtitle>
        <itunes:summary><![CDATA[<perch:podcasts id="summary" type="textarea" textile="true" striptags="true" />]]></itunes:summary>
        <itunes:image href="<perch:podcasts id="domain" /><perch:podcasts id="image" type="image" width="1400" height="1400" />" />
        <enclosure url="https://www.peterboroughtn.org/cms/resources/00000001.mp3" length="<perch:podcasts id="episodeFileSize" />" type="<perch:podcasts id="episodeFileType" />" />
        <guid><perch:podcasts id="episodeTrackedURL" /></guid>
        <pubDate><perch:podcasts id="episodeDate" type="date" format="D, d M Y H:i:s O"  /></pubDate>
        <itunes:duration><perch:podcasts id="episodeDurationHMS" /></itunes:duration>
    </item>

It's not been modified.

I don't need to use tracking though, which I assume is for the stats?

Drew McLellan

Drew McLellan 2638 points
Perch Support

You say it's not been modified, but we certainly don't ship a template that contains

url="https://www.peterboroughtn.org/cms/resources/00000001.mp3"
Tim Rex

Tim Rex 0 points

Sorry, that was from my test file.

This is the one we're using:

    <item>
        <title><perch:podcasts id="episodeNumber" type="text" label="Episode number" size="s" /> <perch:podcasts id="episodeTitle" type="text" /></title>
        <itunes:author><perch:podcasts id="PERCH_EMAIL_FROM_NAME" /></itunes:author>
        <itunes:subtitle><![CDATA[<perch:podcasts id="summary" type="textarea" textile="true" striptags="true" />]]></itunes:subtitle>
        <itunes:summary><![CDATA[<perch:podcasts id="summary" type="textarea" textile="true" striptags="true" />]]></itunes:summary>
        <itunes:image href="<perch:podcasts id="domain" /><perch:podcasts id="image" type="image" width="1400" height="1400" />" />
        <enclosure url="<perch:podcasts id="episodeTrackedURL" />" length="<perch:podcasts id="episodeFileSize" />" type="<perch:podcasts id="episodeFileType" />" />
        <guid><perch:podcasts id="episodeTrackedURL" /></guid>
        <pubDate><perch:podcasts id="episodeDate" type="date" format="D, d M Y H:i:s O"  /></pubDate>
        <itunes:duration><perch:podcasts id="episodeDurationHMS" /></itunes:duration>
    </item>
Drew McLellan

Drew McLellan 2638 points
Perch Support

Right, so you are using episodeTrackedURL. Try using episodeFile.

Tim Rex

Tim Rex 0 points

Thanks Drew. I've refreshed the feed after uploading the new file. Same result I'm afraid.

Drew McLellan

Drew McLellan 2638 points
Perch Support

Do you know how long iTunes caches the feed for?

Tim Rex

Tim Rex 0 points

No, but when I changed the template to include the URL with no rewriting the change took effect immediately. There's also a button to 'refresh feed', which I've been using.