Reliable podcast management software

[Fishfinger]

For a few years now I've gotten through 10+ hours of podcasts every week. But, not for the first time, my PC-based iTunes/iPhone combo is glitching and suddenly I have 130 episodes I've already listened to or dismissed downloading. The pause downloads button works for all of two seconds, then the dribble of digirrhoea continues. So: is there more reliable software out there for managing loads of podcasts from disparate sources?

This issue seems to happen infrequently for no reason I've been able to discern (whether iOS or iTunes is at fault I have no idea) and it's not a big deal really. I can turn the phone off and manually mark as played all the previous stuff. But right now I have a head cold and can't be doing with it all, and would be interested in an ultimate solution. If any of you clever CaB Technology people have any recommendations, I'd be grateful.

[Jackson K Pollock]

Downcast for me, everyday of the week. Paid £2.99 for it a couple of years ago and would happily have paid 10 times that for how much use I've had out of it and how good it is.

Check it out, you won't go far wrong.

Unless there's a reason why you're not doing it, you know you can also download the podcasts straight onto your phone without having to hook it up to a computer?

Eliminates iTunes, eliminates the need for syncing to a computer, very user friendly, reasonably customisable and totally reliable - it's probably the best app I've ever paid money for.

[Fishfinger]

Thank you, will take a good look at that. I do mainly want something that'll work on the iPhone regardless. The iPhone app is probably the main culprit. Re: syncing, depending on what I'm doing I may be using the phone or a laptop or whatever so it's made sense to have them in tandem for music, podcasts, etc. Until it shits the bed.

[Ignatius_S]

Overcast would be worth looking at. It's a free iOS app and Web service  - the latter is simple but works well and it tends to be highly rated for syncing listening between devices. It's free, but people can support it via Patereon.

Re: your technical issues - have you tried unchecking the 'sync podcasts' checkbox option in iTunes? It sounds counter-intuitive, but (IIRC) cures quite a few syncing problem, which this sounds like.

[Fishfinger]

Thanks, will have a look at that too. The syncing option was already unchecked, for now I've actually turned it on and limited syncing to the 1 most recent episode of each podcast, as that would seem to mitigate against having hundreds of unwanted downloads again. I think somewhere in this setup there's a glitch that just occasionally flags or resets all episodes of a given podcast as unplayed.