Podcasts "cannot be found" -- where did they go?

Why do my podcasts etc. sometimes get the exclamation point and then I am told they cannot be found? As an example, last evening I updated my iPod. I got the “cannot be found” error message regarding a podcast that I have had in iTunes for a good while, but not listened to. I just went on and ignored it. Do podcasts expire after a while? Am I losing them because they have been on the computer for a while and I have not listened to them?

Today, I listened to some podcasts while I took my morning walk, and when I got in, I wanted to update again. Now, more podcasts are marked with the exclamation point and cannot be found. Hitting the refresh brought some of them back, but not all. When I try to download again, these same ones “cannot be found”. Where are they going? What is happening? I have changed nothing at all on the computer -- just an iPod update last evening, and then again this morning! Can someone shed some light on this? Any and all help is appreciated.

I have “consolidated” the library, and have preferences set to add to the library. So, what else is there to do? Where are my podcasts going? How can I make this stop? I want to listen to all my podcasts, even the old ones.

FWIW -- running iTunes 7 (all updates), 5.5 gen iPod, iTunes library on an external, and there are no podcasts, songs, etc. on my internal (I have looked to be sure). Preferences point to the external, and all works well (except for the @!##$ exclamation points!).

Thanks!

The exclamation point means that your iTunes application can't connect with the server where the podcast resides.

This is a very common occurrence. It could be due to network traffic, a glitch at iTunes' redirecting, or a problem with the podcast's home server.

If you see a bunch of these at once, it could mean that one of the podcast hosting sites is down-- this happens every so often when, for example, Libsyn.com goes down: I get exclamation points on about a dozen podcasts when that happens.

The best thing to do is manually refresh your podcasts in iTunes, and if that doesn't do it, go to the podcast's page on iTunes and manually get the latest episode. That will make the exclamation point go away.

Enjoy.

Thanks for the reply! I guess I thought that once I downloaded the podcasts they resided on my computer and the server was no longer needed. Unfortunately, I can't do as you suggested. One of the podcasts has been discontinued (a foreign language class), and I'm not sure where the other one came from -- my son signed me up for it. It is more of a personal podcast -- one of his musician friends. I'll have to go looking for that one.

Anyway, thanks for enlightening me! I'll know better what to do in the future!

skybolt said:

Thanks for the reply! I guess I thought that once I downloaded the podcasts they resided on my computer and the server was no longer needed...

Click to expand...

When you download a podcast, the episode(s) you downloaded does reside on your computer. Since most podcasts issue several episodes, you need to connect and download the new episodes as they come out.

For example, I subscribe to the MacOS Ken podcast. This morning, iTunes connected and downloaded the latest episode, which is now sitting on my local computer. Tomorrow morning, iTunes will connect and download tomorrow's episode. If the connection to the podcast's server gets lost, I'll get an exclamation point next to its entry in iTunes. Once the connection is available, the exclamation point will go away and iTunes will happily download the next episode.

If a podcaster stops producing shows, the previous shows will remain available until they take them off the server. If you downloaded all the shows and the producer pulls the show from the server, you will still have the shows on your computer (as long as you didn't delete them) and you can ignore the exclamation mark.

Glad to help!

Thanks for your reply! You have validated what I have always thought, that the episodes reside on my computer. Your last paragraph sort of addresses my problem -- I have downloaded several episodes, have not listened to them, have not deleted them, and now they have the exclamation point, and I get the error message that they can't be found. I can't ignore the exclamation point -- I am told that the item cannot be found. When I tell the computer to look for it, it is unable to find it. The producers may well have pulled those episodes (since they are old), but why are they not on my computer any more? Pulling them from iTunes should not pull them from my computer, should it?

This is now happening to some "music" (actually, a radio show I recorded with Wire Tap Pro). This morning I got the dreaded exclamation point. Same deal, did not delete, have not listened to, etc., but am told it cannot be found. Where are all these things going and why? I want to listen, but now I can't!

Thanks again for any further help!

The reason it says the episodes are unable to be found is because you probably never downloaded them. iTunes will get the titles of all the shows that are available when you subscribe, but it will only automatically download the most recent single episode.

What you are looking at are the headers for the other episodes in the series, which are only placeholders. (If they are in grey vs. black, that will confirm it.) Now that you're trying to download those episodes, you're getting an error because the producer took the shows down.

I'm not sure what the problem is with your missing recording from WireTapPro-- if you made it into an MP3 it won't be showing up under Podcasts-- it should be under your regular iTunes library. You should have added the file to your library using File--> Add To Library... and it will show up.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply!

I know the podcasts were there, because they had transferred to my iPod, and I had started to listen to some of them. I know they were downloaded to my computer. They are black, not grey.

The WireTap recording is in my music folder as it should be as I recorded it as MP3. It has been on my computer since January (it is a New Year's Eve show), and I had listened to part of it previously. Now it shows the exclamation and says it can't be found.

As much as anything, I want to know what is happening so I can prevent losing things in the future. I can live with/recreate what I have lost so far, but don't want to lose more. I am in the process of digitizing all my tapes, vinyl, CD's etc and preparing to get rid of the hard copies (about to retire to an RV and won't have room), so it is important to me to not lose what I have.

Any more ideas?

It sounds like you're having a problem across your entire library, not just podcasts. The exclamation point means the link to the track is no longer valid.

Did you move anything from your Music folder? For example, did you try to move your songs to another directory or hard drive? Did anything happen to your folders or hard drive between the time you downloaded the files and now?

If you know the name of the actual file, you can use Spotlight (upper right-hand corner of the OSX screen) to try and find it. You can also search for all your mp3 files by entering mp3 in Spotlight's search window. Perhaps you can locate the missing files that way.

Good luck!

Thanks again for your reply! My library resides on an external, and nothing has happened to it since I downloaded the material. I have only one directory, and there are no songs, podcasts, etc., on my internal drive. I have used spotlight and it found nothing.

Guess I'll just have to let sleeping dogs lie and not worry about this any more. If I lose things, then I just lose them. Just can't figure it out. And, it's odd, but the two podcast series disappeared about the same time. And in one case, not all the episodes got lost. Mostly the older ones are gone, but some of the later ones are gone too. Originally there had been maybe 20 or 25 episodes, not I have about 4 that do not have the exclamation point. These are video podcasts, where the other one that lost its episodes is just audio. There was a new one of that series posted the other day, and that one is fine! Very peculiar!

Thanks so much for your help!

You might try EasyFind, a free search app you can download from versiontracker or macupdate.

It checks in places Spotlight doesn't, including package contents, and hauls up invisible files if the option is checked.

It consistently finds more files than Spotlight does, which is why it's so popular. It doesn't index, so no file is missed because indexing skipped it.