Apple - Podcast syncing between iTunes and iPhone doesn't work

Apple's entire podcast ecosystem is known to be buggy and has been for a long time. (See, for example, this bug of utter disconnect between iTunes and iOS prior to the arrival of the Podcasts app. It seems the point of moving podcasts to a dedicated iOS app was simply to banish the irredeemably buggy podcast code from the otherwise well functioning Music app code. I still have the exact same problems with iOS 7.1 and the Podcasts app.) You're not doing anything wrong, the stuff just doesn't work.

You will have better luck with Instacast. There are other third-party podcast players for iOS, but AFAIK Instacast is the only popular one that also plays on Macs and syncs between iOS and Macs. As of this writing (April 2014), Pocket Casts is arguably better than Instacast with respect to syncing among mobile devices, as it even syncs between iOS and Android, but it does not have a Mac application to allow you to play podcasts on your Mac.

Nope it really doesn't work period. I've spent so many hours trying to sort this out with my own collection. No matter what I do itunes keeps trying to download long dead and dormant episodes I do not want or need.

I have marked them as played. I have marked them so that they are not saved podcasts. I have deleted the feeds.

I have performed the equivalent steps on the iphone itself. Then all of a sudden the podcast episodes return and show as unplayed....and therefore begin downloading again....usually when I am busy doing something else.

I have a number of podcasts subscriptions. I like to keep some channels like a library on my hard drive that I may return to at some stage and I have others where I will never listen to them again and am happy for them to be deleted. However I almost exclusively listen to podcasts on the road and could not fit my library on the iphone to save for all time.

There are some desperately needed basic fixes here by apple and it seems by all I have seen the issues are being ignored. I am dumbfounded by the deaf and dumb approach to the gradual destruction of this app and the determination not to fix anything.

It suggests Apple has reached a critical mass where deadbeats have moved into management positions and the slow process of riding this company into the ground has commenced. Companies rarely recover from this....it already looks too late from my perspective and experiences.

The current behaviour requires that you not only micromanage your podcast lists; you must be hyper-vigilant at all moments lest one of your devices starts trying sync something even when the sync options are turned off.

My device is constantly attempting to download podcast episodes and filling up storage capacity.

I thought torture was meant to be illegal.....