Blogging, Business blogging, IT@Cork, Podcast

WordPress Podcasts not showing up – fixed!

WordPress is a joy to Podcast with – you simply upload your mp3 file, link to it in your post and WordPress takes care of all the other stuff (enclosures, etc.).

I have been using WordPress to publish Podcasts since June of this year without any problems, until recently. The most recent Podcast I published – the RSS for non-techies talk in IT@Cork – failed to show up in my Podcast client apps – either in iPodderX or iTunes.

I checked the RSS tags using the Podcast Feedcheck site only to find the following error “MISSING ITEM ENCLOSURE TAG”

I couldn’t understand why this error would suddenly crop up – all my old podcasts were still showing up, no problem. I disabled plugins, but this didn’t solve the problem so I consulted the WordPress Support site and I found the solution there.

It appears that Archive.org (where the audio file for this Podcast is hosted) use re-directs on their addresses and WordPress can’t add enclosures if it can’t reference the file directly.

The solution –

  • In the Write Post screen in WordPress, go to the Advanced section
  • There, go to the bottom section labeled “Add a new custom field to this post”
  • Where it says, “Key”, type “enclosure”
  • Where it says, “Value”, enter the URL of the MP3 you wish to podcast
  • Click Add Custom Field

For subsequent Podcasts, choose Enclosure from the Key dropdown in the Advanced posting mode and add the URL of the mp3 as before.

NOTE – this is only necessary if your audio files are being hosted on Archive.org (or any other site which uses re-directs on file names) – for all other Podcasts, it is only necessary to link to the url of the audio file in the post and WordPress will do all the rest.

26 thoughts on “WordPress Podcasts not showing up – fixed!”

  2. Bruce,

    do you want to send me a link to your blog so i can get a better idea of what’s going on? Send it to me via email if you don’t want to publish it online here (tom@tomrafteryit.net).

    Off the top of my head, it could be your PermaLink structure or how you are linking the files in WordPress.

    Come back to me and I’ll see if I can help.

  3. I have this same problem on WordPress 2.0 except with the caveat that it used to work but stopped working for no particular reason. It seems that something gets out of whack, perhaps a counter or something, if you update a post or add a new mp3 to an existing post. I even turned off the cache, etc. No luck. Now the automatic generation of the enclosures is completely broken for all subsequent posts.

    I will try the manual enclosure option.

    Thanks for the tip,
    Trip

  4. THank you! I’ve been fighting with the Archive.org issue all night, and your explaination finally clicked with me.

  5. Hi,

    The problem with the manual addition of the enclosures is that it doesn’t include the size of the mp3. In this case podcasts will not play in some players, most notably the player on Podcast Alley.

    I use the KC-EnclosureFlex plugin for WordPress 2.0 and above.

    There is another one that I am getting ready to test that looks even better called PodPress.

    Trip

  6. Going through the “new custom field” routine works fine, thanks, however…

    “for all other Podcasts, it is only necessary to link to the url of the audio file in the post and WordPress will do all the rest.”

    is simply NOT true. Even with the podcast sitting right there, it often times ignores it. Frustrating.

    -Bear

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  8. I am having huge troubles with my podcasting.

    I use Safari, Tiger OSX, WP 2.05, the PodPress Plugin, and Permalinks are enabled apparently.

    Most of my issues are probably simple issues, but for me they are hard. Can anyone help?

    I uploaded my first ever mp3 to my uploads folder and created a post. I inserted the following link :
    Podcast in the body of the entry.

    When I viewed the blog home page I saw the new post with the Podcast link in the body. When I clicked the podcast link inside the entry all it did was load a separate page that looked exactly like the home page with the exception that in the URL field of Safari the url read – http://ironmind.cfcure.com/wp-content/uploads/podcasts1.mp3 Weird. So, I decided to edit my entry.

    I went back into Admin and located the post. I noticed an area beneath the post that is called “Podcasting” I imagine this is my PodPress plugin at work.

    It had a button that said “add media file” so I clicked it. From there I used a drop down menu that had my newly uploaded podcasts1.mp3 in the drop down list, and I selected it. I gave it a title, allowing it to autodetect size and duration and finally I checked both the RSS2 and Atom for it to be included it (whatever that means).

    I then saved the who thing and went back to my site.

    Gone was the manual link I had put inside my entry moments earlier. It was replaced with a huge line of code that included several cool links, giving a user the option to load the podcast inside the post or download in a separate window. It worked swimingling well. But there were issues.

    I checked the source coad expecting to find an “enclusure tag” somewhere, and none was to be found. I tried editing the post and using a full url to the mp3 file, saving and rechecking the source code, and no enclosure tags.

    I was under the impression that WordPress 2.05 automatically inserts enclure tags somewhere in your code (I don’t know where) when you link to an audio file, and it did not do it. This tells me something is not right.

    Here is what WordPress support says:

    LOL it says 500 intrernal sever error, thats what it says. LOL. Well, damn. Just what I needed. Just trust me, OK ..the codex says that WP creates enclosure tags, and they are no where to be found in my source.:P

    Any suggestions?

    Also, I am trying to get iTunes to accept my podcast feed url, and I am not sure what that is. Is it the same as the Entries RSS feed link or do I need to use a different link url? Obviously, what I want is for people to be able to subscribe to my podcasts only, so that whenever I upload a new podcast and post an entry for it, the people are notified of a new podcast. I fail to see how my Entries RSS feed url would accomplish this, as it is a feed for any and all new posts.

    Thank you.

  9. Tim,

    I listened to your podcast successfully so I suspect you have resolved a number of your issues at this stage.

    On the enclosure tags, they are put into the RSS feed for your site, not the html source.

    As for the feed – you have created a Podcast category on your blog. Perfect. Every category in WordPress has its own feed by default (it is found at category address/feed). So, in your case the podcast specific feed is at http://ironmind.cfcure.com/category/podcasts/feed/

  10. Tom Thanks for feed url information.

    If I may, let be pick your brain once more.

    Given that my podcast feed URL is http://ironmind.cfcure.com/category/podcasts/feed/, shouldn’t that URL be the one I submit to iTunes? And just like I have with every other feed I have fed it, iTunes spits it out and says it requires an RSS2.0 Feed. Isn’t http://ironmind.cfcure.com/category/podcasts/feed/ an RSS 2.0 Feed? Why is iTunes having such issues?

    At http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html#_Toc526931662 we are told that to create an RSS feed that :

    1) conforms to the RSS 2.0 specification
    2) includes the recommended iTunes RSS tags
    3) contains pointers to your episode.

    So, is there something in the RSS XML file of mine that is not right? Is that why iTunes keeps kicking it out? Where do I look and what do I edit to make sure that my Feed meets the criteria for iTunes?

  17. hi .. I am trying to use the plugin called podpress.. but am having some issues with the download of the mp3 file when a user hits the play button.. can you help.. or do you think it is better to use mp3 or m3u files on my blog without this plugin..

  18. Oh god, oh god. I had given up all hope. Thank you for the fix ! 🙂

  19. It makes sense that archive.org uses redirects, but I certainly would have never figured this out. Thanks for posting the fix.

    ~Bielz
    mp3-md

  21. Terry above noted, “I use the KC-EnclosureFlex plugin for WordPress 2.0 and above” but that comment was posted a while ago. What is the best plugin to use now with the latest wp upgrade?

  23. ah, finally the easier explanation here. I’ve been working all night just to this plugin. thanx dude

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