Google Listener - Download Podcast For Offline ?

[TheStoneRoses]

Hi

I've done plenty of research but alas I still can't deteremine whether Google Listener has the capability to download podcasts for you to listen to them at a later time, specifically (in my case) when without an internet connection.

It works fine if you have a connection - you can listen to any episode of a subscribed podcast, and all is well - I can't falt it on this side of things.

But I want to be able to subscribe and have Listener download episodes in the background when wi-fi is available so that I can then listen to them at my leisure - most often when wi-fi is not avilable (i.e. at work )

The 'Download Settings' imply this is the case. I've selected the 'Download new audio' and 'Only on Wi-fi', which (to me) imply Listener should download and queue all new episodes whenever a wi-fi connection is available (but never via mobile data connection).

But nothing downloads at all. All I seem to be able to do is to listen to an episode so long as I have wi-fi connection. I can;t listen to anything offline.

Are my expectations of Listerner too much ? Shame, beacuse I like its intergration with Google Reader.

thanks

TSR.

 

[uzetaab]

Do you mean Google Listen when you say Listener? Just making sure we are on the same page.

If we are, then the program can indeed automatically download podcasts to hear them later. This function has been a bit unreliable in my experience so I'll go through what I do. This works pretty well most of the time, but I still get the occasional download failure.

1) manage your subscriptions on a computer, not the phone. I always have gmail running on a browser tab, so I just click the reader link at the top of that page.

You should have a "Listen Subscriptions" folder in your subscriptions box on the bottom left. Make sure all your podcasts are inside this folder.

2)Launch Listen on the phone & go to the "My Listen Items". Click on the green circular arrow refresh button. At this point it should automatically start downloading any new podcast episodes one after the other. It should be noted that this will not work if you set it to only download when plugged in if the phone is not actually plugged in. On not on wifi & set to only download on wifi.

3) When listening to podcasts, it's a good idea to check the "My Subscriptions" tab because the "My Listen Items" tab only lists recent episodes & you might miss a few.

4) Any failed downloads can be re-downloaded with a long press on the item in either "My listen Items" or "My Subscriptions". This also works to override settings like "Only download when plugged in".

5) You can tell a new episode has been downloaded by the fact that it will list the file size in the corner. Once you've listened to it, this indicator will go away, the file listing will be greyed out and the episode gets automatically deleted. I don't know how quickly after listening it actually deletes the file though.

Hope that answers your questions.

 

[Pojken]

I found Listen to be too messy. I listen to NPR and use BeyondPod. Much better, though I haven't tried much beyond that and Listen.

Tim

 

[TheStoneRoses]

thanks for the input folks.

The cause of my issues appears to have been the good 'ole BBC - the links to some of their podcast episodes are broken (606, Money Box, 6 Music Recommends). Recent episodes as well

Listen didn't handle this situation very elegantly (well, it didn't handle it all to be honest). It can't download (understandable) but does not provide any kind of diagnostoc as to why. A message such as "link is invalid" would have helped ! This threw me off the scent for a while. Only realised once I tried to listen to an episode via Google Reader.

Not what you'd expect from the Beeb !

For the record, BeyondPod didn't handle this exception very well either.

However, all is now well, and Listen is hapily downloading all 'available' episodes, i.e., those for whish the BBC publishes with a valid link !

So I'm now generally quite happy with Listen and I'll stick with it for the time being. BeyondPod also struck me as more than adequate, but as I'm standardising on Google wherever possible I'll stick with Listen.

cheers
TSR