Podcast Channels: iTunes won't accept feed for second show

[doctorofthedead]

Hi!

OK, so about a year ago we submitted our show G2VPodcast at G2VPodcast.com to iTunes, it was accepted, went smoothly, still updating fine.

A few months back, we started a second show and I implemented the Podcast Channel option to split the shows and create a new feed for Doctor of the Dead. It's on the same website but both are listed as different categories and we needed a new feed since the other had already been submitted and accepted for G2V.

Everything seemed fine, we've done a few episodes, but when I submitted the channel-specific feed of http://www.atbpublishing.com/g2vpodcast/feed/doctorofthedead/ , iTunes said it had already been submitted when it certainly hadn't. It's still updating G2V fine, but since the channel split, I'm also worried that it created a slightly different default feed URL for the original show. It doesn't seem to have affected iTunes though.

So I guess I have lots of questions, but can't figure out how to get iTunes to accept Doctor as a new show feed. I did notice one thing - although it's a different channel, the feed seems to list the 3 eps of Doctor but then all the past eps of G2V too which it shouldn't. The <title> and <link> tags at the start of the Doctor-specific channel feed are also still showing G2V even though I changed them in all the relevant fields on the backend.

So, um...HELP!

Arnold T. Blumberg
Doctor of the Dead

[Todd]

Are you sure you have not crossed categories.

If iTunes says you have already submitted the second feed, you should contact them to find out what feeds they are pulling and if there is a second listing to provide you the link to it.

If you are very careful and do not cross populate between categories you should not be seeing the other episodes in the new feed.

You can contact apple at podcasts@apple.com

In future replies please provide links to both feeds.

Todd

[doctorofthedead]

Hi,

We're not using categories to distinguish the feeds, at least that's not the option we chose (unless you think that's a better one to pursue, but initally it looks like there's still a problem with rejection from iTunes there, unless we now need to submit the original show AGAIN as well?). We set up a different Podcast channel using that method in the plugin.

Here are both feeds as they are listed now in our backend:

http://www.atbpublishing.com/g2vpodcast/feed/podcast/  (This is the one that carries our main show and is still showing up in iTunes and updating fine, but this URL looks slighly different than the original one we submitted last year and I wonder if that's because it was altered to create separate channels? I assume that means iTunes is still pulling fom a feed URL different than this one? Still very new to all this.)

Here's the new channel we created to submit show 2, which they did not accept:

http://www.atbpublishing.com/g2vpodcast/feed/doctorofthedead/

For some reason that feed is still showing G2VPodcast in the <title> and <link> tags despite everything being (seemingly) set correctly in the PowerPress fields on the backend. That feed should only have the Doctor episodes too, but it seems to go back and include all the G2V eps as well. Since they're separate channel feeds, I thought the idea was that they differentiate between the two shows.

Does this help narrow it down at all? Sigh.

Arnold

[doctorofthedead]

...oh one other thing I *have* noticed that seems to have changed in just the last few days. When you go on iTunes to our show page, it now says "By Unknown" on the web and in the iTunes application itself where it had our names before, and our names are still listed in all the various fields where they should be for the feed, so I'm not sure why iTunes has suddenly changed to "Unknown." You can see that here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/g2v-podcast-pop-culture-audio/id646563108?mt=2

Just another aggravating addition to the drama.

[mgdell]

If you are using Powerpress, make sure your talent name is in the iTunes tab of the powerpress settings.

-Mike

[angelo]

PowerPress is no longer adding iTunes and other podcasting specific settings to your custom post type podcast feed. Once you get that fixed the talent name field will populate the iTunes:author tag in your feed and the Unknown will go away.

[angelo]

It just dawned on me, if you have another podcasting plugin enabled while you also have PowerPress, PowerPress will disable itself so it doesn't fight with that plugin. In that case though it shouldn't be putting the player and links on your pages either. Double check that though just to make sure that's not what's causing the feed not to have PowerPress itunes elements in it.

[doctorofthedead]

Yes, the names are in the Talent fields, not only of the main iTunes tab, but under both channels. Never changed that, but for some reason they vanished from iTunes itself in the last few days. Guess we wait and see?

Definitely no other podcasting plugins enabled or even installed. Just PowerPress.

Any other thoughts on this "not accepting the second channel/show" problem? Thanks for the feedback thus far.

Could the feed problem be that (for reasons I don't understand) the feed for the second channel - the Doctor show - is still showing the G2V show info in the <title> and <link> tags>? Everything is filled out correctly on the various tabs for the channels through the plugin, but when I validate that second feed I can see that its <title> and <link> tags don't vary at all with the other feed.

I don't know how to edit the feed apart from the settings available to me on the backend through the plugin, and as I said, they're all filled in correctly. It's just not showing up in the feed as a different show in those tags.

Still stumped and out of my depth.

Arnold

[angelo]

Reset everything we said previously.

Problem: something is preventing PowerPress from adding tags to your feeds.

Use the diagnose feed issues page in Blubrry to diagnose. Link: http://create.blubrry.com/resources/powerpress/using-powerpress/diagnosing-feed-andor-player-issues-with-powerpress/

[doctorofthedead]

Thanks, will do, and I'll come back if there's more to be rooted out.

[doctorofthedead]

The byline appears to have returned to iTunes for The G2V Podcast, so that's something.

I've tried everything suggested, and still cannot seem to get the second (new) channel for the Doctor of the Dead show to show anything in the feed's <title> and <link> tags other than the G2V information from the original (default) channel. I've tried even eliminating the channel altogether, resetting everything, disabling all plugins, and starting up a fresh channel and inputting all the information again, and it still gives me a feed for the Doctor channel that includes not just the 3 Doctor episodes but all 24 of the G2V episodes in the default channel as well plus the G2V info and not the Doctor info in the <title> and <link> tags.

Still waiting for a response from Apple on what feed they're pulling from G2V but I'm assuming that has no bearing on why the Doctor channel is not setting up properly. What else do you think I can check or do? Thanks!

The two feeds again as they stand now:
http://www.atbpublishing.com/g2vpodcast/feed/podcast/
http://www.atbpublishing.com/g2vpodcast/feed/doctor-of-the-dead/

[doctorofthedead]

Oh I did discover something that I'm hoping might help!

I downloaded a feed reader to look at both feeds generated by the Podcast Channels. The one for the default (original G2V) show is reading just as it should - 24 entries, just the podcast posts, no blog posts, nothing extraneous. Looks fine.

The feed generated by the new channel for the second show, Doctor of the Dead, when viewed in the reader, is showing *everything* - the Doctor podcast posts, the G2V podcast posts, and even blog posts and other non-podcast posts from the site. Not sure why that is when the channel was created as instructed and all the fields are filled in correctly (two or three times in some cases), but clearly something is very awry there. For some reason, the new channel is a feed that is not podcast-only and not Doctor-only - it's the whole site.

[angelo]

Are you sure "doctor-of-the-dead" is the slug name you gave the custom podcast channel? It looks lit's just using your regular blog feed.

Try using the default twenty fourteen theme, disable all other plugins except PowerPress. This will confirm the issue is not with PowerPress.