Itunes download 3.1.2 - frozen during download & need help

Question

I'm trying to download 3.1.2 on my Itunes, but it seems to have frozen and "locked", telling me I still have 3 hours left to install. I don't have a ton of stuff on my computer that would cause it to be so slow, so I don't know how to fix the situation. Help. Anyone have any advice or know how to fix this? Thanx

Answer 1

There has been a long-standing issue with the way iTunes handles Podcasts when there are multiple episodes available.
When your iTunes Library checks for new episodes of subscribed Podcasts, it will download only the latest one. This is fine if there is only one episode since iTunes last checked. But if there are two or more, then iTunes still only downloads the latest one, and ignores the previous episodes. Apple's apparent attempt to resolve this issue is to show the other episodes, but with the download cloud icon next to them. All well-and-good, but it's not obvious that this is what is happening, particularly when the Unplayed Episode Count includes those non-downloaded episodes.
What compounds this issue is that the in-the-cloud episodes are listed in the Podcasts Library, which up until that change, only included media actually in your Library.
kstinmb wrote:
My question is: What else do I have to set so that the podcast episodes I have subscribed to are automatically downloaded?
Submit a product Enhancement Request as feedback at http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html, although I suggest you don't get your hopes up. I submitted one a long time ago, but all Apple has done is introduce the "cloud" episodes, which has not solved the problem.
kstinmb wrote:
I have subscribed to almost 100 podcasts and I should not have to go to each one in Library | My Podcasts and manually select the newest episodes. Am I not following the directions? Is there another step I have missed?
Please tell me how to have my subscribed podcasts download automatically.
The only thing you can do is set your iTunes to check for new episodes frequently enough to catch all the new ones.
However, even this may not be enough. There is a BBC programme that releases up to three new episodes every day, all within one hour. So even once and hour will not catch all three of these.