Podcast Jumping - but only on iPhones/iPods

Question

Ok, so I have an odd problem with my podcast. (One I produce, not one I listen to.)
My podcast will literally stop in the middle, and jump to another episode. If you go back, it will resume the show, but then it will jump again just a few minutes later. This has not been a problem for those listening on Stitcher, and it is not a problem for those listening directly from iTunes or from Podbean on their computers - it only seems to be happening on mobiles via downloads through iTunes and then loaded onto the phone.
My listeners, luckily, perservere and continue listening anyway (at least the ones that have told me about it), but I am afraid I am losing listeners, or will lose listeners, because of this problem.
Does anyone have any idea what might be going on?
I had ONE episode that worked without flaws for everyone, and on that episode I did the following - I edit in Audacity:
1. Record in Skype with Pamela as a .mp3
2. Truncate silence
3. Equalize
4. Compressor
5. Add intro and outtro
6. Export as mp3
I read, during the week, that one shouldn't ever really edit an mp3, and that one should instead record as a .wav, and then convert to .mp3, so that was the one difference I made on this last episode:
1. Record in Skype with Pamela as .wav
2. Truncate silence
3. Equalize
4. Compressor
5. Add intro and outtro
6. Export as mp3
I would think that recording it in a wav and then changing it to mp3 was the problem, except all of the previous episodes that had problems were not recorded that way. I had thought, before the episode that worked, that I was over-editing. I was doing MUCH more than those six steps in an attempt to make it sound good before then. When episode 10 worked without flaws, I was ecstatic! And I am now frustrated again with the problems with Episode 11 - a repeat despite not over-editing.
(Details were added for those who might need to know what I'm doing in order to see what's going wrong.)
Any help I can receive would be greatly appreciated. I'm fairly new to podcasting, and I am still working out the kinks. :-( I want it to be a flawless thing for my listeners, but when they listen on their iPhones or iPods via their downloads from the iTunes store, it has only lead to frustration.
Thank you in advance,
Sarah

Answer 1

Your Store page is at http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/oh-my-goodness-not-another/id511797943
Your feed is at http://omgnap.podbean.com/feed/
The media file for episode 11 is at http://omgnap.podbean.com/mf/feed/qtppf8/OMGNAPEpisode11.mp3
Two possible issues occur to me. Firstly, since the iPhone requires the server hosting the media file to handle 'byte-range requests' (i.e. requesting only part of a file at a time, not the whole thing) this could be an issue. Many servers don't handle this and it's been causing complaints from iPhone users to the point where Apple have now made it a requirement for new podcasts. Yours has I think been running for long enough not to have fallen over that, but it would be worth asking Podbean whether they can handle this. If they can't, that could be your problem.
The other problem may be server delivery speed. I was able to play the podcast directly from the Store - I spot checked it without problems; but when subscribing one has to download the entire file. I was told by iTunes this would take around 20 minutes. Trying to download directly in Safari produced a similar download speed - in fact a download time of 35 minutes. (I've not downloaded the entire episode.)
The file is 110MB; my internet connection is theoretically capable of downloading it in 15 seconds (not that I would expect to reach that) but 20 to 35 minutes is really very slow. It's faster than real time, so in theory there shouldn't be a problem about running out of buffer space, but even so it's not going to help.
I don't think the different editing methods you've used are anything to do with it. The reason for not editing an MP3 is audio quality degradation through re-compressing, not anything to do with the integrity of the file.
Your first step is to chase up the byte-range request matter with Podbean.