Podcasts not playing after iOS8.2 update

Question

I bought my iPhone 6 in December and have been using it happily to play podcasts in the car using a USB cable. All this changed after the iOS 8.2 software update. My car claimed there was no media connected when I plugged my phone in. If I tried playing a podcast on my phone and then plugging in the cable, it would play for a couple of seconds then cut out. There seemed to be definitely something wrong with the phone, as my friend's iPhone 6 could play podcasts in my car without issue, and my phone couldn't play in his car, when his phone could.
I reloaded the software, reset everything and even went to an Apple Store where they were very nice, but stumped as to my problem.
It turns out that with the software update, the car will not recognise there is any media on the phone if there is nothing downloaded into the iTunes app. This is why my friend's phone worked in my car -- he listens to iTunes in the car, I don't. So I had to download a song into iTunes in order to get the podcasts to play. I bought a ZZTop track in the hope that it will be at the bottom of any alphabetical list. I just have to be careful not to download my music library onto my phone or it will clutter up my phone. Music I listen to while working on my iMac, my phone I use to listen to podcasts while driving. In fact, the deciding factor for me buying an iPhone in the first place was my desire to listen to podcasts in the car, so this was a serious issue when it failed.
So this is not a question, just a posting to let anyone who is having this problem know what the solution is. There is obviously a bug in the software update which interferes with the Podcasts app (I am listening to Radio 4 podcasts, nothing obscure). So until this bug is fixed, it looks like I will have to keep that ZZTop track on my phone.

Answer 1

I should that this problem also exists with the Audible app for playing audio books. You can't listen to an audio book unless you have something also downloaded in the iTunes app.