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Comment by filoleg | Hacker News Reader

That part of TFA confused me as well, because I just tested it out on my Win10 desktop, and it worked effortlessly.

I didn't even have to search for the local files. iTunes had a nice "Show in Windows Explorer" button next to the episode I downloaded, which opened a directory with the mp3 audio file for the episode (neatly tagged and named and all). I opened it with VLC and confirmed that the playback works perfectly fine.

Disclaimer: I haven't tested the part with transferring the file to an Android device specifically. But if an mp3 audio file plays fine in any third-party media player on Windows, I think it is safe to assume that it would play fine on Android as well.

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Here's an example show, I'm curious if it works for you: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/test-podcast/id1667708...

Do you happen to have another example? This one doesn't work for me, but for an entirely different reason - it says that this specific podcast isn't available in the US store at the moment. So I cannot even access the episode on any device at all.

Go ahead and try it now, it looks like I hadn't fully saved the test episode.

Looks like you are correct, yep.

I am curious about how this works. Did you have to set some specific toggle to make it available on Apple Podcasts for Apple devices only? Or is this the standard flow for making a podcast available on Podcasts app? How do the other podcasts on the frontpage that are available for downloading on other devices do it?

Tangentially related, I wonder why it says "Apple Podcasts Preview" at the top of the page. Could it be that the app is just in the preview stage and just started the rollout with Apple devices first, with the support for other devices coming later through a web version (i.e., similar to how it was with Apple Music on the initial launch)?

When you click the option to add a podcast to Apple Podcasts in the Podcasts Connect portal, there's one option to use an RSS feed and one to host your show on Apple.

I believe "Apple Podcasts Preview" just means you're looking at the web view.

Wow, this is a great workaround then to the author's issue.

If I understand the comment chain correctly, they first tried a random "not hosted by Apple" podcast and could get the MP3, as expected. They were then directed to a "hosted by Apple" podcast and could not get an MP3. So the workaround does not work.

For sure, it's nice to know there's an out for people willing to work it out.

TBF, I'd assume the author knows there would be workarounds, like de-DRM the iTunes files. Or go full analog loophole style and rerecord the podcast audio etc.

The point was probably how shitty of an experience it stayed for people outside the Apple bubble (podcasts are really about convenience. I only started seriously listening to them once I got an iPhone, because of the sheer inconvenience of having to plug and drag files from my desktop for every new episode)

> The point was probably how shitty of an experience it stayed for people outside the Apple bubble

Could be, but they made it sound like those workarounds are required everywhere outside of Apple devices (which would include Windows as well). Which is painting a pretty different picture from what the reality is, as none of the workarounds are required on Windows, it is click and play just like on any Apple device.

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