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Question

ITunes Podcasts, no longer available?

May 11, 2013 9:48PM PDT

In the past, I set up a local elderly gentleman with his favorite podcasts in ITunes. They are, or at least were, free. He became adept, and proud, to being able to work the site himself and was content. Then something "updated". When he signs into the ITunes site, it automatically uploads the podcasts but now there is no obvious way to listen to them.

I figured that since it is asking for a Sign-in that I would set him up. I enabled an e-mail address and went through all the finger calisthenics to get that account established. Then it is asking for a credit card. All this for a FREE service in ITunes? How crazy is that? Now I have to sign him up with a credit card.

Did I miss some new step here or is all this the way it is?
Quite frankly I am considering cancelling my ITunes account if I tunes is going to continue what looks like elderly abuse.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
You have always had to supply Credit Card
May 11, 2013 11:36PM PDT

information to create an iTunes Store account.

You could use iTunes Store Gift Cards, available at many retail establishments, to create an iTunes Store account which would do away with the need to sign up the "elderly" for a credit card.

Not all podcasts are free, that all depends on the producer of the podcast


P

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Yep, but we are not using any pay-for podcasts.
May 12, 2013 1:07AM PDT

The podcasts have been free all along but back then they were easily accessible. Something has changed and now we just cannot find them to run. I checked into the log-in because I thought it was now necessary. It is interesting that the top bar showed that new podcasts were being downloaded so I know the service is still there and the link is still viable.

With a considerable fiddling around, I finally found them. It showed a list of videos, some of which were duplicates of what was already watched. There is some overlap here and after watching/listening to some this morning, we see that there now does not seem to be an option to delete the old ones from the account list. (Click on ad hit delete did not work.)

All I need to know is if it is a simple matter of a change from the original method, which was so easy, and whether or not there is some simple way now that an elderly person I can still use the service. Has the free stuff been relocated and now it required all these finger calisthenics in order to play them. I am suspecting that the changes were made to minimize the free aspect. (Conspiracy?)

OTOH, maybe they have simply been moved and I am just not seeing it.

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Not sure where you are looking but I am hard pushed
May 12, 2013 3:20AM PDT

to find a podcast that you have to pay for!

Launch iTunes, go to the iTunes Store, select Podcasts and there they all are.

This is the way I have always got my podcast downloads, video and audio, and have never paid for one.

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To delete a podcast,
May 12, 2013 3:25AM PDT

right click it and choose delete
OR
select it and hit delete.

To subscribe/unsubscribe, toggle the Subscribe/Unsubscribe button

Just how old is this "elderly" person

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Wondering it is a browser problem.
May 12, 2013 7:51AM PDT

I cannot select to delete. I had already tried both Highlight/delete and right-click/delete. The only thing I can do is click on it from the list and play it. There is also no indicator that it has been played.

Jerry is 94.Once he understands a process he can hang onto it. How ever trying to figure out or master a new one takes time.

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I guess we should now get down to specifics,
May 12, 2013 9:16AM PDT

what version of OS X is Jerry running?
What version of iTunes is installed?

Yep, 94 is definitely elderly.

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Sorry, I guess specs are important...
May 12, 2013 10:43AM PDT

I am sure he is running Win 7 and Firefox 20.0.1v
Not sure how to check the ITunes version but it would probably be the latest automatic install.
He is reliable for updates.