Overcast

I'm using this podcast player for a month so, but it seems it can't download per episode only you like, what happen is all the new released episode will go to the download window but you can't select what only you like to here offline, it will download all the episode that appear there,
Am I missing something here? or is this the basic feature of the player.

thanks

I have a ton of podcasts i all ready follow i am going to put those files in dropbox and try to import them but I wanted to ask here first if i could do it but i bet it doesn't have dropbox or icloud drive support so maybe email? that's how i ended up having to do it with downcast I will also take to twitter with this question but figured I would ask here in case others had this question.

I really love how accessible this is. Big recommendation from here.

I’ve been simply using the native Podcasts app for years, now. I want to switch over, but is there a way to port all of my subscriptions over? A few of them aren’t searchable, as they are ones I subscribe to due to supporting the creator on Patreon, and it will be a massive pain in the butt to search back through my email to find the info.

overcast supports import of OPML, if you can somehow export that from Apple Podcasts, you should be good. I'm' not sure if this answer from Stack Exchange is still relevant, but give it a go:
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/97254/export-podcast-subscriptions-from-ios-podcast-app-as-opml

I recently noticed a small glitch when using Overcast on my iPhone 11.

When swiping on my home screen or anywhere else, usually VoiceOver speaks immediately after I swipe with my finger. As soon as I open Overcast, then start swiping through the screen, VoiceOver seems to become sluggish. Once I close it, then the sluggishness remains for some time. If I restart my phone, or simply lock it and return to it a few minutes later, then VoiceOver returns to normal.

I am not sure if a recent update to Overcast might of caused it, as I think the last update was several weeks ago and I only seem to have noticed this a week or two ago. Making me wonder if perhaps the recent iOS 13.3.1 update might have caused it.

Anyone else noticed this as well? I've reached out to the developer of Overcast as he's usually pretty good at responding and seems to care about accessibility. So hopefully he'll find the cause and correct it. I just thought I would ask around to see if others have also noticed this same behaviour.

Thanks!

Nope. Using an iphone 10 and all is stable over here. I don't swipe though, I scrol. It's much faster and I can get through my over 100 podcasts this way.

After Overcast added support for AirPlay 2 a few weeks ago, I've noticed that VoiceOver is a bit sluggish while a podcast is playing, at least on my iPad Mini. I only notice it during actual playback, not when the podcast is paused, but when it's happening I encounter it systemwide, not just in the app, so it's probably caused by AirPlay 2.

The issue is barely noticeable, and my ipad is a few years old, so I haven't put much stock in it.

During my lunch hour today, I opened up the Overcast app, and as before, VoiceOver started being sluggish again. I locked my phone and left it alone while I was listening to, believe it or not, the monthly AppleVis Unleashed podcast. After completing the podcast, I unlocked my iPhone and, when navigating through the Overcast app, all seems to be working properly again.

I even closed the app and reopened it again and the sluggishness is gone... for now.

I guess I'll have to wait and see if the sluggishness returns later on.

Alright, so it appears I may have figured out how this whole sluggishness starts.

This morning I was listening to a podcast in Overcast, after finishing the episode, I completely closed the app. An hour or so later, I opened the TV app and went to the Search tab to search for a show. I went into the search field and, as always, performed the magic tap to start dictation. I dictated what I wanted to search for and performed the magic tap once again to stop dictation.

Now as some of you may have encountered in the past, sometimes, especially if you've had an audio app opened sometime before, when stopping dictation, audio from the previous app will start playing after you stop dictation.

In my case, when I stopped dictation, the next podcast in Overcast began playing. In order to stop the audio without triggering dictation, I clicked on the Search button on the keyboard in order to get the results of my search, then did the magic tap once more to stop the audio from Overcast, even if the app was completely closed.

As soon as I stopped the audio and began using my phone, the sluggishness started up again. Every time I swiped my finger on the screen, I got that half second lag before VoiceOver responded to my action.

As before, after leaving the phone alone for about 10 minutes or so, when I retur5ned to my phone and started using it again, all was fine. Until I opened Overcast and it started all over again. This time I will leave Overcast open and see if things resolve themselves in 5-10 minutes.

I will be sure to send this information to the developer in the hopes that they may be able to find a fix.

Anyone else is able to reproduce this glitch?

I cannot reproduce this, and I have an iphoen 10 r. I know about the glitch withthe magic tap, that I can reproduce, however the slugishness, I cannot reproduce and I am subscribed to about 100 podcasts.

It's been a while since I took a look at the settings for the Overcast app. For the life of me, I cannot see how to stream episodes instead of downloading them to my phone. Can anybody confirm and/or advise on how to stream only.

Thanks

In the Overcast settings, choose the downloading option and change it to download when played, rather than download over wifi or cellular. This will cause Overcast to behave like a streaming app, downloading episodes when you play them and deleting them after you're finished.

You can also choose this option for individual podcasts, within the settings tab for each podcast. You can choose to use the global setting, to download automatically, or download when played.

Hi everyone!
I was just about to ask the same question!
But found a respons really quickly.
Do I understand correctly that when the new episode is out, the app downloads it automatically on the phone? Despite of I have it set to stream when playing, it still downloads episodes. I can tell that if I go to overcast settings/storage and data and check the place that a podcast takes place. Oh, I also have the delete manually option so maybe that's the case? Overcast is a great app! I liked it much more than downcast but these things aren't clear! Thank you!

I've been using this app for years now and in the last couple weeks I have had a ridiculous amount of problems. There have been UI changes that are kind of a complete headache, there's buttons all over the place that are not labeled, nothing will download or get deleted, and basically I'm just a little bit confused. Anybody know what's going on?

Marco Arment did a major rewrite of the app in Swift UI over the past several months and released it a few weeks ago on the app's 10th anniversary. The new app design has a very different experience, especially from a VoiceOver perspective, and a number of VO bugs were unfortunately introduced with the rewrite. I've been in touch with the developer and he has managed to fix some of the bugs, including all the major issues I was dealing with, but a number of bugs and quirks remain and likely will for some time, since there's a lot of issues on his plate right now. As he said on one of his podcasts, Overcast is essentially on fire right now, and he's having to put out a lot of problems people are having with the new version. I get the feeling the new version was rolled out too quickly in an attempt to hit a self-imposed deadline.

All that being said, I am still able to use the app in spite of its issues, and I do think the Now Playing screen is a significant improvement over the previous version, so I can live with the glitches for now. That's my personal opinion, though, and I can't blame anyone for switching away from Overcast as it currently stands. I myself might have switched by now, if I hadn't seen some accessibility improvements in the last couple of releases. A lot left to fix, but at least progress is being made.

My bigger concern is that I've seen this same pattern with other apps that have undergone a rewrite in Swift UI, including Apple's own. Even if an app switches to Swift UI with no visual change whatsoever to the sighted user, the VoiceOver experience winds up changing significantly, if not breaking entirely. Having never tried building an app myself with Swift UI, I have no idea where the problem lies, but this is a disturbing pattern given that Apple really wants everyone to use Swift UI going forward.

Thank you for the update! I don't want to switch apps so I'm very happy to hear work is in progress! I'll happily wait for the fires to get put out. It's my favorite app!

I've moved to downcast, no I don't like that I have to do two swipes for every one episode but it is what it is.

I noticed that the ability to export your OPML files seams to have been cut out of the app so had to copy over what I wanted one at a time.

Can I get my OPML file from overcast again or is that still not a thing?

I believe Marco said OPML import/export is something that needs to be reimplemented in the new app. A number of features from the old app didn't make the cut for the relaunch. Some of the missing features have been added back already, but others are still missing.

It would have been nice if he mentioned that in the update notes.

I've emailed him twice about this and got nothing back. I understand people are busy but come on. I supported the app too.

Oh well, downcast is fine for what I need.

There is one thing that is keeping me with Overcast despite all of the current issues, and that is playback speed. I listen to most podcasts at 2.3 speed, and some at 3 times speed. As far as I know, all of the other podcast players only go up to 2 times speed. I would love to know if anyone knows of another that will let you go faster because I'm having a lot of frustrations with Overcast right now.