I picked Downcast because I was using it on iOS. I haven't done a lot with it yet, but now that I'm trying to, it's pretty garbage.
1. It seems to be set to local episodes by default, and I don't see a way to change it to all episodes in feed.
2. I changed my media location, I don't know if that caused a problem, but I picked some episodes to download. It doesn't just download them, I found out it puts them in a cue. So I picked downloads. It has the three episodes, it has a pause download cue button. All episodes are unknown size, because they're still cued. Call me crazy, if your button says pause downloads, I assume you're app is actually supposed to be downloading something. Contrary to my popular belief though, it doesn't seem to be.
3. Speaking of changing my media location, it says some podcast resources are missing every time I pick a podcast, and I should hit some sort of local resources button to fix it. I see no such button.
Seriously, this program needs to generate a few lists, of podcasts and episodes, download them to a directory I specify, and play them. This should not be as complicated as it is. Do we have anything simpler that actually works? Alternatively, anybody know how I get this to actually do its relatively straightforward job?
Comments
Uninstall, Reinstall
Delete the app with LaunchPad or the Finder and then reinstall it from the MAS. Downcast for macOS does work but it is very hairy, especially if you get iCloud syncing involved. If you do not need syncing then I would suggest disabling access to it in your iCloud settings before starting fresh.
The list of episodes is always split by whether the episodes are "local" or not, i.e. known to Downcast. Files are downloaded and stored within the app's container, though there's an option to access it in the Finder.
Nowadays I mostly use iOS and my macOS installation never included Downcast. I think Downcast is great but sync has always been fragile and without that working it's difficult to regard it as cross-platform in any meaningful sense. You might, in that case, look at Pocket Casts or another option, even Apple podcasts if that is good enough for you. I wish the author would fix Downcast because in my mind it is otherwise rock-solid and feature complete.