This article was most recently updated on July 28, 2021 and will be updated as needed.
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You've worked for hours, even days or weeks, on the latest episode of your podcast. We know that after you press publish, you want your followers to be able to access your show right away!

However, if your followers use Apple Podcasts to listen – that may not be the case anymore.

Apple has released several updates to their app in 2021. These updates have resulted in a change in the way Apple interacts with a podcast's RSS feed. While the change is likely meant to protect a user's privacy, a more frustrating result is that podcasts are taking on average 2 hours longer to appear! You can read more in detail here.

The good news is that followers of your podcasts (ie: those who subscribe within Apple Podcasts) will see your episodes immediately, as before. However, this can still lead to frustrations when not seeing your hard work reflected across the platform immediately.

Unfortunately, Acast has no way to force episodes into Apple's database faster. However, at this time we are not aware of existing issues with other podcasting apps.

Depending on your podcast's format, your dedicated followers may rely on episodes being released at a certain time each day (for instance: a daily morning news podcast could be interrupted by this delay). If you think this may be the case, at this time we suggest communicating with your followers. If you have an active social media community, perhaps create an announcement there about possible delays or direct followers to your Acast website.

Delay in episodes becoming available is not the only issue we have seen recently regarding Apple Podcasts. Other known issues are:

At the time of posting this article, Apple has yet to make a statement.