changing feed in itunes

[avalonfarms]

thanks to anthony i discovered my itunes feed was never updated in itunes store when i dropped the .mac account. just spent an hour wondering around apple's support pages trying to figure out how to see which feed it's using and how to change it. anyone know how to do this easily? kinda ignorant here...help...

[TheWarOnDemocracy]

Hi,
Did you try the "Report a Concern" button on your iTunes podcast page. You should be able to give them the new feed that way.

[avalonfarms]

yes and no response this is like day 3 or 4 of trying to fix the problem. i hope i didn't screw it up but i just resubmitted it. now either it won't go through because it's a duplicate or it will and i'll have 3 different pages in itunes...oh just pull my hair out :-)
if you type in avalon farmcast you get a page with 1 old show & no comments. (old feed i'm sure) if you go to ppn in itunes and click on avalon farmcast you get another page with a comment, a few subscribers a list of some older shows and again old feed. so if they take the new one i don't know how to get those other old ones off and i dont know how to get it relinked to ppn in itunes either. who did the ppn page in itunes? i guess i need to talk to them. you know i've been an apple fan for years but their customer service really sucks.

[Progressive Geek]

What a nightmare.  I been thinking of changing my feed as well.  I also thought about making it something like progressivegeek.com/feed or feed.progressivegeek.com so that I have more control of where it points.

Keep us posted on what you run into.

[TheWarOnDemocracy]

There is a way to point your old feed to a new feed, if you feel comfortable tinkering with the XML file. Try this:

1) Open your XML file in a text editor. Since you mentioned .Mac, I'm assuming you're on a Mac. TextEdit is a suitable application for doing this type of thing.

2) Locate the 'owner' tag in your XML file. It should be near the top with the iTunes tags. It will look like:
    <itunes:owner>

3) Just above the owner tag, insert:
    <itunes:new-feed-url>http://your.new.feed.url.com/whatever</itunes:new-feed-url>
4) Of course, replace "your.new.feed.url.com/whatever" with your actual new RSS feed URL. Be sure to type it exactly as above without any spaces.
5) Save the edited XML file and you should be good to go.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
   

[avalonfarms]

tons of questions anthony sorry...i've never used text edit or written code. i am on a mac. first of all, am i making changes in my webpage so nothing will happen until i update again or am i making changes in itunes? if you could tell me how to bring my xml up in text edit that might answer my question. if it's any help here's what's going on now in itunes:
This is the page that comes up when I did a search in itunes. No comments, one listing
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=188661241

This is the page that comes up via the progressive podcast network. it lists some subscribers and a comment but only a handful of old episodes.
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=188661241

It looks like the exact same address to me but display differently.

 here is what I would like to be in itunes. it lists all the latest shows...i lose the few subscribers & comment but at least it's current and all the shows are listed.





Dear Podcast Owner

Your podcast, located at [ http://www.avalonfarmcast.com/avalonfarms/Podcast/rss.xml ], has been approved. You should expect to see it in iTunes within the next few hours. When it's available, you will be able to access it with the URL below.

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=260891534

[TheWarOnDemocracy]

So it looks like this URL, http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=260891534  has your latest episodes (although I noticed that it doesn't show your artwork.). Perhaps the simplest thing to do is to go into each of the other two URL's and click on the 'Report a Concern' link. Ask the iTunes Store to just delete those other two pages. That way you avoid confusion for your listeners. It'll probably take a few days for the other two pages to be deleted, but in my experience the iTunes folks are pretty good at making sure it gets done.

Alternately, editing the XML file is the best (although not the easiest) way to maintain control over you feed. After you open TextEdit (Applications>TextEdit), simply navigate to your XML file (it's named something like 'rss.xml'), and open. My previous post will take it from there.

I see by your site that you use iWeb for your site design. I use it too and it lacks much. But it's getting a major update in the next few weeks and it's about time. Since you drop .Mac, I'm assuming you're publishing your site to a folder. Your XML file will be in that folder.

These sites may also help:

http://www.rowan-cottage.co.uk/Site/iWeb_Resources.html

http://www.rowan-cottage.co.uk/Site/Articles.html

[avalonfarms]

thanks for the links. those are cool. when i get the current problem under control perhaps i'll go try out some of those nifty add-ons for iweb. yes i did get the feed into text edit thanks to your instructions and i'm still looking that over.  my eyeballs spin around when i look at all that "code" but i'm still looking it over for the owner tag line. (i once bought 2 thick HTML text books thinking i was actually going to teach myself how to read & write it HUH!) i asked itunes to remove one of the old pages. let's see if that happens and then i'll go after the other one. do you know if ppn link in itunes will automatically connect to the new page? also as for the image (logo) not showing up on the new itunes page i'm baffled. i did find these posts in itune discussion board...is it me...is it apple...is it me...is it apple? computers are supposed to make our lives easier right? RIGHT?

Posts: 962
Registered: Apr 24, 2002
   
   Re: Podcast image NOT updating in iTunes.
Posted: Jul 22, 2007 2:10 AM   in response to: Jseeley         
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The feeds themselves appear OK, but that does not signify all as the links themselves within the XML files need to be perfect. Has the image name been used correctly (including upper case/lower case)? Is the file location correctly expressed. Has the image file been uploaded to the correct online location?

What you should see in a feed optimised for the iTMS is something like this in the channel section:

<itunes:link rel="image" type="video/jpeg" href="http://www.sitename.com/folder/file.jpg">Podcast Name</itunes:link>

eMac 1.25 + MacBookPro 2.16 (2G RAM) + 3 Mac minis   Mac OS X (10.4.10)   
   
   JFSull27

Posts: 1
From: Live Global
Registered: Jul 27, 2007
   
   Re: Podcast image NOT updating in iTunes.
Posted: Jul 27, 2007 5:32 PM   in response to: Jseeley         
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I'm having the same problem, and I noticed others have too. iTunes won't display my podcast art, and it's been in the store since July 11.

MacBook, MacPro   Mac OS X (10.4.10)   
   
   Pufichek

Posts: 8
Registered: Jul 20, 2007
   
   Re: Podcast image NOT updating in iTunes.
Posted: Jul 27, 2007 6:33 PM   in response to: Jseeley         
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I have the same problem, I have a new podcast for more than a week on iTunes and the artwork has not yet shown up, even though I know I have coded my RSS correctly as I have another older podcast that shows the artwork fine.

It's a problem with Apple, but I wonder why they take so long to fix something that seems quite simple.

It's a pain because I am forced to wait before advertising my new podcast, as without the artwork the "package" is not complete and does not look so good.
Let's give 'em a little more time.

Mac Pro + Mac Book Pro   Mac OS X (10.4.10)     

[TheWarOnDemocracy]

Yes you're right. But it sounds like the trouble is with the technology, not with the computer (how's that for mincing words!).

Give it a few of days, since you've been in contact with the iTunes Store recently. Maybe if by Wednesday things haven't been rounded out, let's look at tackling the problem again.