Episodes from BBC feeds cannot be downloaded, and thumbnails are missing

Bug report
1

I have searched for existing threads about this problem

on

App version

3.12.3f (175e5ef8f)

Android version

13

Device model

Samsung Galaxy S20 (SM-G980F)

Expected behaviour

I should be able to:

  1. See the thumbnail image of a given subscribed feed.
  2. Download episodes from that feed.

Current behaviour

  1. Thumbnails are missing for certain feeds (not all).
  2. Episodes cannot be downloaded.

First occurred

Within the last week, but could have started earlier (had a long period of not listening to podcasts and only just started again, not sure how long this has been an issue)

Steps to reproduce

  1. Launch AntennaPod.
  2. Go to Subscriptions.
  3. BUG: Notice that the thumbnails for every BBC feed (mine are 13 Minutes, Limelight, Short Cuts, Witness History, World of Secrets, You’re Dead to Me) are missing.
  4. Tap on any of those feeds.
  5. Attempt to download any episode.
  6. BUG: Notice that the download will fail (the progress indicator will not move at all, and you will receive an error message saying that the download failed; automatic retries will also fail).

Crash info

Please note the following:

  • Previously downloaded episodes from those feeds (from months ago) still play fine.
  • I checked the RSS feed URLs on the BBC site, and they’re all correct and still valid.
  • When the episode download fails, and I “Tap to view details”, the Status shows “Connection error” and Technical details simply say “timeout”.
  • If I manually go to the media file URL that’s in that same “Tap to view details” pop up, I can download and listen to the episode without issues, so the file itself isn’t corrupt or missing. It simply won’t download.
  • I am not having this issue with any other subscribed podcasts. It’s only the BBC ones, and they all used to work perfectly.

Environment

Android version: 13
OS version: 4.19.87-27102101
AntennaPod version: 3.12.3
Model: SM-G980F
Device: x1s
Product: x1sxx
Manufacturer: samsung

2

Curious that someone else reported an issue with BBC podcasts recently.

3

The BBC has being having a bit of a “tidy up” of the podcasts it offers. For example it has dropped the separate genres of In Our Time leaving only the main feed. Could this be the issue you are having?

4

I wouldn’t have thought so; as I mentioned, I checked the RSS feed URLs against the BBC site itself and everything checks out. The episodes exist, the address is correct, the file plays if you go to the URL for it directly. It just won’t download to AntennaPod.

5

Different issue, but yes, that did make me wonder.

6

I also have several BBC feeds and none of them have broken, neither for updates or downloads. Feeds: Witness, Sporting Witness, Inquiry, More or Less, Fighting Talk…

That said, I think to the point of a recent similar post, I also replied the same to that one, and some search search engine results seemed to return broken BBC pages. Perhaps the “cleanup” point is, um, on point.