Apple Podcasts downloader

Apple Podcasts is a directory pointing at someone else's server

Apple does not host most of the audio it lists. A show publishes a feed from its own hosting company, Apple reads that feed, and the episode page you are looking at points back at the file on the publisher's server. The player in your browser is playing a file that lives somewhere else entirely.

That arrangement matters when you paste an address here. Vidzilla follows the episode page through to the audio the show is actually serving. When the publisher has moved, renamed, or withdrawn that file, the directory entry can still be listed while the audio behind it no longer answers, and the result comes back empty.

Copy one episode, not the whole show

A show page holds every episode the publisher has released, so it stands for a list rather than a file. Open the episode you want first. On a computer, click the episode title so it opens on its own, then copy the address out of the bar. In the app, use the share control on that episode and choose the option that copies a link.

The episode address carries an identifier for the show and a second identifier for the episode. Both are needed. An address with only the show identifier returns nothing, because there is no way to tell which of two hundred episodes you meant.

What comes back is sound, with no picture

Podcasts are audio productions. The results list gives you an audio row and no video rows, and that is what the source publishes. The artwork you see beside the episode is a separate image used by the player; it is not part of the audio file, so it does not travel with the download.

Some publishers release a video version of the same conversation on a video site. If you want moving pictures rather than sound, that separate release is where they live, and its own page address is what you would paste.

An hour of talk is a substantial file

Episode length is the number that decides your file size here. Podcasts run long, and a two-hour interview produces a far larger file than any short clip you would save from a video site. Publishers also choose how much data to spend per minute, so two shows of identical length can differ considerably.

Three practical consequences follow from that.

• A long episode can pass the 150 MB limit that applies to a single file on a free account. The size is printed on the row before you commit.
• The transfer takes longer than a short download, and the tab has to stay open until it completes.
• Pro removes the size ceiling and the daily count of 3, which is the difference between saving a long back catalogue and saving three short episodes.

Subscriber shows return nothing, and that is correct

Apple sells channel subscriptions, and publishers sell memberships of their own. Episodes inside either arrangement are served from a private feed tied to the account that paid. Vidzilla reads the page as an ordinary visitor with no account signed in, so a subscriber episode gives back an empty list.

The same applies to early-access episodes that are behind a paywall now and public later, and to shows a publisher has taken down. In each case the audio is not being served to the public at the moment you press Analyze, and an empty result is the honest answer rather than a fault to work around.

After the episode is saved

Press Download file beside the audio row you were given. Our servers prepare the episode and then send it across to you, and that prepared copy expires on a short timer, so begin the transfer while you are on the page. The saved copy lives on your own device and plays with no connection, which is the point of keeping it.

A desktop browser puts it with your other downloads, and a phone browser puts it in device storage or the Files app. Rename it with the show and episode number straight away; podcast files are often named with a string of digits that tells you nothing six months later.

Related pages

• Saving episodes from other podcast directories
• Episodes listed on Spotify
• Working with M4A audio files
• Taking sound out of a video page
• Audio posted on SoundCloud