For a long time I've been using iTunes on a Mac to download podcasts and sync them to various iOS devices, which I then listen to whilst commuting during the week.
My workflow is as follows:
1. download podcasts on the computer on a daily basis
2. sync the podcasts to an iOS device
3. listen to podcasts on the iOS device whilst commuting during the working week
4. if I'm part way through a podcast during the week, then listen to the rest of it during the next day's commute
5. if I'm part way through a podcast as at Friday afternoon, then listen to the end of it on the computer on the weekend so I can start a fresh podcast on Monday
It's been working well for many years, but very recently has started misbehaving in a way that is disruptive to my podcast experience.
At step 2, while syncing, any podcasts that I am part way through listening to on iOS are flagged as "not downloaded" on the iOS device. The iOS device repeatedly refuses to download them (gets 99% the way through and reports an error). I can only listen to the rest of these on the computer.
That means that by the end of the week I have up to 5 half-listened podcasts that I can't download directly on the iOS device, won't sync play position to the iOS device, and I can only listen to them on the computer.
Because of the number of steps to reproduce this, I haven't yet been able to find anyone else on the internet with the same problem (although there do seem to be many other problems with iTunes and podcasts).
So the questions are:
1. Has anyone else experienced this and fixed it, and what was the fix?
2. Alternatively what is some other software that will allow me to download podcasts on the computer and sync them to an iOS device, preferably also syncing the play position so that I can finish listening to a podcast on the computer?
TL;DR I've just about had it with Apple's poor podcast management - what is some alternative Mac-based software to download podcasts on a Mac, sync them to an iOS device, and listen to them from iOS while commuting?