podcasts - exploding ipods

[Harvey]

Okok... so the title is a bit much.

I don't mean - litearlly exploding... but my HD on my iPod is becoming PACKED WITH PODCASTS.

Is there some way to automate how the ipod will sync up with podcasts? Like for example... I dunno... podcasts older than 2 weeks will automatically be "unchecked" and therefore not synced or something?

Just trying to get a handle on the situation.

BTW I love chinesepod.com, and NPR podcasts!

- Harvey

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Yes, in the Podcast preferences in iTunes, you can set a number of different podcast options -- "keep all", "keep unread", "keep most recent 10 podcasts", etc...

[Thank The Cheese]

I'm having the same problem.

ElDiablo:

Does doing that delete the older podcasts permanently from itunes as well as iPod, or just prevent the older ones from syncing? I still want to keep all my podcasts, I just don't want to put them all on the iPod at once.

EDIT: Just noticed the "iPod Preferences" button at the bottom of Podcasts section. I tend to uncheck a podcast once I've watched it, so selecting "only checked podcasts" is the ebst solution for me.

[fryke]

ElDiablo's tip gets rid of the podcasts permanently. But keep in mind that the podcasts also "explodes" Macs' harddrives. Keeping them all doesn't make much sense in my opinion. However: I wish I had the options per podcast. There are some things I want to keep, whereas other podcasts I want to delete themselves the minute I've heard/watched them completely. This is - however - not possible today.

[billbaloney]

It's a safe bet that future versions of iTunes, as well as other podcast subscription/management apps, will have increasingly sophisticated ways to manage the files.

For now, you can take advantage of Smart Playlists to help keep track. For instance, I have a list called "New podcasts" and one called "Old podcasts". You can narrow a playlist to only podcasts, then give it other criteria (for instance, "Play count is greater than 0"). This won't take the place of the flexible management prefs we all want, but it will help.