Adding or Updating my Avatar

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The Pocket Casts app integrates with a service known as Gravatar to enable users to add profile pictures within the app.

Adding a Profile Picture

If you wish to add a profile picture, navigate to the Gravatar website and select ‘Create your Gravatar’. It’s important to ensure that the email address you use for Pocket Casts aligns with the one you use in Gravatar. This is necessary for the profile picture to show up on your Pocket Casts account. More info on this process can be found here.

Updating Your Profile Picture

Should you decide to update your profile picture in Gravatar, the process is straightforward. Simply log in to your Gravatar account and modify the image as desired.

Understanding Pocket Casts Logs

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When you encounter issues with the Pocket Casts app, you may be asked to check your debug logs to help troubleshoot the problem.

These logs can be accessed via Pocket Casts > Profile > Settings > Help and Feedback > then click the ‘logs’ icon on the top right. This file contains a list of logs that help us understand what’s happening with the app. Here’s a list of the most common logs that you might see:

Refresh failed: response returned no data, status code 504
This suggests the app’s calls to our refresh server are either timing out or causing server errors.

I 31/12 10:26:26 Focus lost. AUDIOFOCUS_LOSS: true AUDIOFOCUS_LOSS_TRANSIENT: false
If your podcast is pausing unexpectedly, this log could be the culprit. It’s Android’s way of telling our app to stop playing because it’s about to play something else. The term “focus lost” is Android’s way of saying this.

AUDIOFOCUS_LOSS_TRANSIENT
This indicates whether the loss of audio focus is temporary (like when a notification plays) or permanent (like when you hit play in a music app). If this is true, Android will pause play for a bit, then let it keep playing. If false, then all play time of the app is over, and Android will stop all playback permanently.

Caused by: android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabaseCorruptException: database disk image is malformed (code 11 SQLITE_CORRUPT)
This log means the database is corrupted. Unfortunately, this error is not recoverable and requires you to uninstall and reinstall the app.

E 15/12 15:28:33 Fatal crash.
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Failed to allocate a 32 byte allocation with 186600 free bytes and 182KB until OOM, target footprint 536870912, growth limit 536870912; failed due to fragmentation (largest possible contiguous allocation 2621440 bytes)

This error may indicate that the user’s problem is related to an ongoing issue we have where videos that are encoded in certain ways can crash Google’s own ExoPlayer framework, which we use for the Android app. Essentially, the issue causes the player to run out of memory.

Remote control: pauseCommand
This log indicates that playback was paused from a remote device like Bluetooth headphones.

ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException
We’ve found that this often occurs on Android 12+ devices which have the Pocket Casts app using ‘optimized’ or ‘restricted’ battery settings. The solution is to ensure it is set to ‘Unrestricted’. The app now notifies users about this. This error may also occur when using Chromecast, but that’s due to a bug in Chromecast, not in our app.

ExoPlaybackException: Source error UnrecognizedInputFormatException
This log means the podcast episode is encoded in a format their phone can’t play.

Refresh complete
This command pops up when the app is manually refreshed or opened. The app also refreshes automatically occasionally.

Unable to obtain token, status code: 401, server error: login_email_not_found
This log indicates that an incorrect email address was used to log in.

Sync succeeded
As the name suggests, this log indicates that the sync was successful.

Remote control: playCommand, treating as playPause
This log means playback was resumed from a remote device.

Remote control: changePlaybackRateCommand
This log indicates the playback speed was changed from a Bluetooth device like a headset.

Refresh failed: with error The Internet connection appears to be offline., status code 0
This error usually occurs when something on your phone is preventing our app from accessing an internet connection. If you’re using ad blockers, firewalls, VPNs, or anything else that could be blocking our app, you might encounter this issue.

System fired ‘Audio Becoming Noisy’
This log occurs when there’s a broadcast intent, a hint for applications that audio is about to become ‘noisy’ due to a change in audio outputs, such as when Bluetooth disconnects from the device.

Saving played up to

This log occurs when the app saves the playback position locally on your device.

Sent position

Occasionally, the app syncs the playback position to the server. This log indicates the event.

If the sync failed, you will see Sent position failed. If this happens too frequently in the logs, you may want to check your network connection for any potential network block.

We hope this guide helps you understand what these logs mean, and assists in troubleshooting any issues you might have.

How to export my downloads and upload them to Pocket Casts Cloud?

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The process here involves exporting your download and then importing that file back to Pocket Casts. Here’s how to do this:

 
  1. Go to Pocket Casts > Downloads, and click on one of the episodes.
  2. Press the Share Button on the top right
  3. Select “Open File in…”
  4. Click “Save to files”
  5. Give the file a name and save it in the folder you want
 

To then add this file back to Pocket Casts as a custom file (and to the Cloud with Pocket Casts Plus), you can do the following:

  1. Open the Files app
  2. Locate the file you saved earlier
  3. Open the file, press the share button on the bottom left
  4. Choose Pocket Casts
  5. Name the file in Pocket Casts, and then save the file to your Pocket Casts Files.
  6. If you have Pocket Casts Plus, you can enable Cloud upload for the file to ensure all your devices have access to this file! More information on this here
 

How to use our Pocket Casts Forum

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Our Pocket Casts Forum is a public space for supporting features and functions specific to Pocket Casts apps and integrations. You can access it via forums.pocketcasts.com

Security and accounts

Since the forum is a public space, DO NOT share sensitive information like your account username, password, private RSS Feed, or any other similar details. We will remove all topics and comments that contain sensitive information.

The Pocket Casts forum is powered by WordPress.com accounts. You can log in using an existing WordPress.com account or create a new account by clicking ‘Log in’, then ‘Create a new account’.

Before adding a new topic or commenting on an existing one, please take the time to go through the guidelines below:

Initial Troubleshooting

  1. Check that you are running the latest version of the app available for your device. You can confirm that from here: iOS and Android
  2. Check your network connection. Do you perhaps have a firewall, VPN, or ad-blocker on your device that’s interfering with its ability to connect to the internet? You can also try connecting to a different network or even to mobile data.
 

Posting Tips

Help others help you by sharing as many details as you can about your issue, including:

  1. Your Pocket Casts app version: you can check this from the Pocket Casts app under Profile > Settings > About
  2. App platform and platform version: for example, iOS 16.3 (how to check iOS version) or Android 13 (how to check Android version)
  3. Device model
  4. Troubleshooting steps you’ve tried so far
  5. Screenshots and links, if necessary. Here is how to take a screenshot on your iOS device or how to take a screenshot on your Android device)
  6. Once you’ve taken the image, upload the image to your Media Library. Then, insert an Image block here by clicking the + block inserter and selecting Image. Then, click “Insert from URL” and paste your Media Library URL into the block.

How to check my network connection

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When facing issues with playing podcasts or using our app, we recommend that you check the following:

For iOS and Android:
  1. Go to Pocket Casts > Profile > Settings
  2. Click ‘Help & Feedback’
  3. Click the ‘Network Testing Icon’ on the top right
  4. Select ‘Run Now’ to test your network connection
 

For our Web Apps and Integrations:

Please check the following:

  1. Do you have a firewall, VPN, or ad-blocker active on your device that could interrupt your network connection?
  2. Are you using any ad-blocking or filtering software on your network? Some examples would be PiHole or AdGuard
If this is the case, we recommend disabling these services or ensuring our Pocket Casts domain is fully whitelisted. Once that is done, please recheck if the issue persists.

Folders

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This feature requires a Pocket Casts Plus subscription.   
To start using Folders, navigate to the app’s Podcasts area and hit the newly added folder icon in the top bar. From there, select the podcasts you want to place in the folder you just created.
 
Naming the folder
Next, name the folder — for instance, “Video Podcasts.”
 
Naming the folder
Finally, pick a color for your folder to make it stand out a bit.
 
Color Selection
 
Then click “Save Folder.” To create another folder, simply repeat the steps described above.
Note:

From version 7.20 onwards, the order of items on your Podcasts page is synced to your Pocket Casts account (whether it’s free or Plus). For Folders users, this means your created folders will appear on Android, iOS, and our Web and Desktop apps with everything in the positions you choose.

Folders Homepage
FAQ:
1) Where will I see the folders I create?
 
You will see them listed on the ‘Podcasts’ page, the place where you would normally see all of your subscriptions listed.
2) How can I add/remove podcasts from a folder?
 
You can select the folder, select the ellipsis on the top right, then press ‘Add or Remove Podcasts’:
 
Naming the folder
3) How can I delete a folder?
 
You will need to open the folder, press the ellipsis at the top right, and then choose ‘Edit Folder’ (1). You can then click on ‘Delete Folder’ (2)
How to delete a folder
Bonus question: Will the podcasts in my folder be deleted if I delete the folder?
  Nope, they will be unaffected and moved to the podcasts page. Just the folder gets deleted, not the contents within it.

How to give Pocket Casts unrestricted battery access?

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To ensure Pocket Casts can run properly, we recommend giving the app ‘Unrestricted’ Battery usage access. To do this, you could do the following:

  1. Go to your Phone Settings -> Apps
  2. Select Pocket Casts, then click on Battery
  3. Set the Battery Usage setting to ‘Unrestricted‘: