Pocket Casts allows you to easily add private or members-only feeds like the ones from platforms like Patreon, Memberful, and Substack. This guide will help you add your private feed to your Pocket Casts app and provide information on accessing password-protected podcasts.
Paid Podcast Network Subscriptions (NPR Plus, Wondery+, etc.)
If you subscribe to a paid podcast network like NPR Plus, Wondery+, or similar services, you can access your premium content in Pocket Casts using private RSS feed URLs. Pocket Casts does not have built-in integrations with these networks — there is no in-app sign-in or “Podcast Networks” setting.
To get set up:
- Log into your account on the podcast network’s website (e.g., plus.npr.org for NPR Plus).
- Find your private RSS feed URLs — the network should provide instructions for accessing your feeds in a third-party podcast app.
- Copy a private RSS feed URL and paste it into the search bar on the Podcasts or Discover screen in Pocket Casts.
- Subscribe to the podcast that appears.
- Repeat for each podcast in your subscription.
If you need help finding your private feed URLs, contact the podcast network’s support team directly, as they manage your subscription and feed access.
How To Submit or Add a Private Members-Only Feed
Here are the steps you can take to submit your members-only feed to Pocket Casts:
- Locate your private feed URL: the exact steps will depend on the platform used by the creator of the private feed.
- For Patreon feeds: you can log in to your Patreon account, visit the creator’s page you support, and find the custom RSS feed URL they have provided to their supporters. The feed will look something like this:
https://www.patreon.com/rss/podcastname?auth=lettersandnumbers.
- For Patreon feeds: you can log in to your Patreon account, visit the creator’s page you support, and find the custom RSS feed URL they have provided to their supporters. The feed will look something like this:
- Copy the private feed URL: Ensure that you have copied the entire URL, including any unique strings or tokens.
- Copy the provided short URL: After you’ve submitted the podcast, the page will give you back a short URL that you can use to access the feed in our apps.
- Follow the podcast in the app: Within your app of choice, paste the short URL into the search bar located on either the Podcasts or Discover screens.
It might take a while for the feed to be accessible in the app after adding the private feed URL. If you are unable to access the podcast immediately, try again in a couple of minutes. For more information, you can view this article: Podcast Parsing Guide: Troubleshooting and FAQs.
Accessing Password-Protected Feeds
Some podcast creators may provide you with a private feed URL that requires a username and password for access. To learn how to add password-protected podcasts to your Pocket Casts app, please refer to our Password-Protected Podcasts Guide.
Other Issues with Private Feeds
If you encounter an error message when submitting a private podcast feed or need further assistance, please contact the Pocket Casts support team. If you reach out privately, through the app or by email, you can include the full RSS feed URL. This will help us resolve the issue quicker. Do not share the private URL in our support forums, since that is a public space.
FAQs
What happens if I pause my members-only subscription on Patreon, Memberful, Substack, or similar?
When you pause your members-only subscription to a podcast, podcast authors will normally stop updating your private feed. After a period of inactivity, our system will also stop parsing your private feed.
What happens if I reactivate a paused subscription to a private feed?
In our experience, when users reactivate their paid feed subscriptions, it can take a while for our system to catch up, especially if the subscription had been paused for a while.
This issue occurs because our servers will continue to check the podcast feed for updates after the associated subscription is canceled or expired, even if you’ve unfollowed the podcast in Pocket Casts. Since the podcast feed is no longer active, we receive errors with each attempt to refresh the feed. This results in the podcast being temporarily deprioritized in our parsing queue.
If we receive enough of these errors, our servers will treat the podcast as permanently unavailable.
Generally, if you follow the podcast again and give the system some time, it will automatically refresh and new episodes will appear in the app. If you’ve already waited and new episodes still aren’t available, though, you can refresh of the feed.
