Download & Playback Errors

Episodes can fail to download or play for a variety of reasons, the majority of which can be fixed by contacting the podcast author.

If an episode fails, tap the Retry icon to view more information about the cause of the error and retry download or playback.

• Episode not available due to an error in the podcast feed. Contact the podcast author.
• Unable to download from the podcast author. Reason: Forbidden. Contact the podcast author.
• Episode not found, the file may have been moved or deleted. Contact the podcast author.
• Download failed, error code [***]. Contact the podcast author.
• Your device may not have enough storage to save the episode file. Try clearing out some unused apps or played episodes.
• Your device may not have enough storage to save the episode file. Try clearing out some unused apps or played episodes. If you are seeing a “Waiting for storage space” error despite having plenty of storage available, please see our Known Issues page for more information.
• This episode appears to be in a format we can’t play, some other apps might be able to though?
• Write failed: EIO (I/O error). There is an issue with saving episodes to your SD card.
• Open failed: ENOENT (No such file or directory). There is an issue with playing episodes from your SD card.

If you’ve tried the suggestions above, but are still experiencing the issue, it may also be helpful to ask another Pocket Casts user to see if they experience the problem in the app on their device. That may help to determine whether there is an issue with the podcast itself or something else.

And if you are still having trouble with episode downloads or playback, feel free to reach out to our team for support.

This section covers frequently asked questions about download and playback errors.

Sometimes you might still see episodes that a podcast creator has deleted. This is because Pocket Casts temporarily keeps cached episodes on your device.

• Episodes you haven’t played will stay visible for about 2 weeks after removal.
• Episodes you’ve played or downloaded are kept indefinitely so you can re‑listen later.

If you see duplicates or get errors when playing removed episodes, mark them as played and archive them. Then, avoid interacting with those episodes again. They’ll automatically disappear after a couple of weeks once they’re no longer starred, downloaded, or included in your Up Next queue.

At times, a browser (ie.: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, etc) can encounter an unforeseen event and will not play an episode, or will stop streaming during an episode, frequently resulting in an error message.

The most common reason an episode won’t play in your browser, is because an extension you have installed is blocking it. Common examples of this are any sort of ad/content blocking extensions like Adblock/Ublock (Night Eye – a dark mode extension has also caused some loading issues). The best way to test if this is the case, is to enter private browsing (incognito) mode in your browser, and attempt to play the podcast again. Alternatively, you can try temporarily disabling any extensions you have that might cause issues.

An alternative option is to enable insecure content to be played through Pocket Casts temporarily:

1. Click the certificate/padlock icon next to the website location
2. Click site settings
3. Change ‘Insecure content’ to allow

Some error messages you may receive and their meanings are:

A network error occurred, your internet connection may be unstable, or the episode may have been removed by the author

• The episode may have been removed by the podcast author.
• There may be a problem with the podcast server or your internet connection.

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Your browser is unable to play this episode. Its stream may be corrupt or unsupported

• The stream isn’t in a file format that can be played by the browser. As particular examples, some Linux browsers can’t play .mp3 files, most browsers can’t play .mov or .ogg files, etc.
• Some browsers might require additional software (plugins, or actual system software support) to play certain audio or video files
• This is also the error shown when Edge wants to play a file but there is no audio-out hardware attached.

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This episode could not be downloaded. Your internet connection may be unstable, or the episode may have been removed by the author

• A firewall or browser extension preventing the stream from downloading/streaming
• It is a Windows machine that has locked down local storage in Edge which causes the streaming mechanism to fail.

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An error occurred decoding this stream

• The media player is having trouble playing the file, e.g internet issues, or the file is corrupted

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Your browser has cancelled this episode stream.

• The browser (or possibly the computer) has deliberately terminated the stream, more likely to be a browser extension like an ad blocker or content blocker, proxy.

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Your browser has cancelled this episode stream.

• The browser (or possibly the computer) has deliberately terminated the stream, more likely to be a browser extension like an ad blocker or content blocker, proxy.

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Episode added through Files is unable to play

• The most common cause of this problem is that playback of the file was started from a mobile device, but the file has not yet been uploaded to the cloud. Since the file is not available for the web/desktop app, it fails to play. To solve this problem, in the app where you starting playing the local file, go to Profile > Files > tap on the three dot menu (…) > Files Settings and enable the “Auto upload to Cloud” setting. After the file is uploaded, you will be able to resume playback in the Web Player.

Just like browsers, sometimes the desktop app encounters an unforeseen event and will not play an episode or stop streaming during an episode, frequently resulting in an error message.

There are a few steps to try:

1. Go to Help > Troubleshooting > Clear cache and reload — if you’re using the Windows app, press the alt key on your keyboard to reveal the help menu.
2. Switch to a different WiFi or network connection. Public and corporate networks often have strict firewalls that can interfere with connectivity.
3. Sign up with your account on another computer and see if the problem persists
4. Sign up with a browser instead of the desktop app and check if the problem persists
5. Disconnect or unplug external monitors and devices