Having an issue withmy post type podcast feed

It’s possible that the cPanel 301 redirect isn’t touching the .htaccess file used by your WordPress site, which is where the 301 needs to be. Are you able to look at the .htaccess file and check?

Shawn is correct, cpanel redirects only work with non WordPress sites. WordPRess has it’s own .htaccess file with rewrite rules.

If you are only concerned about iTunes subscribers, you can use the iTunes new-feed-url option. IT is explained in the page Shawn linked to previously: https://create.blubrry.com/manual/syndicating-your-podcast-rss-feeds/changing-your-podcast-rss-feed-address-url/

Yes, I do have access to all my flies in /public_html and even anything behind it in root. I do have more than one .htaccess though. I have one in /public_html and I have one in /blog/ where the core WP files are located.

My feed still hasn’t redirected to the new feed so I took a look at both. The one in my root WP folder, ie, /blog has the basic wp .htaccess entry and that is it.

In my public_html folder, the .htaccess file actually is the one that WordPress seems to be writing to because it has several caching entries stored in inside the WP block.

Below the # End WordPress however, it has the following rewrite entry:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^lonniebruhn\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.lonniebruhn\.com$
RewriteRule ^feed\/podcast\/?(.*)$ "http\:\/\/lonniebruhn\.com\/ftn_podcast\/feed\/podcast\/$1" [R=301,L]

I have both .htaccess files because at point I configured the wordpress site url to point away outside the wordpress dir so that the address wouldn’t show as .com/blog.

I’m just wondering now, if the entry should go into the .htaccess isiide the WordPress /blog dir?

As the next troubleshooting step, II pasted the same 301 entry above inside that .htaccess to see if this resolves my feed issue. I’ll report back my findings.

LB

Angelo,

Nice to meet you, thank you for jumping into the conversation. You must have posted literally around the same I did. If you read that entry, you’ll see I moved it over to the one inside /blog.

I always wondered if the redirect rule inside cpanel worked correctly in regards to WordPress, and I think if I was redirecting just the domain name, https://www.lonniebruhn.com to a new address, it would. Since this a wordpress feed dynamically built within WP, then I’m sure this was the problem.

The feed hasn’t updated yet, but I’ll let you know. I’m actually refreshing the subscription feed rather than the iTunes store feed because as I understand, it, that feed is updated almost immediately because it is specific to only my subscribers where as Itunes Store may take up to two days to update because of the large podcast index.

If I don’t see any changes after a day or so, My next step will be to use the iTunes tag because that is the one I am trying to fix.

Thanks again and I have loved your plug-in for many years. You have made an outstanding plugin I recommend to all of the comedians wanting to start a podcast..

LB

Your rewrite rule for your .htaccess should work. Yes give it 24 hours to see if it works. IO can also lookup the iTunes listing if you have the iTunes ID.

I recommend leaving the redirect up for as long as possible. Folks who subscribe get the new feed url next time they refresh. It is possible for someone to go a few weeks though without opening their podcast app so that’s why we recommend keeping the redirect in place as long as possible.

Angelo,

The feed still doesn’t seem to be redirecting to the new feed and I really don’t understand why.

Here is the old feed and as you can see, nothing has changed.
https://lonniebruhn.com/feed/podcast/

This is what I have in my.htaccsess inside /blog where the core wp files are stored.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^lonniebruhn\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.lonniebruhn\.com$
RewriteRule ^feed\/podcast\/?(.*)$ "http\:\/\/lonniebruhn\.com\/ftn_podcast\/feed\/podcast\/$1" [R=301,L]

The only other thing I can try now is putting in the itunes tag but that still doesn’t explain why the main feed isn’t being redirected either.

Any thoughts?

The redirect value should not be escaped, meaning no \. Only the regular expression match values need escaped with a backslash.

Also, how many host names do you have on this one web site? I don’t think you need the RewriteCond lines as Apache conf will use a different folder for other host names under normal circumstances. WordPress will redirect to the default host name after one page load anyway. I would also simplify the rewrite rule, there should be no need to match anything after the end of the URL.

RewriteRule ^feed\/podcast\/? "https://lonniebruhn.com/ftn_podcast/feed/podcast/" [R=301,L]

Thank you, I will use what you wrote. The snippet I had in there was what I copied that was an output from the cpanel 301 redirect. This is also why you see the separate host names because I had checked the wildcard.

I put your snippet in place of it, and I’ll wait another 24 hrs. Also, when I do get this resolved, I plan on leaving the redirect in there indefinitely or at least a year or until I have a reason to do otherwise.

The redirect still does not appear to be working.

First, are you sure .htaccess rules are working? IF you are not using Apache (using a web server like Nginx or Lighttpd) then .htaccess files will not work.

If you can copy/paste the contents of your .htaccess file I may be able to help further. It may be that you have multiple blocks of rewrite rules that are conflicting with the one you added.

Yes, I saw that too. Thanks for also staying on top of this, I really appreciate it. I am going to paste both .htaccess blocks. The first one is that is in root.. and the second one is the one that is in the root folder where WordPress resides.

Public_html .htaccess

## EXPIRES CACHING ##
# compress text, html, javascript, css, xml:
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
# Or, compress certain file types by extension:
<files *.html>
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</files>
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/jpg "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/pdf "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType text/x-javascript "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access plus 1 year"
# ExpiresDefault "access plus 2 days"

</IfModule>
## EXPIRES CACHING ##
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

Public_html/blog/ .htaccess

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^feed\/podcast\/? "https://lonniebruhn.com/ftn_podcast/feed/podcast/" [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

I wanted to update you on this. So it appears that the .htaccess file that needs the 301 redirect is in fact the one used in the root folder of public_html. That is the one that is being used by wordpress. I tried placing the code you gave me into the correct place under RewriteBase / in that one just to see. It updated the subscriber date instantly as it is supposed to.

It hasn’t updated the index in the store yet and I don’t think it will for a few days. So I think it is finally solved. The block is below. The only question I have now is, the old episodes I had. In order to have those available, I would need to then, upload them into the new feed?

Located in the root public_html

## EXPIRES CACHING ##
# compress text, html, javascript, css, xml:
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
# Or, compress certain file types by extension:
<files *.html>
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</files>
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/jpg "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/pdf "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType text/x-javascript "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access plus 1 year"
# ExpiresDefault "access plus 2 days"

</IfModule>
## EXPIRES CACHING ##
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^feed\/podcast\/? "https://lonniebruhn.com/ftn_podcast/feed/podcast/" [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

It’s working now!!! I will monitor iTunes to see if it updates.

Angelo ,

yes it is, I even got an update through my podcasts app on my iphone showing the new episode come through. Once I put that snippet in the right .htaccess file, things finally took effect.

I’ll be recording a new episode soon and uploading it to see if it continues to take effect, but I don’t forsee any issues at this point and I was able to avoid using the itunes tag option which I was hoping I would only have to do as a last resort.

Thanks for continuing to help monitor the situation and troubleshoot this issue. Going forward with this process in the future will be a lot easier.

Awesome! It appears iTunes has your latest episode and is displaying exactly what is in your feed now!

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