Two bad formatting issues on iPhone + Stitcher episode notes

Look at the general WordPress settings >> Reading section of your WordPress dashboard and make sure it’s set to “Full Text” instead of “Summary.” If you make this change, clear any site caches and give syndication points at least 24 hours to pick up the changes.

Hi Shawn, thanks for that.

I made the change you suggested but no formatting changes were made in Apple Podcasts or Stitcher – however, I didn’t think they would. We’d have to remove and re-upload old episodes to make changes in those networks.

We haven’t published a new episode to test if the setting change will fix the formatting going forward. But I’m worried that it won’t! Is the reading setting change truly all it will take to fix the formatting in Apple Podcasts and Stitcher? I thought for sure it would be more complicated than that.

Please advise! We want to get this fixed ASAP.

Hello

Rest assured we spent some time to learn all of the ins and outs of what Apple podcasts (previously iTunes) needs. We’ve been developing podcasting solutions since 2005 and PowerPress since 2008. If we give you advice for PowerPress it will be the best advice you can get for podcasting, I personally guarantee that.

This is your feed that you gave to Apple podcasts: https://alibrown.com/category/glambition/feed/ If you look at the source code of this in a browser such as Firefox or Chrome, you can see the sections called <item> and then look at the tags that are there. Currently you only have an <itunes:summary> and a <description> tags. If you enable the option Shawn mentioned with the “Full Text”, WordPress will add a new tag to each <item> called <content:encoded>. This will solve your Stitcher issue and the Apple podcasts issue when someone is subscribed to your podcast and then views your show notes. If you turn off “Full Text”, then you will not have <content:encoded> add to each <item> and you will continue to have the problem you see at the moment.

The Summary / Full Text setting in WordPress only does one thing, to include /exclude the content:encoded version (HTML markup version) of your blog post in your feeds.

Stitcher specifically can pull in all the HTML formatting such as your bullet lists and web links in the <content:encoded> field. To see an example of a podcast which uses our PowerPress plugin with the <content:encoded> tag, see our CEO’s podcast on Stitcher here: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/geek-news-central-podcast/geek-news-central-audio

When someone views your podcast on Apple podcasts who is not subscribed, the <itunes:summary> is used. I just took a peak at your latest episode listing on Apple and it looks great, it is correctly using your <itunes:summary> tag. ref: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kelly-roach-business-growth-coach-glambition-radio/id799805829?i=1000441288601

This is complicated and don’t blame me for this, but Apple Podcast directory uses the <itunes:summary> while the iOS podcast app uses the <content:encoded> for subscribed users and the <itunes:summary> when your browsing the apple podcast directory from the app.

It currently appears you did not make this change advised by Shawn. If you did make the change and changed it back out of frustration, please change it back again to “Full Text” and leave it for a few weeks minimum. Remember, podcasting is a pull technology, not push. When you make a change, you have to wait for a 4-72 hours for most podcast apps and directories to check your podcast feed for changes. It is not instant, though some services such as Google Podcasts are bridging that gab with updates that take less than an hour, Apple podcasts and Stitcher are not there yet.

If “Full Text” is selected in WordPress Settings, then you have a server caching issue because the tag is still not appearing in your feeds. Please contact your web hosting to find out how you can clear your site cache. Once cleared, you should be able to view your feed in a browser and see under each <item> a <content:encoded> value.

Thanks,
Angelo

Hi Angelo,

Wow – thanks for all this info, this is super helpful. I did change the setting to Full Text and you’re right, I changed it back (not because of frustration – our tech producers thought it was causing another glitch. It wasn’t, but I forgot to change it back!).

My only concern is the iOS podcast app issue. I know that’s not your fault, Apple is notorious for being finicky… but I really hope this setting changes the way our podcast looks in the app because right now it looks terrible.

Thanks again for your help! We publish a new episode tomorrow, so I’m hoping we will see the updates then.

It worked! Thank you so much!!

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