[smjohns]

Hi,

I have a Symbian ^3 device and want to transfer podcasts I have downloaded using my PC to my phone so that the phone sees them as podcasts and not just other music. When you refresh the library in the music player how does it differentiate between normal music and podasts? Is it done using the Genere ID tag? or by having a folder called podcasts? I know there is phone based podcast download apps but I am happy sticking with what I have as long as I can manually move the files in a way the phone still sees them as podcasts in the Music app.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. 

[carman58]

if you go to file manager there should be a file in E labeled Podcasts, place them in there and they should show up when you select podcasts, or you can open them from the file manager and listen to them.

[smjohns · Accepted solution]

I have found the answer to this now. If the genre of the file is set to "Podcast" then symbian^3 will treat this file as a podcast and include it on the next library refresh.

[smjohns]

I thought I would add a few extra bits of info that may be of use to people:

1) How to get podcasts into the podcast list:

Either use an ID3 editor or in windows (right click properties on the file and select the details tab) and set the genre to Podcast. Copy them to your phone, launch music and refresh the library. The newly copied files will appear in the podcast list under folders defined by the Album title (i.e. if you have two podcasts with the same album name then they will be in the one folder). 

2) Video Podcasts

These will not appear in the podcast list even if the genre is set to podcast but if you check out the video player they will appear there.

3) m4a - enhanced podcasts

These will appear in the podcast folder but if you try and play them in the music player they will not play. These files will only play in the video player....but do not appear in the list within the application so find the file using file manager and click on it and it will play.

4) Deleting podcasts

There seems to be a small bug in the music software and if you don't delete podcasts correctly the folder (defined by the album title) is maintained in the library list. The problem is triggered when only one podcast remains in a folder and you go into the folder and delete the file. For some reason this leaves the folder behind and attempts to delete this are met with an error. If you copy a new file with the same album name then on the next refresh the folder shows 2 files even though only one exists. To prevent this from happening, when only one file exists in the podcast folder then delete the folder. This will delete the file and folder. 

5) Recovering from the podcast folder error

Connect your phone to your PC using a USB cable. If it does not connect as mass storage device (the default connection method is for Ovi Suite) then go to the connectivity menu and select the USB option and then Mass Storage. The phone will disconnect and connect correctly. When active, find the "Private" folder on the same drive, which used to contain the podcast you have since deleted. Locate the following folders and delete the contents (not the folders):

101ffca9 > harvesterdbv10_1.dat

10281e17 > [101FFC31]MPXV3_1.db

[101FFC31]PCV6_1.db

[102830AB]thumbnail_v4.db

When you have deleted these files, unplug the USB cable and the phone and after the phone has settled down, launch music and refresh the library (if it doesn't ask you to do it automatically). 

Scary Note - When you connect the USB cable and set it to mass storage you may note that the home screen looses it's theme and some applications loose their icons. This affects all apps / themes loaded on the external medium storage. Don't PANIC !! as soon as you disconnect the cable (or set the connection method back to OVI) after a few seconds your phone will reset back to the original settings and icons. 

If I find out anything else I will post up.

[smjohns]

I thought I would update this thread as I find out stuff in case anyone else needs to know. I downloaded Podcatcher yesterday and this is a great little application to download new podcasts. One thing I did notice is that if you have played the downloaded podcast in the music player AND it has been added to the library, if you then delete the file within the podcatcher application, then this maintains the folder in the music library and this can only be removed by deleting the library database files as confirmed in  my previous post. To save having to do this, when you have finished with a podcast, delete it using the music player (again as described above). This will remove it from the library, phone and podcatcher.