When is a track marked "played?"

[CAlvarez]

One of the podcast options is to keep them on the iPod until they are "played." So does it get marked played as soon as you start playing it, or when it hits the end?

[blb]

With iTunes at least, it appears that the Play Count is incremented when a song is completed, so perhaps it works the same?

[frankko]

Yeah, that's when the iPod counts a track as played, at the end.

[CAlvarez]

Great, since I often listen to part of a podcast and go back later. I'd hate to have them erased before I get back to them. But I guess I shouldn't stop it before the end when they are saying their goodbyes...

So does anyone know...if I want to mark it "played" on purpose without really listening, can I fast-forward to say 5 seconds before the end and let it finish, then will it be marked...?

[blubbernaut]

With normal tracks I often click just inside the end of the track (about a second from the end) so that I can skip a track but it will be marked as played. Useful for getting them out of my "not played in the last 3 months" smart playlist!!

[EDIT] oh wow, I didn't realise this was in the iPod forum, not the Application forum (i clicked the link to this question from the main page)...oops!

[kwsanders]

Yeah, that's when the iPod counts a track as played, at the end.

Not true for Podcasts. In iTunes 4.9 as soon as you start playing podcast, it marks the podcast as played. It is very annoying.

[xlax999999]

Not true for Podcasts. In iTunes 4.9 as soon as you start playing podcast, it marks the podcast as played. It is very annoying.

You are right, I have my iPod set to Automatically update only unplayed podcasts. Today after looking through them, there are some missing that I did not finish listening to in iTunes. Could Apple really not apply the same technology that they use with every other normal audio file to Podcasts? This whole Podcasting thing is turning out to be more trouble than its worth. I mean, I have to convert any Mono files so they don't lock up my iPod, manually update podcasts that I haven't fully listened to, and my smart playlists no longer function correctly on the iPod. Now they are talking (allegedly) about adding a video ready iPod to the mix. It's all too much too fast and not fully thought out. I expect simple elegance in my iPod, it isn't meant to be a clunky feature packed device. Please Apple fix the current issues with the iPod before it adding new somewhat needless features. And do this before it becomes "like butter stretched over to much bread" (Tolkien).

[kwsanders]

You are right, I have my iPod set to Automatically update only unplayed podcasts. Today after looking through them, there are some missing that I did not finish listening to in iTunes. Could Apple really not apply the same technology that they use with every other normal audio file to Podcasts?

Not being able to include the Podcasts library in Smart Playlists is another thing that bugs me about the new podcast interface in iTunes and on the iPod.


This whole Podcasting thing is turning out to be more trouble than its worth.

I agree. That is why I went back to using iPodderX. Even with it downloading duplicates every once in a blue moon, I deal with that, because I still have total control over the podcasts that I listen to and how I listen to them.