Error “This episode can’t be played on this device” when using Apple Podcast

It is in fact a networking issue. For instance, if you're using a VPN and the podcast server doesn't like you for any reason, such as being "out of region", or simply that you're using a VPN and they don't like that (who knows), then it can and will disconnect from your client. In my case, disabling the VPN solves the problem. However, now you're naked on the Internet. Once I've got the stream connected, I immediately reconnect VPN and I feel better.

What IMO Apple ought to fix (admittedly running Monterey OS on a 10-yr-old Mac) is, once you get the error and podcasts app displays the popup, you're stuck in an infinite loop (pardon the expression), clicking "OK" only for the app to retry the connection, bringing up the same error over and over. There's no "Cancel" option. You can't quit from the dock. You can force-quit, but c'mon guys!

With my NPR podcast, it happens every time there is an iOS update. Downloaded episodes that require the subscription won’t play. I also have to delete the episode and re-download it and then it will play. Really annoying when you realize there’s been an update and this has started happening and you are already on the plane and can’t re-download it.

For the original podcast in question - MATT PASQUINILLI PODCASTS

The issue is the last 3 episodes in the feed are not media files (.mp3 or .mp4) as they should be - but rather links to Youtube Videos. Youtube Links can never be in the RSS feed for the enclosure. That is what happened here - and that is why this show your can not play the most recent 3 episodes. No amount of Restarting or turning off VPN's will help - the issue is the podcast host added in a format that is not supported by ANY popular podcast aggregator app - and definitely not by Apple Podcasts.

I just had this happen again on my iPhone 13Pro with one of the podcasts I subscribe to. I've had it happen before with a few different podcasts' episodes, most recently while on a road trip that took me thru the SW USA. When it happened on the trip, I didn't have any cell service either, so couldn't attempt to fix it. However, I had plenty of podcasts and music loaded that were working fine, so I just listened to those. I'd forgotten about the problem until today when it happened.

I do have a VPN installed, but I don't turn it on when I'm at home.

After reading a few things others here said they've done to fix the issue, I first tried rebooting my iPhone, but that didn't help. Next, I decided to remove the non-playing podcast episode, then downloaded it again. It worked fine after that.

so this happened to me too, and i didn’t have a vpn, and i couldn’t figure out what was going on, i went to the podcast that was giving me the issue, and deleted all the episodes that i downloaded, and the error stopped popping up!

Thank you this has been driving me crazy, as I don’t have a VPN and I’ve tried every other suggestion here, from rebooting the phone to switching whether I was connected via wifi or cellular data…nothing worked until I found your comment. I deleted the downloads and boom I was able to play them again, even after redownloading. I have plenty of space, so not sure what the hang up was. Anywho, thank you!

I met the same issue, tried to restart iphone, switch between Wifi and cellular network and re-log into podcast account but all failed, finally, I solved it by entering Apple Podcast via the "open" button in app store.

This continues to be a problem for me with paid NPR content. I have new episodes download. Over the weekend I was on a 9 hour flight and wanted to catch up on some episodes but hit this restriction again. This is how I fix it but it is really annoying and does not work if no internet.

1. Delete episode
2. Redownload episode
3. Exit and then restart podcast app

Apple and NPR, please fix this.

Turning off my VPN solved the issue for me. Thank you!!

Same happened to me, I restarted my phone and problem fixed! Hope this helps

Opening podcasts app from the App Store and then playing resolved it for me. Thanks to the commenter above.

I got this error on my iPhone 16 Pro. I force-restarted it, and turned my VPN off, and was able to listen to the episodes. Unsure which action resolved the issue.

opening via the App Store just worked for me too! Tried everything else and none worked, but that did!

My husband and I were both getting the same error on our own phones for the same podcast. This is the only thing that worked for me, opening it from the app store.