Downloaded podcasts aren’t being removed after being played

Same, same. This appears to be a widespread bug.

Apple provides an ‘official’ product feedback mechanism. I have no way of ascertaining it’s efficacy - it gives off ‘screaming into the void vibes’, imo. But this will take you to that form: Feedback - Apple Podcasts - Apple

I would assume the ‘Me Too’ button (here within the forum) was probably also intended as a feedback mechanism. In theory this would actually be a more efficient approach. Fwiw, of the many posts reporting this issue, this seems to be the one that’s attracted the most engagement: Podcasts won’t delete automatically after… - Apple Community. Feel free to join in.

I can’t attest to whether Apple makes use of either feature, since both feedback mechanisms are in my experience likely to be a one-way street (don’t expect Apple to respond). And I’ve never personally seen anyone commenting otherwise.

All that said, I can at least confirm it’s not an issue with your device or settings. We’re in a holding pattern pending an iOS version released with a bug fix.

Cheers.

Same, same. This appears to be a widespread bug. I can at least confirm it’s not an issue with your device or settings. We’re in a holding pattern pending an iOS version released with a bug fix.

For me, the bigger issue is that the app doesn’t auto-delete anything. In addition to deleting played episodes, I have limits on the number of episodes per podcast it’s supposed to retain (whether I listen to them or not). As a temporary workaround, I’ve been periodically using the ‘remove all downloads’ option from the downloads filter under the library tab to clear out the backlog. I then manually download episodes as I add them to my queue.

Apple provides an ‘official’ product feedback mechanism. I have no way of ascertaining it’s efficacy - it gives off ‘screaming into the void vibes’, imo. But this will take you to that form: Feedback - Apple Podcasts - Apple

I would assume the ‘Me Too’ button (here within the forum) was probably also intended as a feedback mechanism. In theory this would actually be a more efficient approach. Fwiw, of the many posts reporting this issue, this seems to be the one that’s attracted the most engagement: Podcasts won’t delete automatically after… - Apple Community. Feel free to join in.

I can’t attest to whether Apple makes use of either feature, since both feedback mechanisms are in my experience likely to be a one-way street (don’t expect Apple to respond). And I’ve never personally seen anyone commenting otherwise.

Cheers.