Pocket Podcasts

Pocket Podcasts is a self-hosted podcast server that also follows YouTube channels and playlists as audio podcasts. Pocket Homelab works with it as it does with PinePods: Latest, the Library of your subscriptions, search and adding, episodes, the play position on every device, Played, server and device Downloads, and Statistics.

You can also receive this connection through Pocket Core, or keep configuring it individually.

Choose the app

Settings → Services → Podcasts starts with Podcasts app: Pocket Podcasts or PinePods. The fields under it follow the choice, and the other app’s settings are kept, so you can switch back at any time.

Environment keys

Key	Field	Required	Secret	Where to get it
PODCASTS_BACKEND	Podcasts app	Optional	—	pocket or pinepods. Empty means Pocket Podcasts when it has an address, else PinePods.
PODCASTS_URL	Pocket Podcasts URL	Required	—	Base address of your Pocket Podcasts server.
PODCASTS_API_KEY	Pocket Podcasts API token	Required	Secret	Settings → API tokens in Pocket Podcasts (pp_…). Stored in the Keychain.

Automatic downloads and mobile data

Automatic device downloads wait for Wi-Fi by default. On iPhone, a waiting episode says Waiting for Wi-Fi and offers Download now on mobile data for that episode. To allow this for all automatic downloads, turn on Settings → Podcasts → Automatic downloads → Download over mobile data. On Mac the setting covers a personal hotspot. Turning it on also starts transfers already waiting for Wi-Fi.

A server download and a device download are separate: Pocket Podcasts may already have the audio while your phone is still waiting for an allowed network.

Search and YouTube

Search (in the round button’s menu and under +) opens a search of podcasts and YouTube with the field at the top, ready to type. Under it, All, Podcasts or YouTube; YouTube can be narrowed to Channels, Videos or Playlists, Podcasts to a directory.

• All shows a few of each kind; Show all videos (or podcasts, channels, playlists) opens the full list.
• A full list ends with Load more while YouTube has more; new results go under the ones you see, up to 100.
• Videos show their whole title, the thumbnail with the length on it, the channel, the views and how old they are (YouTube only says “2 years ago”, so the age is approximate); channels show their subscribers.
• Every row has a round button at the end: + follows a podcast, channel or playlist; the arrow (Get) saves a video’s audio to Picks and downloads it on your server. The arrow then turns into Play: it starts at once, while the server is still downloading, and the search stays open. A video already in your library shows Play.
• A video you already have says how far you are, as Pocket Podcasts’ web app does: Watched (or Downloaded · watched), 42% played, Downloaded, or Downloaded · file removed when the server has cleaned the file up. Its thumbnail gets a red progress line, and a watched one is faded. A channel’s or playlist’s video list shows the same, plus In library for one you have but haven’t started.
• What happened is said in the row: “Added to Picks”, “Following”, or the error.
• Tap a row for its page: a channel’s or playlist’s newest videos (Load more videos for older ones), a podcast’s newest 60 episodes, each with Get and then Play, and Follow with Customize downloads.
• Add by link takes an RSS feed or a YouTube channel, playlist or video and opens the same page.

Remove from server: long-press an episode (in Latest, Continue listening or a show) and choose Remove from server. The episode and its file are deleted from Pocket Podcasts and from this device, with your progress. It does not come back when the show or channel refreshes; Get it again if you want it back.

On iPhone Picks is under Library → Collections, apart from the shows you follow. It cannot be unsubscribed by accident. Picks are dated by when you added them, so a new pick is at the top of Latest even when the video is years old. A show you follow with Episode date: Download date is dated the same way once an episode is on the server.

What to know

• YouTube: a followed channel’s or playlist’s video plays even when Pocket Podcasts has not downloaded it yet: the server fetches the audio when you press play, so the first seconds take longer. On the iPhone and the Mac it streams from your server; on Android it does not stream yet.
• Listening time is counted on the day you listened, even offline: on the iPhone and the Mac it is kept on the device per episode and day until Pocket Podcasts confirms it, so a restart, a reconnect or a session past midnight loses nothing. Downloaded episodes sync their position and listening the same way. Next on the lock screen counts too.
• Chapters come from Pocket Podcasts. A YouTube video only has chapters when its creator added them; the chapter list then shows the sponsor segments that are skipped instead.
• New-episode notifications come from Pocket Podcasts itself (Apprise, ntfy or a webhook, in its Settings); the app’s push relay only watches PinePods.
• Artwork Pocket Podcasts stores itself (a custom cover) is not shown; the podcast’s own artwork is.