This solution was posted by Doug Hellmann and worked perfectly for me, even when I reintroduced using “Sort Artist” to more finely control my podcast play order.
To recap the issue check out this posting.
A little more detail on the solution:
Plug your iPod (presumably iPhone and any other iXXXX device) into your computer with iTunes running.
Click on it under “Devices”
Go to the “Podcasts” Tab
Make sure “Sync Podcasts” is checked
Make sure “Automatically Include” is checked
The default here is to include “All Unplayed” podcasts. Change this to “All”
Click “Apply” at the bottom and then check the results on your device.
This worked perfectly for me.
Omfg, thank you.
Now I just need to get my playlist to automatically sort by order of preference. How does the sort artist work for you? Don’t you have to update that field every time there’s a new episode? Same with stars… I can’t seem to get iTunes to hold onto my stars rating when a new episode is downloaded.
Hey Jooky,
Yes, I just select all the new entries each day (sort by date added) apply today’s date in the “sort artist” field. and a star rating to them. They sort exactly the way I want them to so I’m OK with that bit of extra effort.
My star ratings (set at the podcast level) are applied properly to the episodes as they are added. They show up as hollow stars rather than as filled stars but are treated the same by the sort algorithms. So at least you know that there is the potential for them to work correctly.