My goal is to be able to sync podcast episodes (the actual audio files) and their play state (played or unplayed, how many minutes I’ve already listened to) between devices, so I can stop listening to an episode on my phone, for example, and continue listening to the same episode on my desktop computer (continuing from the point in the episode where I stopped listening on my phone).

I’m using AntennaPod on GrapheneOS (Android 14), and for desktop podcast listening I’m using Podfetch (self hosted). I’m also self-hosting a GPodder instance, and in Podfetch I have GPODDER_INTEGRATION_ENABLED set to true.

In AntennaPod, I’m able to configure Synchronization to GPodder.net (though my own instance of GPodder is at a different domain, AntennaPod calls the GPodder configuration “GPodder.net”), enter my self-hosted URL and credentials, and AntennaPod logs in, but it fails to sync. I don’t know where AntennaPod’s logs are so I don’t have any details about why the sync fails.

Also confusing to me is how to manage podcast subscriptions. It seems I can manually add podcasts to either GPodder or Podfetch, but adding a podcast to one doesn’t add it to the other. The same happens with episodes: if I manually add the same podcast to both GPodder and Podfetch and download an episode in one environment, the episode isn’t also downloaded in the other.

Has anyone successfully got these 3 apps working together? Can you help me figure out what I’m doing wrong?

Thanks!

  • garrettEnglish
    5·
    7 months ago

    I basically gave up on podcasts on the desktop and only use AntennaPod on my phone. When I’m at my desktop, I have my phone paired with my computer via Bluetooth and play that way. I can pause it on my computer via KDE Connect (GSConnect on GNOME).

    Bluetooth audio from phone to desktop works on Fedora Linux quite well. It probably works on other Linux distros too. I’m guessing it might also work on other OSes like Windows and macOS.

    KDE Connect is available on Android, iOS, KDE (and can run on other desktops too), GNOME (via the GSConnect extension), Windows, and macOS.

    This solves the syncing problem by sidestepping the need for it. My podcast state is always correct and I always have my podcasts with me, even when out and about.