Player FM Android FAQ

Player FM helps you discover, download and play podcasts. We love podcasts because they are a great way for people to learn, be entertained and stay informed while on the go. We started with the Player FM web app, which works on desktop, phones, and tablets. And now, we have both the Android and iOS apps too. By logging in, you can sync your subscriptions and enjoy your favorite podcasts across devices, wherever and whenever.

Using Player FM is as simple as installing it from Google Play (for Android users) or the App Store (for iOS users). If you want to enjoy it on a web browser, you can head on directly to our web app. Upon opening the app, you'll be asked to select topics of interest so it can recommend podcasts that suit your taste. Signing up for a Player FM account is optional, but we recommend it especially if you want to sync your subscriptions across devices. After that, you are now free to search, subscribe or download any podcasts you love. You can also personalize the app by going to Settings and utilizing the app's many features for better podcast listening experience.

Player FM is an opinionated app with its own unique take on the podcast experience ... our goals are:

• Be super-friendly. You shouldn't need a university degree in RSS feeds to subscribe to your favorite shows and play them offline.
• ... And yet, be powerful for hardcore podcast fans. We don't accept that "ease of use" should equate to "dumbing down" and won't compromise on either simplicity or power. There are many options for those who dig into settings, and advanced playback options such as speed control, skipping silence, and intelligently boosting volume.
• Cloud, Cloud, Cloud! Unlike a traditional podcast app, Player FM's nerve center resides in the cloud. Feeds are fetched on our servers, not on users' phones, saving precious battery and bandwidth, and getting those podcasts updated fast (typically within 15 minutes of publications).
• Sync across devices. Player FM's cloud model means subscriptions sync across devices, so you can easily get up and running on new devices or even use it on 2 devices simultaneously.
• Help users discover great shows. Instead of using an existing catalogue such as iTunes', we were determined to build a catalogue ground-up, so we could more adequately capture niche topics. Not just "Technology", but "Gaming", "Social Media", as well as "Java" and "Programming" categories. Users can follow these topics and see new episodes every day, even if they aren't subscribed. We view the catalogue as being community-driven, we're open to suggestions, and we make it available under a Creative Commons license (similar to Wikipedia's open source license).
• Spontaneous. Subscriptions are awesome for your favorite shows, but we don't think you should have to subscribe just to play an episode you come across. Playback is always a piece of cake - just hit the play button whether the episode is downloaded or not. And there's a "Play Later" playlist to save episodes for later ... it can keep them offline automatically and (in beta) sync across devices.

The "FM" is just a fancy way of signifying this is an audio app and "Player FM" is a convenient way to indicate the web address at player.fm. There's no live radio here - we are much more into playing what we want, when we want, and that rarely coincides with the traditional "appointment listening" model of radio. Player FM is on-demand content similar to YouTube or Netflix.

Yes, it's free to install and the features you enjoy today will always be free, plus more to come. And although premium plans are also available, all existing features remain free.

Why free? Firstly, we view Player FM as an open platform. You can make your subscriptions public and share them on the web. The catalog organization is also available under a Creative Commons license. These kinds of social and data sharing features would not be practical with an app that placed a payment barrier in front of every user. Secondly, from a practical perspective, it's difficult for a new app to charge an upfront fee when there are established alternatives, no matter how much innovation the new app brings to the table. Having launched later than other podcasting apps, it simply wouldn't have reached enough interest to make the project sustainable.

For those reasons, we decided to focus on making a great experience all users can enjoy. We will announce additional features for paying users later on.

Short definition: A podcast is a recurring program delivered over the internet. They don't always have to be audio (we support video podcasts too), but most are audio-based conversations. Podcasts span all topics — from technology news to business to fashion trends, and they can be created by anyone at all, from an individual barking passionate opinions at their phone to a global news organization working in a professional studio. People sometimes use "podcast" to refer to an individual show or a whole series of shows, so where possible, we use the terms "series" and "episode" to make the distinction clear.

The shows are podcasts which publishers have made available for streaming and downloading from their own websites. We love podcasts, but we've found the whole process of subscribing and downloading podcasts to be highly complex and so we're re-thinking how it can be done in a more friendly and intuitive way.

As a cloud-first podcast app, we're always interested in adding more platforms and being demand-driven, we're happy to take requests from users. For now, in addition to the Android app, there's the web app and the recently released iOS app which should already get part of the job done elsewhere, but we hope to build more native apps too.

We hope so. Get in touch directly at support@player.fm, @PlayerFM on Twitter, and please join Player FM's pioneers' community for discussions and early access to Android beta releases. If you listen to podcasts, we listen to you!

"Cancelling Player FM" may mean 3 things:

• uninstalling the Player FM app from your device;
• deleting your Player FM account; and
• cancelling your premium membership.

You may refer to these following FAQs to know more about each of these concerns:

• How do I delete the app from my device?
• How do I delete my account and leave Player FM?
• How can I cancel my premium subscription?

We're sorry you want to delete your Player FM account. You may do this yourself by accessing https://player.fm/will-miss-you. Meanwhile, before you leave us, you may export your subscriptions from https://player.fm/˂your username˃/fm.opml (while logged in).

We have an API under development. For now, you can access a basic JSON-formatted payload of channels and users by appending ".json" to their respective URLs, e.g. https://player.fm/featured/food.json and https://player.fm/user.json, though it's unofficial and may change in the future. Please mail support@player.fm with any suggestions or comments.

Hopefully this FAQ answers your questions. But if not, please feel free to ask for help:

On Android, open Settings > Help, and tap on [Contact us].

On the web, click the 3-bar menu on the upper-right part of the screen and click Help/FAQ, or visit support.player.fm.

You may also email support@player.fm.

If you know the show's RSS feed URL or iTunes link, go to Settings > Import. You may also add it on the web app at https://player.fm/add, where you'll find further instructions.

As to importing private/premium feeds, log in to your account on the web app, then access https://player.fm/importer/feed. Prior to submitting the feed, please ensure to select [Password-protected or secret]. After submission, you may subscribe to the feed, and it should sync on the Android app shortly.

Should you encounter an issue, it may be because of the following reasons:

The feed is not a valid podcast feed, which means it doesn't contain any playable files in its episode enclosures. The imported URL isn't a feed URL at all. Please note that webpage URLs are different from RSS feed URLs. The imported URL does not begin with "http://" or "https://". The feed has been blacklisted as per publisher's request. In rare cases, there might be a bug in our feed import tool.

For further assistance, mail us anytime at support@player.fm.

This may be due to either of the following:

• The feed is not a valid podcast feed, which means it doesn't contain any audio enclosures or playable media elements.
• The feed no longer exists, or its URL is incorrect or broken.
• The URL doesn't really point to a feed at all. Some users may mistake website URLs as RSS feed URLs.
• The inputted feed URL does not begin with "http://" or in some cases, "https://".
• The feed has been blacklisted as per publisher's request. This is true especially on premium/private feeds, since we currently do not support them.
• In rare cases, there might be a bug in our feed import tool. Should you need further assistance on this, feel free to contact us anytime via support@player.fm.

When our server fails to fetch updates from the show's feed, this may result to an error. Fetching fails when the feed becomes inaccessible, i.e. it's been taken down by the publisher or the publisher's server is currently down.

Please check your current settings and internet connection as it might be preventing the app from retrieving updates. As to this, please ensure your connection is stable, and that the latest version of our app is installed in your device. Then go to Settings > Connection and verify how the Network settings are configured there. Please also make sure [Force offline] is disabled in Settings, and check if disabling [Show downloaded only] or enabling [Show played] lets you see the latest episodes.

You may also try to open the series screen and pull the screen down to get updates straight to your phone in seconds. If this doesn't work, you may check if the RSS feed of the series is correct. To check the series feed, simply access its detail screen, tap on the 3-dot menu next to the search icon, then select [Links...] > [Series RSS feed]. Please feel free to reach us at support@player.fm if we need to update the RSS feed.

The number of episodes shown is based on what is indicated in the series' feed. We remove old episodes if the publisher has removed them from their feed because we can't guarantee they will still be present and playable, though episodes will remain on your device if they are downloaded.

Player FM keeps in sync with the publisher's feed, so if old episodes aren't there, it may be because the publisher removed them from their feed. We might later experiment with keeping them around, subject to publisher approval. But it would still need a warning flag because we have no way to guarantee the episodes are still served by the publisher if they've removed them from their feed. Oftentimes, they still are served and only omitted from the feed just to keep the feed small. Yet other times, they will have actually removed the files from their server.

When a feed isn't updating, it's almost always because the publisher has stopped updating the feed. This happens for several reasons:

• The feed is old or no longer active. The publisher has moved to another feed. In this case, please let us know as we can merge feeds for all users.
• Your current settings and internet connection might be preventing the app from retrieving updates.
• There is a bug with our server's fetching of feeds. This is very rare as we have a lot of checks and tests in place to ensure feeds are constantly fetched and processed, but if you suspect an issue, let us know at support@player.fm.

A podcast series gets archived if the feed has been inaccessible for some time, preventing our system from retrieving updates from it. It's also possible that the series has a new feed now. You may verify this by contacting the publisher directly, and comparing the feed they may provide to the feed we have in our catalog. To check the series feed, simply access its detail screen, tap on the 3-dot menu next to the search icon, then select [Links...] > [Series RSS feed]. If the feeds are different from each other, please feel free to reach us at support@player.fm so we can have it updated for you.

The catalog supports a number of languages. By default, it will open in the language of your phone (if that language is supported). You can switch to another language by tapping on the globe icon.

The app should readily display the episode image, provided that the image is specified directly in the series' feed. In case the image is part of the episode file, you will need to download the file first before the image can be shown.

If you're using our Android or iOS app, you can simply go to the Discover screen to see the best podcasts based on your chosen topics and listening activity.

If you want to discover the best podcasts per category, you can access "Topics" to explore our catalog containing thousands of podcasts categorized under hundreds of niche topics. You can also access this on our web app via the Discover tab.

We've also made significant improvements to our app's search feature so you're assured to get the best podcasts through it too.

Meanwhile, on our web app, you can then make use of the URL pattern https://player.fm/podcasts/(any keyword here). For instance, if you want to check the best NFL podcasts or fantasy baseball podcasts, you can just use the links https://player.fm/podcasts/nfl and https://player.fm/podcasts/fantasy-baseball respectively.

While you can find ratings on many of the podcasts in our library, this data is being imported from a partner to help you discover new content. We do not currently support user-generated ratings on our platform.

A key goal for Player FM is to make the best podcast app without compromise. This means an elegant interface, cloud sync, and full control, all without dumbing things down. To do so sustainably, we believe a recurring subscription model is the way to go. Server and development costs are substantial, so a one-time "unlock" fee is a false economy and simply means upgrades will at some time grind to a halt as the burden of maintaining service for existing users, who are no longer paying, would overwhelm efforts to keep improving the app.

By making the subscription cloud-based, we can also give members the best experience on all supported platforms, while still continuing to evolve the free app. We have released our iPhone app, meaning users can seamlessly switch between all three platforms, and all future platforms, without paying a new fee each time. Longer term, we also aim to work with publishers to bring premium content to members. In doing so, we can also use these plans to help fund publishers in producing more excellent content.

The plan is much more than the typical "pay to remove ads" plan. We've invested big time in a bag of genuinely useful features, and we'll continue to do so. We know these are genuinely useful because the user community has been asking for these features since day 1. We rolled up our sleeves and built them for you, and we think they are worth the price for anyone who uses the app regularly.

Premium members - offer cloud-synced play history, custom themes, Space Saver audio compression, playlists, bookmarks, and much more. They also include cloud-intensive features targeted at people who take their podcasts more seriously - automatically create personal backups of all audio in your playlists, search full show notes within your subscriptions and playlists, and get priority feed updates courtesy of our fetch servers (typically within 15 minutes for most of your subscriptions). You can get full details and screenshots within the app, from the "Upgrade" option in Settings.

First, our primary aim here is to fund ongoing service and development. That said, this is a cloud-synced app with a support team, meaning that all users - paying or not - impose an incremental cost. To help cover that cost, we do serve banner advertising. We'll aim to do it unobtrusively. Premium plans will remove those ads.

The FAQ has always indicated we would consider advertising if we can do it unobtrusively. We're proud to receive regular reviews indicating the app is their favorite app on their phone, and we'll continue to make it great for everyone. That's part of our goal to open up podcasting and make it as accessible as possible, no matter what platform you're on.

As a regular user, your subscriptions, starred topics, subscription categories and Play Later list are synced in the cloud. When you upgrade to premium, the following data will be cloud-synced as well:

• custom playlists
• likes
• bookmarks
• play history, including episode positions and played/un-played statuses
• series "mark as played" status and "mark played until this episode" status
• subscription settings such as series-specific speed preference
• custom themes
• user settings (i.e. those bearing a sync icon)

Yes! All premium plans will sync play positions, played/unplayed status, and series "mark played until this episode" settings across Android, iPhone, and the web app. That means if you play an episode on phone 1 and it's also on phone 2, the file will indeed be deleted from phone 2 according to your download limit and "auto-delete played episodes" settings. It would be just as if you had played it on phone 2. Essentially, you will always have the same items offline on both phones, assuming they both have the same settings, which is of course up to you. This is generally desired behavior. You can still choose to keep an episode permanently on your device with a manual download. Also, premium plans introduce a better option for permanent downloads. There are now custom playlists and they come with their own download limit. For example, you could make a "besties" playlist with a download limit of 100 to keep all your favorites offline, even if they're played.

The paid premium plan is a way for enthusiasts to support the platform. There are various perks offered in the premium plan, such as human recommendations for topics you're interested in, higher priority support, and insider access to new features.

Upon setting the app up for the first time, the following options are shown during onboarding:

• Start free trial under Premium
• Learn more about Premium
• Stay in free mode

Once you select any of the free trial options, you will see a pop-up which includes the following information:

• Your subscription Premium plan is under free trial
• The end of the free trial period
• How much it would be after the free trial
• Payment information
• Where to cancel if you change your mind before end of free trial
• And of course, the Subscribe button

If you already have a free account and you want to try the trial, you may then go to Settings > Upgrade which will then give you the different subscriptions then you can select [Upgrade - Free Trial].

Should you change your mind, please take note that cancellation of premium membership should be done within the trial period. Once cancellation is done, you may still continue to enjoy listening to your favorite podcasts with Player FM under a free version.

This issue is usually caused by a delay in the processing of your payment. You may try to resolve this by going to Settings > Upgrade. The app should automatically verify your premium membership when you do this.

Should the issue persist, please check in Settings > Connection if you're logged in to the account you used when you upgraded. Please note that your premium membership is linked to a particular Player FM account, thus it is important to log in to the correct account so you can enjoy the app's premium features and avoid encountering issues on premium plan verification.

If you upgraded via our Android or iOS app, you may cancel your premium membership yourself. Please refer to the links below for your reference:

• Cancelling on Android
• Cancelling on iOS

Meanwhile, if you upgraded on our web app, you will need to contact us through the e-mail address you used when you purchased your premium membership. Please ensure to confirm this in your message, and although it's not compulsory, we'd also appreciate if you can let us know your reason for cancelling. We'll cancel your membership once we receive your confirmation.

Please note that when your premium membership is cancelled, you'll lose all premium features, which include the following:

• Your backed up episodes
• Your cloud-synced play history and play status
• Your saved bookmarks and playlists
• Your custom themes
• Your settings for advanced features

You'll also of course no longer have access to features such as play history on the web app, premium themes and personal search.

The premium "no ads" feature does remove visual promos and banner ads from the app. But if you're referring to audio ads you hear in episode recordings, we'd love to remove them for you if we could, however it's something we have no control over and are injected by the publishers. If you're still seeing ads and you are sure you're logged in with a valid premium subscription, please contact support via Settings > Help > [Contact us] and send logs so we can investigate this for you.

If you upgraded via our Android app, you may update your payment method on Google Play.

As to upgrades made on our iOS app, you may update your billing info in your device's Settings.

Meanwhile, if you upgraded on our web app, you may change your billing info by logging in to your account, then clicking on the 3-line icon at the top-right > Settings. After which, access [Change credit card or upgrade].

Here are the following steps to check if you can use Paypal as mode of payment:

For subscription using Android app, available payment methods vary by country. You can check Google Play Store Help Center to see if Paypal is included on your country's accepted payment method.

For subscription using your iOS device, you may check this link to see if your country includes Paypal as an accepted payment method.

As for subscribing to premium plan via the web, unfortunately we don't process payments using Paypal.

There are pages on our web app that are auto-generated based on a certain algorithm. We can't manually feature your podcast in these pages. But as a tip, make sure your own website is linked to Player FM as the way shows are featured there is partly based on subscriber counts and plays. Please also check if your feed includes correct keywords or tags.

Meanwhile, there are other pages where we can manually feature a podcast. If you think your own podcast deserves a spot in one of these pages, feel free to mail us at support@player.fm so we can take it into consideration.

This is possible by editing the show's RSS feed on your end, particularly the ˂itunes:keywords˃ or ˂itunes:category˃ tag. Changes made will shortly propagate not only on Player FM, as well as in other podcast directories where your show is indexed.

Oops, sorry about that! In case we got the wrong feed or your podcast has a new feed now, do contact us at support@player.fm so we can update it for you at the soonest possible time.

We're not interested in declaring a laundry list of permissions. Each new permission we add requires a careful cost-benefit analysis to ensure it genuinely adds value to your experience and it will only be used for the stated purpose.

For Android 6.0 and later, no permissions are required by default. Some are added on demand. For earlier versions of Android, we are only able to request permissions upfront. Below are details on the permissions the app is using.

Identity

This permission is especially for logging in with Google+. Player FM only retrieves the user's e-mail address and doesn't need any other contact information aside from that. Furthermore, when you log in with Google for the first time, you can opt to deny accessing this other information (e.g. list of people in your circles, age range and language), and the app will still be completely functional.

Manage Phone State

We added this permission when we added the much-requested setting to keep playing during notification sounds and navigation directions. Enabling that setting is great, but unfortunately it means playback continues during a phone call too. So we have to request this permission in order to detect when phone calls start and end. Here's a programming reference about this permission: "This is why apps like Pandora, Spotify, etc need the permission - so they can mute themselves when you get a call."

Photos/Media/Files

This is necessary to read and write podcasts on connected USB drives.

Wi-fi connection information

This is necessary for Chromecast integration.

Device ID & call information

This is necessary to stop playback during phone calls, for users who have added the setting to keep playing during notifications and navigation commands.

Others:

Run at startup - Running in the background after your phone boots ensures your shows can be downloaded and ready for you to play anytime. Pair with Bluetooth devices - Play on Bluetooth headphones and speakers. Full network access - Download and stream podcasts. View network connections - Start/stop playing as you move between wi-fi and cellular, according to your preferences. Prevent device from sleeping - Keep playback going.

The app's language is determined from your device's settings (the OS language settings, not Player FM), as long as we support it. Nevertheless, you may change it (i.e. from Spanish to English) in Display Settings.

If you have an Android phone (or variant which runs Android apps, e.g. Kindle Fire and some BlackBerry models), you can install.

Player FM for Android is available in some other locations. Here are the official sources:

• Google Play
• Amazon
• Samsung Galaxy store, available on Samsung phones
• Direct APK links

These are the only official sources; we can't verify the reliability of security of APKs found anywhere else.

The app isn't listed in countries where user feedback indicated it's not up to local users' expectations. We will probably add it back once the app has been localised.

Meantime, you can install the app from other sources.

We don't provide older Player FM versions anymore, especially for Android versions that we no longer support. This is because the older versions are not well-maintained and may be buggy when used. You might want to use our website https://player.fm to listen to podcasts, or import your account's feed (https://player.fm/˂your username˃/fm.rss) to another podcast app.

In case you are trying to uninstall and reinstall, you might want to first try just logging out and logging back in again. You can also clear the cache using Android System Settings - visit [Apps], open Player FM, and clear cache from there. That should make the app like new.

If you want to delete the app altogether, it goes the same way you delete any app on your device. The simplest way is to long-press the app's icon and drag it to the [App Info] label found at the top of the screen. After which, confirm to uninstall. Please note that the way of uninstalling an app may differ per device or OS.

We love podcasts for their ability to work offline, and Player FM has two main download features:

• Subscriptions - Player FM automatically keeps recent episodes from each subscription offline. You can fine-tune this in download settings, choosing when to download and how many episodes.
• Play Later - Add any episode to Play Later whether you're subscribed or not. Your Play Later list automatically downloads. Similar to an email app, the latest 10 episodes are always kept offline. Again, you can fine-tune this in download settings.

There are some other downloading options for advanced users:

• Download - Every episode have a "download" menu item, but it's mainly there for familiarity. We think Play Later is all you need in most cases, and it has a lot of advantages! See Why Use Play Later? below.
• Links menu - Episode details screens have a "Links" dialog for advanced users. Here you can find the publisher's direct URL (e.g. a MP3 link), which you can download to your phone's download area, though the app won't show it as a download.

Watch a video demo

Anytime an episode grabs your interest, we suggest you add it to your Play Later list. It's a convenient way to build up an offline-ready playlist and also serves as a kind of bookmarking capability. While Player FM has a traditional download action ("Download Now") for the sake of familiarity, we would advise most users to use Play Later instead, for the following reasons:

• Play Later cleans itself up so you don't have to. Episodes are automatically removed from the list when you play them and only a fixed number of Play Later items are ever downloaded (default 10). So when new episodes are downloaded, the old ones are deleted. This lets you relax and never worry about running out of space or having to clean up every few weeks.
• You're in control of downloading conditions. A traditional download button will always download immediately, even if you're on 3G/4G and running out of battery. Play Later only downloads when you're on wi-fi and you may also configure to only download while charging. Or if you want the traditional download button experience, you can make it always download immediately.
• Play Later episodes sync across devices and the web. So you can hit Play Later on your work PC and it will be on your phone when you leave the office, ready to play offline. That's a more cloud-friendly approach to the traditional downloading model.
• Play Later also serves as a playlist of your favorite discoveries, with the ability to sort and re-order them anytime.

In case you want to keep an episode on your device permanently, you can use the "Download Now" action (since Play Later auto-deletes from the device as it gets full). But aside from that, there's really no good reason to use it.

Open the series detail screen, press the gear icon to open series settings, and there you can set the download limit to zero. (In case you don't see an option here, it will be because you have enabled the "playlist" option in Download Settings > Subscriptions. You need per-series downloading enabled to set a limit.)

In this case, you can turn off auto-download for Subscriptions in Settings > Downloads. Only shows you explicitly choose, by adding them to Play Later (or manually downloading from the episode menu), will be downloaded.

You can monitor download progress (both subscription and Play Later episodes) on the Downloads screen. All manual downloads and Play Later items are prioritized over episodes from your subscriptions.

As to your subscriptions, the default download order for all subscribed series is newest first. This can be changed by accessing the series detail screen, then tapping on the gear icon to open the series settings.

The Android Wear app doesn't yet download episodes to your watch. We think it's a cool possibility to stream podcasts from your watch (!) and we're watching this space. Storage has been limited on most devices, which makes them more suitable for music than podcasts at present.

Download errors have various causes, and the app indicates this if you access the episode's detail screen.

Usually, such errors happen because the publisher's server is down, though it might also be due to a connection error. Sometimes, it occurs if you're connected to wi-fi (e.g. at an internet cafe), but you forgot or failed to log in to its portal. Another possible cause would be that the episode file has been taken down or moved to another location by the publisher. Player FM will normally retry downloading periodically and will also update episode URLs from the publisher's feed, in case they have changed. To understand more about the problem, you may tap on the episode title to access the episode detail screen, then tap on the top-right overflow menu ˃ [Links...] ˃ [Raw episode file], and see if you're able to open or download the episode file directly.

Meanwhile, storage problems may also result to download errors. Thus, please check if you have sufficient storage space, or ensure your SD card is properly mounted in case you're using it for storing your downloads.

If you've determined downloading should work fine now, there's a [Re-download] option on the episode detail screen that you can use to try downloading the episode again. Should the issue persist, please feel free to tap on [Contact us] so we can further investigate.

As a free user, your best option is to go to Settings > Downloads > Subscriptions, and set [Auto-download] to [Wi-fi and charging]. After which, set a short refresh interval like 1 hour in Settings > Connection and Account > [How often to update]. Meanwhile, when you upgrade to premium, you'll be able to set more specific sync schedules.

For advanced users, you may consider using the Android intents we support for sync and download control, with a third-party app like Tasker.

You might have some wi-fi networks with limited bandwidth, such as your workplace or a mobile wi-fi hotspot served from another phone. In that case, you might want to "blacklist" the network on Player FM. While the app doesn't support this directly, you may configure it through your Android device's settings, as follows.

Firstly, identify the "blacklisted" networks:

1. Visit Android Settings > Data usage (or Mobile data).
2. Tap the overflow menu at the top-right corner (or menu button in some devices).
3. Select [Mobile hotspots].
4. Select the wi-fi networks where you want to restrict background data.

Then, make this setting apply to Player FM:

1. In Android Settings, go back to the [Data usage] screen.
2. Scroll down and select Player FM on the list.
3. On the next screen, check [Restrict background data]. With these settings, the app will be not able to execute network calls while in background - no sync, no downloads.

Meanwhile, when you upgrade to any of our premium memberships, we've made the blacklisting (or even whitelisting) of wi-fi networks easier for you as this can now be configured directly in the app's download settings.

Yes, you can. All you need to do is go to Settings > Downloads > Play Later, and disable [Auto-remove played episodes]. You may also want to also disable [Auto-delete played episodes] if you want to keep the played episode offline.

Alternatively, you can find previously played episodes via the Play Later/Playlists screen > History.

To save downloads in your external storage, go to Settings > Downloads > Downloads location, and select "SD Card".

For devices with Android version 4.3 or earlier, you can choose any available folder or download location. For Android version 4.4 (KitKat) and above, you can only choose folders owned by the app - usually one on internal storage and one on SD card. This is because Android introduced security constraints that prevent apps from writing to any folder.

Yes, the default download order is newest first, plus three more options namely; Newest un-played, Oldest and Oldest un-played.

To change the download order of a subscribed series, open its detail screen, tap on the gear icon and press the "Download order" option.

We index podcast shows and don't produce them ourselves. We stream directly from the publisher's server, hence your listen count still goes to that server. The publisher gets full stats and control for every regular play and download, same as with any traditional podcast app.

Open the Shows screen, then access the "All" tab. After which, tap on the 3-dot menu beside "All" and select "Switch to episode list view". It shows you latest episodes from all your subscriptions mixed together.

Alternatively, you may switch to episode list view by simply tapping on the "Shows" icon on the bottom navigation panel.

We are currently in the experimental stage of supporting premium feeds. Should you want to import one, please log in on our web app and use this import tool. In case you encounter any issues, please let us know via support@player.fm so we can assist you further.

During the initial setup, the app recommended popular podcasts to you based on your chosen topics, and that there's an option to either add them as your subscriptions or remove them. The app also asked if you prefer to enable auto-download for your subscriptions. It's possible you overlooked these options.

Nonetheless, don't worry! You can always unsubscribe from those podcasts by accessing them from the Shows screen, and tapping on the round [Unsubscribe] button. Moreover, you can disable subscriptions auto-download in Settings > Downloads.

The app auto-downloads the most recent episodes based on the download limit you've set for [Subscriptions] in Settings > Downloads. At the same time, it auto-deletes episodes that are no longer within the specified limit. For instance, if you set a limit of 10, the app would download the top 10 latest episodes. If there are incoming 2 new episodes, these will be part of the latest 10 and will be downloaded, while the previous 9th and 10th latest episodes will be deleted.

Another way of deleting episodes is by enabling [Auto-delete episodes from device when played] in Settings > Downloads. In this case, once you've finished listening to an episode or marked it as played, the app auto-deletes it.

Meanwhile, should you want to manually delete an episode right away, there is a [Delete] option on the episode overflow menu (3-dot icon found below each episode title). However, we don't generally recommend it as the storage will soon be occupied again when new episodes come in. It's easier to just set limits and relax. Let the app manage storage for you.

Watch a video demo

Every time you subscribe to a series, the app suggests categories you may consider creating to better organize your subscriptions. You may also create your own categories apart from the ones being suggested. Furthermore, you can place a particular subscribed series to more than one category. Should you want to edit the categories of a series, simply tap on the gear icon found on its detail screen.

YouTube has many series worth listening to, but we have chosen to avoid integrating YouTube subscriptions as the YouTube app itself handles that task well. If we added support, we'd have to keep it up to date with whatever new features YouTube adds in the future as well as maintain it against any arbitrary changes YouTube happens to make. We'd rather focus on features that are core to the podcasting experience, such as play history syncing, improved recommendations, and keeping up with latest Android features and hardware.

When playback stops, it's usually because you are streaming and you've recently gone offline or the publisher's server has gone down. You can confirm this by opening the episode "Links" dialog and checking if the raw episode URL can be streamed or downloaded.

Playback may also fail because the operating system is freeing up memory. Android 5.0 has a particularly well-cited issue with memory usage which was fixed with Android 5.1. We recommend upgrading to 5.1 or above if you are experiencing playback stoppage. Please use Settings > Help > [Contact us] to let us know if you are still seeing this issue.

The most common cause of this issue is that the app has downloaded a non-playable file (usually, a webpage) instead of the actual episode file. This may happen when you're connected to a public wi-fi but not yet logged in through its web portal, or when the publisher's server is down or under maintenance, and that all the episode links are redirected to a certain webpage.

To try to resolve this, first make sure that you're logged in to the wi-fi's portal. After which, tap on the episode title, and on the next screen, re-download the episode.

Meanwhile, some publishers tend to incorporate non-playable files (e.g. PDF, TXT files) into their shows' feeds. It's also worth noting that there are media files which Android doesn't support. Such files can cause playback errors too. In this case, you may try to check the downloaded file by accessing the episode detail screen, and tapping on the [Downloaded] label.

Episodes play down the playlist that's present when you tap play. For example, if you want to "binge" on all episodes in one series, just hit play on the first episode of the series. You can also change the order from the top-left overflow menu, e.g. to play oldest episodes first, change sort order so you see oldest on top and then hit play so it proceeds to newer episodes. In case you want to switch the playlist being used for the next episode, change it from the top-right overflow menu of the full-screen player.

Cloud-syncing play position and play history will automatically be enabled once you upgrade to any of our premium plans. To know more about the plans, please head to Settings > Upgrade.

To configure play speed, simply play an episode and tap on the 3-dot menu at the right side of the mini-player (i.e. the player below the screen). There, you'll see the [Slower] and [Faster] buttons, as well as the current play speed indicator – all of which you can tap on to control speed. The [Global] and [For this series] buttons are also found above them, which you can use if you want to apply your preferred speed to all podcasts you play or to a specific subscribed series.

This play speed feature is also found at the top-right portion of the full-screen player. Please note that it currently supports MP3 episodes, yet we aim to support more formats (e.g. M4A, MP4) in the near future.

Access the Play Later or Playlists screen from the bottom navigation bar, and tap on the "History" tab located on the top bar. This shows you past plays on the current device, and automatically syncs in the cloud for cross-device play history when you upgrade to any of our premium memberships.

The My Media playlist is available for all users. It is used to add and organize offline media files, and play them with the Player FM app. To add an audio or video file to My Media, simply follow these steps:

1. Go to the Play Later screen (for non-premium users) or Playlists screen (for premium users).
2. Tap on "My Media" from the top bar.
3. On the next screen, tap on "+ Add personal media".
4. Locate the file and select it.

You may repeat the steps above if you want to add more media files. Once done, you can manually sort them by dragging the 4-line icon (found on the right side of each file) up or down.

For premium users, it is possible to create multiple custom playlists for your personal media files. Here are the steps to create one:

1. Go to the Playlists screen from the bottom navigation panel.
2. Tap on the dial icon on the top-left.
3. Select "New playlist …".
4. On the dialog that will appear, name the playlist and ensure to check "Personal media".

Once the playlist is created, access it and feel free to add your media files there in the same manner you add them to My Media.

For Android 5 and above, If the player is 1 row, you may expand it to 2 rows by "dragging down" with your finger. Note some devices unfortunately don't support this, e.g. LG G3.

For earlier Android versions, you may long-press the play controls to reveal a seek bar. If you'd rather jump within the episode when tapping << and >> instead of skipping to previous/next episode, you can change that in play settings.

Your Play Later list is automatically synced in the cloud, provided that you're logged in to a Player FM account.

When you're using mobile data, it might be that you have accidentally played a streamed episode. To prevent this from happening, go to Settings > Playback, and enable [Show warning when streaming on 3G/4G]. That way, a warning pop-up will appear before you can proceed playing a streamed episode.

Furthermore, please make sure in Playback Settings if the [When can continuous-play jump to streamed episodes?] option is either set to [Never] or [Only on wi-fi]. You may also go to Settings and enable [Show downloaded only] to only see downloaded episodes in your playlist.

If you're still experiencing the issue despite following the above mentioned tips, feel free to send your logs via Settings > Help > [Contact us] so we can conduct further investigation. A podcast app can potentially use a lot of bandwidth and we care a lot about that. We want to be sure you have it set up according to your own preferences and works as expected. Help us improve this.

Player FM supports the following intents:

For playback control

• fm.player.playback.play - play/resume
• fm.player.playback.pause - pause
• fm.player.playback.jumpforward - jump forward
• fm.player.playback.jumpback - jump back
• fm.player.playback.next - skip to next episode
• fm.player.playback.previous - skip back to previous episode
• fm.player.playback.stop - stop
• fm.player.playback.toggle - toggle play/pause state

For sync and download control

• fm.player.update.conditional - update app and respect connection setting, download episodes and respect download settings
• fm.player.update.unconditional - update app but ignore connection settings(e.g. if you set update only on WiFi, this intent will ignore it and update also on 3G), download episodes and respect download settings.
• fm.player.download.unconditional - update app but ignore connection settings, download episodes but ignores download settings (e.g. if you set download on wifi only, or download never, intent will ignore it and download even on 3G)

These intents have to be sent to service. For instance, on Tasker, you need to set target to "service".

When continuous-play is enabled, the app will keep on playing even when the last episode is reached. As to which episodes will be played next depends on the following cases:

• If there are remaining un-played episodes on the list, the app will play them next, starting from top to bottom.

• If all episodes have been played, the app will play episodes in other playlists based on this order:

1. Playlist selected by user
2. Play Later list
3. Episode list of the General subscription category
4. Downloads list

We've noticed this happening especially on Huawei and Honor devices, and we've been coordinating with their team to permanently have it fixed.

For the time being, feel free to perform this workaround to enjoy a smooth playback experience:

1. Go to your device's Settings.
2. Open Battery settings.
3. Select "Battery optimization".
4. Locate Player FM and select "Don't Optimize".
5. Open the Settings screen > Advanced settings.
6. Select Battery manager > Protected apps.
7. Ensure you enable setting for Player FM.

For some newer devices, you may follow these steps:

1. Go to your device's Settings.
2. Open Battery settings.
3. Select "Battery optimization".
4. Locate Player FM and select "Don't Optimize".
5. Now leave settings and from your device's home screen, open the standard Phone app ("Phone Manager")
6. Select "Lock screen cleanup".
7. Make sure Player FM is NOT enabled or unchecked.

The app supports:

• Android Auto. Browse episodes from your car's dashboard
  After connecting the phone to your car, tap on the music (headphone) icon found at the bottom part of your Android Auto device's screen. Then select Player FM to access the player and start browsing content.
• Android Wear. Browse episodes on your wrist
  With your Android Wear watch, simply say "OK Google", then mention "Run Player FM" to view episodes from your subscriptions, downloads and Play Later.
• Chromecast. Fling episodes to your TV
  Once your Chromecast device is connected to your TV and to the same wi-fi your phone uses, tap on the Chromecast logo that will appear at the top-right portion of Player FM, then start casting.
• Samsung Gear S. Check notifications from your Samsung Gear wearable device
  When there's a notification from Player FM on your phone, it will also be automatically displayed on your Samsung Gear watch.
• LG QuickCircle™. Quickly access Player FM on your QuickCircle-supported LG smartphone
  Go to your device's Settings > General, and make sure that [QuickCircle case] is enabled. After which, go to the [Select apps] option and include Player FM. From there, you'll be able to view the app on a small portion of your phone's screen with cover closed.

Player FM supports:

• Drivemode. Conveniently control the player while driving through the Drivemode interface (displayed on your Android phone)
  On the Drivemode app, simply go to the Music section and select Player FM.

• Google Talkback. Access the Player FM app more easily on your phone (implemented especially for vision-impaired users)
  To enable Talkback, go to your device's Settings > General > Accessibility and switch it on.

• Music Boss for Android Wear. Control Player FM directly from your watch through Music Boss' interface
  Open the Music Boss app on your phone and add Player FM to the app list. Connect the phone to your Wear device and run Music Boss, then choose Player FM to browse and play episodes from your subscriptions, downloads and Play Later.

• Podlove subscribe button. Easily subscribe to a series while on a mobile browser, with its widget found on several podcast websites
  Upon tapping on the Podlove subscribe button, press [Choose app] and select Player FM. The app will then open and have you subscribed to the series.

• RockScout, by MirrorLink®. Control Player FM from your car’s dashboard by integrating your MirrorLink®-compatible phone and car infotainment system
  Connect your phone to your car with MirrorLink®. After which, you’ll be able to see the Player FM icon on the RockScout portal (shown on the dashboard). Tap it and start listening to podcasts.

• Streamkeys. Control playback on the Player FM web app using your keyboard, even outside of the browser
  Install Streamkeys Chrome extension, then open the Player FM website in a new tab and play your favorite podcasts. Even if you’re looking in another tab/window, you can still control the player by clicking on the [SK] icon found next to the URL bar. You can also control playback even if you’re away from Chrome using configured hotkeys.

• Subscribe on Android. Subscribe to podcasts with your Android device through a simple web link
  Upon tapping on the [Subscribe on Android] link found on many podcast websites, select [Subscribe on Android] (with Player FM icon) from the selection that will appear. Player FM will then open and let you subscribe to the series.

• TeslaUnread. See counts of new and un-played episodes on the app's home screen icon.
  To use this feature, you need to install TeslaUnread and custom launcher Nova Launcher Prime. It will count un-played episodes from the last time Player FM was opened. The counter will be reset once the app is re-opened.

• Twitter. Make a podcast episode playable in your tweet
  Add a Player FM episode link in your tweet and a player will be automatically embedded so anyone can play it without having to leave Twitter.

If you upgraded via our Android app, you may cancel your premium membership yourself. Please see this resource to know how.

If you upgraded on our iOS app, please check this page to know how to cancel it on your end.

Meanwhile, if you upgraded on our website, you will need to contact us at support@player.fm through the e-mail address you used when you purchased your premium membership. Please ensure to confirm this in your message. We'll cancel your membership once we receive your confirmation.

Once your membership is cancelled, please note that you'll lose all premium features, which include the following:

• Your backed up episodes (applicable to Pro and Patron memberships)
• Your cloud-synced play history and play status
• Your saved bookmarks and playlists
• Your custom themes
• Your settings for advanced features

You'll also of course no longer have access to features such as play history on the web app, premium themes and personal search.

Should you have further queries, please feel free to reach us at support@player.fm. We would also appreciate if you let us know your reason for cancelling (this isn't compulsory though).

Although Player FM currently doesn't have a standalone Wear OS app, you can still listen to podcasts directly from your watch with its integration with the Wear Casts app. This lets you download podcasts to your watch and enjoy them without having to connect to your phone. Simply share an episode from Player FM to Wear Casts, and it will be automatically added to your watch — just like that! Please note that Wear Casts currently supports devices running Android 7 or newer.

Aside from being customizable, you can also resize the home screen widget.

After adding the widget to the home screen, simply long-press it again and release. Its corners will then be highlighted, and from there, you can drag the corners to resize it. Some devices may need a reboot after resizing, for the resize to take effect.

The widget can vary from sizes 1x1 to full phone width.

Player FM uses Google's standard Chromecast interface for the TV end, and that doesn't support speed control. A request has been sent to the Chromecast team to support it, we hope they will add it. (This is probably why YouTube's speed control is also not supported by Chromecast.)

It's not possible to run the app from an SD card. We don't plan to support it as there are some disadvantages if the app is moved to an external storage device - see here. The main disadvantage is that if you unmount the card, you can't use the app, widgets are removed, and there are other complications that may arise.

Your podcast app talks to you all day, so why not talk back to it! Player FM supports several "OK Google" voice commands, a feature of Android you'll need to enable if you haven't done so already. To turn it on, open the Google app and check side menu > Settings > Voice > "OK Google" detection. Once enabled, you can say these to your phone:

• Open the app - "OK Google Open Player FM"
• Search - "OK Google search on Player FM app for (show or topic)"
• Stop playback - "OK Google Stop Player FM"

The operating system may be closing it to free up memory. Normally it shouldn't stop a mid-play track, but some Android versions do. Third-party security software and battery savers (e.g. AVG, Clean Master) may also stop the app unexpectedly. You may be able to add Player FM as an exception to their shutdown policy or contact the app's support about this situation.

If you're not sure why the app is crashing, you can report it to us via Settings > Help > [Contact us]. Note that we do receive crash reports automatically and we proactively investigate any concerns.

The app runs in the background depending on how you set it up. For instance, if you enabled auto-download, then it will perform the process in the background.

To fully close the app, please do the following:

1. Open the full-screen player by swiping the mini-player up.
2. Tap on the 3-dot menu on the upper-right.
3. Select [Stop and close player].

Alternatively, you may swipe the app away from the recent screen.

Please try the following:

• Go to Settings and ensure you have "Force offline" off, and you're set to update and download when on wi-fi (assuming you are regularly on a good wi-fi connection).
• In Settings > Downloads, ensure your Subscriptions and Play Later have limits above zero.
• Open an episode you wish to download (tap on its title to open the episode detail screen). In the 3-dot menu, tap on "Links" and then navigate to "Raw episode file" to see an option to open the raw file URL. Try this and see if it plays. If not, it may be an issue with the publisher's servers.
• Try to log out and log back in. It shouldn't be necessary but sometimes fixes the problem. Feel free to go into Settings > Help > [Contact us] if you'd like us to investigate any problems with downloads.

Under default settings, Player FM is fairly conservative regarding battery and CPU usage. But if you are streaming a lot of content over 3G/4G, it will certainly consume significant resources. To keep usage low, make sure you don't play episodes showing "Stream" status. In Download Settings, you may wish to require "wi-fi and charging" for downloads instead of the default of just "wi-fi". If you're already following these guidelines and still seeing significant resource usage, don't hesitate to let us know by sending a report (Settings > Help > Contact us).

Meanwhile, another possible cause of excessive battery usage is a bug in the Android operating system (specifically, Android 5 and above), which is still not resolved yet. The bug indicates that if you use an app on mobile data and close it, the “mobile radio” (the hardware component used by devices for mobile internet) is never turned off, which then drains battery. For now, the only way to work around this is to restart the device or force-close the app.

From time to time, utilities like AVG may flag Player FM as a security risk. We assure to our users that our app is safe and secure. The following are possible causes as to why antiviruses may generate a warning on Player FM:

• The antivirus is not up to date. In this case, please make sure you have its latest version.
• It could be that some of the podcast series display content with explicit shownotes or malicious codes. These should be harmless as we don’t execute them as code, yet we see how some security scanners might think otherwise.
• Excessive resources. A podcast app typically uses a lot more bandwidth and storage than other apps, so the security checker may flag it for attention. Should you encounter this issue, we suggest contacting the support team of your security app. You may also report to us by going via Settings > Help > [Contact us].