Plex to End Support for Podcasts on Friday

by

Plex is set to end support for podcasts on Friday, the company behind the media management platform has announced.
plex podcasts

Web Shows on the Plex media server will also close this week, the company said in a post on the Plex forum, although most of the content the section hosted will still be available to users elsewhere on the platform.

As part of our ongoing effort to make sure we're spending our time and energy in ways that best serve our awesome user community, we've made the decision to end support for Podcasts and Web Shows within Plex. We recognize this decision will impact several of you greatly, and we apologize for the inconvenience it will cause. You can continue to access these features within Plex until Friday, April 15th, 2022, at which point they will no longer be available.

Plex didn't say exactly why it had decided to end support for podcasts and close the Web Shows portal of its media management offering, but the wording suggests that neither section was being used enough to make them worth the time and money spent maintaining them.

For those who want to export their podcast subscription list in OPML format for use in other players, the Plex forum post provides instructions on how to go about it before support closes.

As noted by XDA Developers, Plex podcast support has largely stood still since it was introduced in 2018, and there are several complaints from users in the Plex forums about buggy performance and other issues going all the way back to its inception.

Tag: Plex

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Dark Blue and Orange

iPhone 17 Release Date, Pre-Orders, and What to Expect

Thursday August 28, 2025 4:08 am PDT by
An iPhone 17 announcement is a dead cert for September 2025 – Apple has already sent out invites for an "Awe dropping" event on Tuesday, September 9 at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California. The timing follows Apple's trend of introducing new iPhone models annually in the fall. At the event, Apple is expected to unveil its new-generation iPhone 17, an all-new ultra-thin iPhone 17...
Read Full Article • 56 comments
xiaomi apple ad india

Apple and Samsung Push Back Against Xiaomi's Bold India Ads

Friday August 29, 2025 4:54 am PDT by
Apple and Samsung have reportedly issued cease-and-desist notices to Xiaomi in India for an ad campaign that directly compares the rivals' devices to Xiaomi's products. The two companies have threatened the Chinese vendor with legal action, calling the ads "disparaging." Ads have appeared in local print media and on social media that take pot shots at the competitors' premium offerings. One...
Read Full Article • 197 comments
crossbody strap

iPhone 17's 'Crossbody Strap' Accessory to Feature Magnetic Design

Thursday August 28, 2025 7:49 am PDT by
Apple's cases for the iPhone 17 lineup will be accompanied by a new Crossbody Strap accessory with a unique magnetic design, according to the leaker known as "Majin Bu." Apple's Crossbody Strap reportedly features an unusual magnetic design; it likely has a "flexible metal core" that makes it magnetic along its entire length. At the ends, "rings polarized oppositely to the strap close the...
Read Full Article • 109 comments
Awe Dropping Apple Event Feature

Five Things to Expect From Apple's 'Awe Dropping' September 9 Event

Tuesday August 26, 2025 4:17 pm PDT by
Apple today announced its "Awe Dropping" iPhone-centric event, which is set to take place on Tuesday, September 9 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. There are a long list of products that are coming, but we thought we'd pull out five feature highlights to look forward to. That Super Thin iPhone - Apple's September 9 event will see the unveiling of the first redesigned iPhone we've had in years, ...
Read Full Article • 113 comments

Top Rated Comments

W2u7Yw4HaD Avatar
W2u7Yw4HaD
44 months ago
Yeah, I didn't think it even supported podcasts until now.. But would never have been my go-to place for podcasts in the first place..
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PeteBurgh Avatar
PeteBurgh
44 months ago

What the hell is Plex, anyway? Is is just a way to stream movies and other media from a NAS to an end-user device, or is there something more to it?
Well, therein lies the question. A lot of users (including myself) would like it to be the former: a server-client set up that allows me to access my own media. That is how it began. But there seems to be strong economic incentives (and maybe some user demand?) to make it a broader product that is also a gateway to all sorts of streaming content.

It does create a tension between different kinds of users (or current and potential future users?).

going from a sleek piece of Mac specific software to the current bloated Electron garbage
Unless I'm very much mistaken, the neither the player nor server apps use Electron.

I think it's a bit harsh to call it 'garbage'. For me it's somewhere between 'fine' and 'meh' - yeah, it's not very Mac-like (what is these days), but it's reasonably fast, easy to navigate, and doesn't hog loads of system resources. I like Infuse too.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Codestud Avatar
Codestud
44 months ago
Yet they've spent a ton of time adding this "Discover" content aggregator thing, which I looked at once and immediately turned off. I don't want Plex as a content aggregator for online services. It's for my local media on my server and that's it.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Zorn Avatar
Zorn
44 months ago
Actually glad about this, Plex is an amazing app for the things it's focused toward. The podcasts support was never very good anyway, and I'm not sure who was looking to Plex for this functionality in the first place. There are many superior dedicated apps. The web shows thing is 100% good riddance, I didn't need more advertising filled junk that was never asked for.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kingtj1971 Avatar
kingtj1971
44 months ago

What the hell is Plex, anyway? Is is just a way to stream movies and other media from a NAS to an end-user device, or is there something more to it?
It's just what you suggest, in the same way the game of baseball is "some guys running around a field trying to catch a ball someone whacks with a piece of wood". :)

I mean, it's essentially a product that consists of both a "server" and a "client" piece. The "Plex Media Server" runs on a machine configured for it and lets you store a collection of video and audio content that it indexes/catalogs and can then stream optimally to a Plex "client" -- which can be software running on a Windows PC, a Mac, an iPad/iPhone, Android device, or built into various smart TVs on the market or set-top boxes like Apple TV.

It works on your local network or can stream over the Internet, supporting "user accounts" you create on the server so specific people you know can be granted access to parts of, or to your complete library of content.

As time went on, the Plex authors kept bolting on new features, so it went from focusing on your own personal video, music or photo collections to supporting all these Internet-based streaming options and even broadcast TV if you have the right TV tuner board installed in a Plex server. Podcast support is another one of those things they added to fill out the offerings a Plex client gave people....
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
_Spinn_ Avatar
_Spinn_
44 months ago
I never liked the way Plex implemented podcasts. I wish the files were downloaded to my Plex server and served from there that way I could keep an archive of my favorite podcasts with the rest of my digital media.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments