Podcasts App Crashes Every Time in 8.1 Upgrade: how to fix?

[WPCentral Question]

Hi Everyone,
I just upgraded my Lumia 920 to WP 8.1 last night and was dismayed to find the new Podcasts app is completely non-functional. Every time I try to open it, the app launches then crashes back to the home screen after a couple of seconds. Listening to podcasts is one of the primary activities I do on my phone. I tried to find a way to re-install, but there doesn't seem to be an intuitive way to do so. Anybody else having this problem? Thanks!

 

[lordofgorp]

re:

Same problem, Nokia 920 as well.

 

[Kevin 3]

re:

My app never fully opens, the screen starts to change and then just goes away. I listen, well I did listen, to a lot of podcasts. This is not making me want another windows phone.

 

[Kevin 3]

re:

Is the windows phone developer community planning on addressing any of the issues in this forum? I have not had any updates since the 8.1 update. I would expect people, including me, to start leaving windows phone behind soon.

 

[gomezz]

re:

You could try using the i Podcast app instead. Much more functional than the new inbuilt one (but note that it does not seem to like being installed and having podcasts downloaded onto SD card even though it offers the option - gets its knickers in a twist).

 

[Kevin 3]

re:

I tried that, didn't like it. You have to set up playlists and for some reason it never auto downloaded any podcasts so I spent a huge amount of time managing the app. I just want an app the I can download and play podcasts with. The old app worked fine for that, please can someone fix this before my contract is up and I switch to android? BTW, I have noticed that many apps no longer work as expected with 8.1, they are either slow or crash at random times or just really have unexpected behavior.

 

[gomezz]

Re:

some reason it never auto downloaded any .

If you mean i Podcast then yes it seems to forget to auto-download on mobile signal (even if you have set the option to do so) so have to do it manually or wait until next time it connects to wi-fi. Not sure what you mean about Playlists?

 

[drusand810]

are they going to fix the podcast app?

because i'm with kevin3, i'm done with wp if they can't fix this. it's 2014, you can't figure out a podcast app or a halfway decent way of getting music on your device?

the desktop app is embarrassing.

 

[joshcsmith13]

I'm having the same crashing experience. It's very frustrating to think this is a semi-widespread issue that hasn't been fixed. Has anybody gotten it to work without doing a hard reset? Does that even work?

 

[jmshub]

The other day I started to stream a video podcast and the podcast app crashed. I launched it and it worked fine after that. Is that the experience everyone else is having?

 

[joshcsmith13]

The app won't even stay open for me. It starts to display my subscriptions and then just closes and takes me back to the windows start screen. I won't stay open long enough for me to click on anything. It started a couple weeks ago when the ESPN podcasts were jacked up and people everywhere were having trouble. Unfortunately, it seem to have killed my device/app permanently.

 

[missionsparta]

Having the same issue. Has no one really come up with a fix yet? This is nuts.

 

[johnhotmail]

App worked fine till two months ago and after that keeps crashing as i start it, thought an app update would fix it but last two updates didnt. There is no way to try an uninstall and reinstall as its a system app