Common Podcast Feed Issues and How to Fix Them – Blubrry

Podcast feeds can occasionally run into issues that affect how episodes, artwork, show notes, or updates appear in podcast apps and directories. Most feed issues are caused by a plugin, theme, caching layer, or server setting changing the RSS feed before podcast apps can read it correctly.

Note: If you are not sure where to begin, start with our Diagnosing Feed and/or Player Issues with PowerPress guide. It walks through the most common causes, including plugin and theme conflicts.

Content Looks Incorrect in Podcast Apps

If your episode descriptions, show notes, or formatting look wrong in podcast apps or directories, your RSS feed may be getting modified before it reaches those platforms.

Common causes include:

A WordPress plugin modifying RSS feed content
A theme adding extra formatting or output
HTML comments or extra code appearing in the feed
Caching or optimization tools changing feed output

To troubleshoot, validate your feed and check for plugin or theme conflicts using the diagnosing guide linked above.

Podcast Directories Are Slow to Update

Podcast directories such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, and others do not always update instantly. However, if your listing has not updated after 24–48 hours, there may be an issue with the feed or the server hosting it.

Possible causes include:

Invalid or incorrectly formatted XML in the RSS feed
The server blocking podcast directory requests
The server not supporting required HTTP requests such as HEAD and GET
HTML comments or extra output appearing at the bottom of the feed
Heavy caching that delays feed updates

Use Cast Feed Validator to check your podcast feed for errors. If the feed validates but directories still do not update, contact your web host and ask whether the server is blocking podcast app or directory requests.

Feed Submission Errors Related to Byte Serving, HEAD Requests, or Artwork

Some podcast directories require your feed, artwork, and media files to be hosted on servers that properly support partial file requests and HTTP HEAD requests. These checks help podcast apps confirm file size, type, and availability before downloading full media files.

If your feed is rejected with an error related to byte serving, HEAD requests, or artwork, check the following:

Your RSS feed URL supports HTTP HEAD requests
Your podcast artwork URL supports HTTP HEAD requests
Your episode media file URLs support byte-range requests
Your episode media file URLs support HTTP HEAD requests
Your podcast artwork is square and meets current podcast directory requirements
Your artwork is saved in RGB color space as a JPG or PNG file

Important: If you are using Blubrry Hosting for your media files, Blubrry-hosted media is already configured for podcast delivery. If your feed or artwork is hosted elsewhere, your web host may need to confirm support for byte-range and HEAD requests.

If you are unsure whether your artwork file is valid, open it in a different image editor or viewer than the one used to create it. Confirm that it is truly square, saved as JPG or PNG, and uses RGB color space rather than CMYK, which is intended for print.

Feed Validation Issues

Feed validators may report both errors and recommendations. Errors usually need to be fixed before podcast apps can reliably read your feed. Recommendations may not always prevent the feed from working.

We recommend using Cast Feed Validator, which is maintained by Blubrry and designed specifically for podcast feeds.

Note: Some older feed validation tools may flag modern podcast tags as errors or warnings because they have not been updated for newer podcasting standards.

Example: Feed Content Modified by a Plugin or Theme

A podcast feed should be clean XML. If a plugin, theme, or server tool changes the feed output, podcast apps may have trouble reading the content correctly.

Examples of modified feed content include:

RSS XML appearing all on one line
Line breaks stripped from episode descriptions
HTML comments added to the bottom of the feed
Extra scripts, tracking code, or debugging output added to the feed

If you see unexpected content in your feed source, disable plugins one at a time and temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme to identify the source of the issue.

Example: Blank Line Before the XML Declaration

A valid XML document should begin immediately with the XML declaration. For podcast feeds, the first line should begin with something similar to:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

If there is a blank line before this declaration, feed validators may report the feed as invalid.

This is usually caused by:

A plugin outputting extra whitespace
A theme file containing extra space before or after PHP tags
Whitespace in wp-config.php
Whitespace in another WordPress core or custom file

Start by checking for plugin or theme conflicts. If the issue remains after disabling plugins and switching to a default theme, check wp-config.php for blank lines before the opening PHP tag or after the closing PHP tag.

Example: A Valid RSS Feed

A valid podcast RSS feed should begin with the XML declaration and contain well-formed XML. Feed elements should open and close correctly, and the feed should not include unexpected HTML, scripts, comments, or blank lines before the XML declaration.

When viewing the source of a valid feed, you should expect to see structured XML with podcast-specific tags for your show, episodes, artwork, media files, and other podcast metadata.

What to Do Next

Validate your feed with Cast Feed Validator.
Check whether the issue is an error or a recommendation.
Use the Diagnosing Feed and/or Player Issues with PowerPress guide to test for plugin or theme conflicts.
If the feed validates but directories still have trouble updating, contact your web host and ask them to check server request handling, caching, and byte-range support.