This was a weird problem. I had manually downloaded a Podcast series on my computer (the entire series was no longer available through their feed) and wanted to move it over to my Windows Phone to listen to.
I could do this using the File Explorer – and the transfer worked fine, but I could not listen to the podcast via the podcast app. When I tried to open the “audio†collection inside the app, it was blank.
So if I transferred the podcast via the explorer, I had to use the music app to listen to it. That seemed wrong. I even tried creating a “Podcasts†folder in a couple of places, but had no luck there either.
Windows Phone App for Desktop
It seemed like I was out of luck, but a little searching led me to this page, where I found the “Windows Phone App for Desktop†from Microsoft. I installed it, and it loaded and initialized and generally took forever to start, but when it did, sure enough there was a Podcast tab right there, with syncing options!
Unfortunately, there were no Podcasts listed.
Now this wasn’t unexpected – after all it had no way of knowing how I organized my Podcasts, and there was a handy “Add or remove folders†button right there next to the syncing options. So I pressed it.
You might guess what happened next. An error dialog told me, “We couldn’t find your podcasts library, but you can create a new one using windows explorer and we’ll use that.â€
I kind of thought that was what “Add or remove folders†meant, but okay…
Libraries
Despite having already wasted far more time on this than it was worth to me, I decided to see it through because I really wanted to know what the heck was going on.
It turns out that the key word in the error message was “libraryâ€. Starting in Windows 7, you could organize groups of folders into a single “Library†and access it like a single folder. So when “Windows Phone app for desktopâ€, complained about a missing Podcast library it meant you literally need to create a new library called “Podcastsâ€.
Unfortunately, Windows 8.1 hides your libraries by default, so to create a new one, you must first show your existing ones. I used a slightly different procedure:
- Open an Explorer window.
- Select the “View†tab.
- On the left, open the “Navigation Pane†menu.
- Select “Show librariesâ€.
Now that you can see your libraries, you can create a new Podcast library:
- Selecty “Libraries” in the navigation pane.
- Right-click => “New†=> “Libraryâ€.
- Rename it “Podcastsâ€.
- Right-click => “Propertiesâ€.
- Under “Optimize this library for:â€, select Music.
- Open the library by double-clicking it.
- Point it to your Podcasts by using the “Include a folder†button.
That’s it. Restart the “Windows Phone app for desktop†and start syncing your podcasts manually!