CorrectFeed

Why Your Podcast Feed Fails Apple or Spotify Validation (And How to Fix It)

If you’re trying to publish a podcast to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, or any modern listening app, your RSS feed is the backbone of your distribution. But podcast feeds are surprisingly sensitive — platforms reject or suspend them for even minor XML issues, missing tags, or formatting inconsistencies.

This is why creators often search phrases like:

  • “podcast RSS feed not validating”
  • “Apple Podcasts feed error”
  • “Spotify rejected my podcast feed”
  • “podcast feed won’t update”
  • “episode not appearing in RSS feed”

If your feed is failing validation or your episodes aren’t showing up, this guide will walk you through every major cause, explain why platforms behave this way, and show you exactly how to diagnose and fix your podcast feed fast.

How Podcast Platforms Validate Your Feed

While podcast RSS feeds are built on top of standard RSS 2.0, major platforms apply additional, stricter rules.

Validation for Apple, Spotify, and others looks at:

  • Required RSS-level metadata (title, description, language)
  • Required podcast-specific tags (e.g., <itunes:author>, <itunes:category>)
  • Media enclosure validity (correct URLs, MIME types, file sizes)
  • Proper GUID format for each episode
  • Episode-level <enclosure> and <pubDate>
  • Feed-level artwork requirements
  • XML structure and encoding

A feed can appear valid in a browser but still fail platform-specific compliance.

This is why podcast feed debugging is trickier than normal RSS troubleshooting.

The Most Common Reasons Podcast Feeds Fail Validation

Below are the most frequent issues that cause Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and related services to reject, suspend, or ignore podcast feeds. These reflect known long-tail search patterns from creators troubleshooting their own feeds.

1. Your <enclosure> Tags Are Wrong or Missing

This is by far the number one cause of podcast feed failures.

An <enclosure> tag tells podcast players where the actual audio file lives:

<enclosure url="https://example.com/audio/episode1.mp3" length="12345678" type="audio/mpeg" />

The most common mistakes:

  • Missing the length attribute

  • Incorrect type (audio/mp3 instead of audio/mpeg)

  • URL not publicly accessible

  • Using HTTP instead of HTTPS

  • Using query parameters that cause redirect loops

  • Linking to a streaming page instead of a direct file

If Apple or Spotify cannot fetch your audio file instantly and correctly, they reject the entire episode or feed.

2. Incorrect or Missing <guid> Values for Episodes

Podcast platforms rely heavily on GUIDs to determine:

  • Whether an episode is new

  • Whether an episode has been updated

  • Whether episodes have been removed or duplicated

Common errors:

  • GUIDs that change every build

  • GUIDs set equal to the episode title

  • Non-unique GUIDs across episodes

  • GUIDs containing invalid characters

Good GUID examples:

<guid>podcast-episode-001</guid>

or

<guid isPermaLink="true">https://example.com/podcast/episode-001</guid>

If GUIDs change, Apple will treat old episodes as new duplicates, and Spotify may ignore updates entirely.

3. Your Feed Artwork Doesn’t Meet Requirements

Podcast art must meet strict technical constraints.

Apple podcast artwork requirements (2025):

  • Minimum 1400 × 1400 px

  • Maximum 3000 × 3000 px

  • JPEG or PNG

  • RGB color

  • Square aspect ratio

If artwork is missing or doesn’t meet these specs, Apple rejects the feed outright.

Spotify is less strict but still requires:

  • 1:1 aspect ratio

  • 640 × 640 px minimum

If your artwork fails validation, episodes often still ingest, but the podcast won’t publish until fixed.

4. Your Audio Files Are Too Slow or Unreachable

If Apple or Spotify cannot download your media file quickly enough, they assume your hosting provider is broken.

Common problems:

  • Server that blocks user agents

  • Download speed too slow

  • File hosted on a private CDN or authenticated bucket

  • 403/404 errors

  • Redirect chains longer than 3 hops

To test, run:

curl -I https://example.com/audio/episode1.mp3

Look for:

  • 200 OK

  • content-type: audio/mpeg

  • content-length present

If your server requires cookies or authentication, the file won’t work.

5. Missing or Invalid <itunes:category> Tags

Apple requires at least one valid category from its official taxonomy.

Example:

<itunes:category text="Education">
  <itunes:category text="Self-Improvement"/>
</itunes:category>

Invalid categories cause feed rejection.

6. Incorrect or Missing <pubDate> Formats

Each episode needs a valid RFC-822 date, e.g.:

Mon, 10 Jan 2025 15:00:00 GMT

Common mistakes:

  • Using ISO timestamps instead

  • Using non-English month names

  • Using relative formats (“yesterday”, “last week”)

Incorrect time formats cause Spotify to ignore the episode and Apple to reject it.

7. Bad or Missing Feed-Level Metadata

Your podcast feed must include:

  • <title>

  • <link>

  • <language>

  • <itunes:author>

  • <itunes:summary> or <description>

  • <itunes:explicit>

If any are missing, Apple Podcasts Connect immediately throws validation errors.

8. Feed Encoding Problems (UTF-8 vs Windows-1252)

Encoding mismatches cause “invisible” failures where your feed appears correct but breaks ingestion pipelines.

Symptoms:

  • Smart quotes or special characters render incorrectly

  • Feed fails Apple validation with cryptic XML errors

  • Spotify requires manual re-ingestion after fix

Always specify:

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

…and make sure your hosting actually serves UTF-8.

9. Your Feed Is Too Large

Many platforms truncate or reject feeds larger than 512 KB or with too many episodes.

If your show has hundreds of episodes, you should:

  • Limit feed to the most recent 100–300 items

  • Use archive feeds for older content

Apple may show only the first 50 episodes if your feed is huge.

10. Redirects or HTTPS Issues

Podcast platforms do not like:

  • HTTP → HTTPS redirects

  • Domain changes

  • Multiple chained redirects

  • Expired SSL certificates

Spotify in particular fails hard on bad SSL.

How to Diagnose Podcast Feed Issues (A Step-by-Step Process)

Here is a robust framework that parallels how professional podcast hosting companies debug feeds.

Step 1: Validate the RSS Structure

Use:

  • Apple Podcasts Connect’s built-in validator

  • CastFeedValidator.com

  • A feed validation tool like CorrectFeed (catches XML + podcast-specific issues)

Look for:

  • XML errors

  • Missing tags

  • Incorrect enclosures

  • Category issues

  • Encoding mismatches

Step 2: Check Your Media Files

Run:

curl -I https://example.com/audio/episode1.mp3

Confirm:

  • The file downloads

  • audio/mpeg as MIME type

  • Reasonable content length

  • No authentication required

Step 3: Inspect Episode GUIDs

Ensure:

  • Unique per episode

  • Never change

  • Match platform expectations

If you migrated from one hosting system to another, GUID changes cause mass duplication.

Step 4: Test Your Feed in Multiple Apps

Try subscribing your feed in:

  • Apple Podcasts

  • Podcast Addict

  • Pocket Casts

  • Overcast

  • Castro

If one app updates but another doesn’t, it’s usually GUID or enclosure related.

If none update, it’s usually XML structure or invalid tags.

Step 5: Check Hosting Performance and Accessibility

Slow or unreachable media files cause:

  • Episodes to “never appear”

  • Partial ingestion

  • Delayed updates

Platforms require consistent uptime.

Step 6: Revalidate After Fixes

Once you correct the issue, resubmit your feed to:

  • Apple Podcasts

  • Spotify for Podcasters

  • Google Podcasts Manager (still supported in transition through YouTube Music)

Allow 1–24 hours for propagation.

Best Practices to Prevent Podcast Feed Errors

Follow these guidelines and you will avoid 90% of common feed failures:

✔ Maintain stable GUIDs

✔ Always include <enclosure> tags with correct MIME types

✔ Use HTTPS for everything

✔ Host audio files on a reliable CDN

✔ Stay within Apple’s artwork size requirements

✔ Use valid <pubDate> formatting

✔ Keep your feed under 512 KB

✔ Validate every time you publish

✔ Avoid aggressive caching on the feed URL

✔ Use UTF-8 encoding consistently

These steps dramatically improve your feed health and syndication reliability.

When Should You Consider Dual RSS + JSON Feed Publishing?

Some modern podcast tools now support:

  • JSON Feed for developers

  • RSS for legacy compatibility

A dual-feed strategy is useful if:

  • You’re building custom apps

  • You want a more flexible schema

  • You publish metadata beyond legacy RSS limits

But RSS will remain mandatory for Apple and Spotify.

Final Thoughts: Fixing Podcast Validation Errors Is Mostly About Precision

Podcast feeds aren’t complex, but the rules are strict — and every major platform enforces them differently. The majority of podcast RSS failures come from:

  • Incorrect or missing enclosure tags

  • Bad GUIDs

  • Invalid artwork

  • Wrong encoding

  • Missing podcast-specific metadata

  • Redirect loops

  • Media files that cannot be downloaded

Once you understand these patterns, fixing a broken podcast feed becomes fast and predictable.

If you want ongoing visibility into your feed’s health — including alerts when episodes fail validation — tools like CorrectFeed can help automate monitoring and troubleshooting so you can focus on publishing rather than debugging XML.