Episode Management

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Episodes are the individual audio or video items inside a podcast feed.

Find episode tools in Selfhost Podcasting > Manage Podcasts > open a podcast > Manage Episodes.

Required Episode Fields

Audio or Media URL

The direct URL to the episode media file.

You can:

  • Select an audio file from the WordPress Media Library.
  • Enter an external media URL.

Supported enclosure extensions in the code include:

  • mp3
  • m4a
  • mp4
  • m4v
  • mov
  • pdf

For normal podcast audio, use MP3 or M4A.

Important: the media URL must be publicly reachable by podcast apps unless the podcast is private through Pro.

Episode Title

The title shown in podcast apps and directories.

Episode Description

The episode show notes included in the RSS feed.

When an episode is first created, the plugin also uses the description as the WordPress post content. After that, the RSS episode description and the WordPress post content can be edited independently.

Publish Date

The release date and time for the episode.

If you choose a future date, WordPress stores the episode as scheduled. The feed only includes published episodes.

Recommended Episode Fields

Episode Art

Optional artwork for this episode. If missing, podcast apps usually use the podcast cover art.

Episode Number

The episode number. Use whole numbers.

Season Number

The season number. Useful for serial podcasts or shows organized by season.

Episode Author

Host or creator for this specific episode.

Episode Type

Options:

  • Full: a normal episode.
  • Trailer: a preview episode.
  • Bonus: extra material.

Situational Episode Fields

Explicit

Mark the episode explicit if this episode contains explicit content.

Remove Episode From Apple Podcasts

Adds itunes:block for this episode. Use only when you want Apple Podcasts to hide this episode.

Transcript

You can add a transcript URL with:

  • Transcript URL.
  • Transcript type: plain text, HTML, VTT, JSON, or SRT.
  • Transcript language.
  • Captions flag, if the transcript is a captions file.

Duration Handling

The plugin tries to determine episode duration automatically.

It checks:

  1. WordPress attachment metadata.
  2. Local upload file metadata.
  3. Remote media metadata when possible.
  4. Background duration backfill if duration is still missing.

If duration is missing right after saving, the episode can still be saved. A background job may later update the duration.

Editing an Episode

  1. Open the podcast.
  2. Go to Manage Episodes.
  3. Click Edit on the episode.
  4. Update fields.
  5. Save the episode.

If cloud storage is enabled and you replace the media file, use the media changed option when shown so the new file is uploaded to the bucket.

Deleting an Episode

Deleting an episode removes it from the podcast episode list and deletes the WordPress episode post.

If S3 bucket storage is enabled and the episode has uploaded bucket media, the plugin queues a background job to delete the stored object from the bucket.