Guides · Features
Audiobookshelf podcasts on iPhone: discover, organize and download shows in SoundLeaf
Play your Audiobookshelf podcasts on iPhone, find new shows in Discover, sort them into Favorites and groups, and download episodes. All of it is free.
SoundLeaf plays the podcasts on your Audiobookshelf server, and its Discover tab finds new shows to add. Everything on this page is free, downloads and auto-download included.
A podcast library has four tabs: Podcasts, Discover, Downloads and Settings.
How do I browse my Audiobookshelf podcasts?
Top to bottom:
- A search field over the whole library, plus a row of counts: your shows and episodes, unplayed listening time, new episodes and what’s on the phone. Tap one of the first three to switch what it shows. On device opens the Downloads tab.
- In Progress and Finished rows. Choose where they appear, or hide them, in Settings > Appearance.
- Continue, the episodes you have started.
- Latest episodes, the recent arrivals across every show.
- All podcasts, the grid, with your Favorites and groups above it once you have made one.
The search field searches shows and episodes together. Type at least two characters.
How do I find new podcasts?
Open the Discover tab. It has:
- Popular in your country, a chart of popular shows. Change the country from the menu at the top.
- Categories, to browse one subject at a time.
- Search podcasts, for a show by name. Type at least two letters.
Tap a show to see its episodes before you decide. A show already on your server says In this library. The share menu has Share RSS feed and Copy RSS feed link. The RSS feed is the link podcast apps use to find a show and its episodes.
How do I add a podcast to Audiobookshelf from my iPhone?
You need an Audiobookshelf admin account. Audiobookshelf only lets admins add podcasts.
- In Discover, open the show and tap Add to Audiobookshelf.
- Check the Folder on your server it goes into. The podcast path follows the title and folder.
- Turn on Download automatically if you want your server to download future episodes.
- Under Existing episodes, tap Choose episodes to have the server download some of the back catalogue. In that list, the Select menu has Select latest 10, Select latest 100 and Select all. You can also add the show with none.
- Tap Add to Audiobookshelf.
Your server downloads the episodes you picked, and they show up in your library when they’re ready. Other people with access to that library see the show too. For the server side, such as how many episodes to keep, see podcasts in Audiobookshelf.
”Only a server admin can add podcasts to Audiobookshelf. Share the RSS feed with them.”
Your account isn’t an admin, so Audiobookshelf won’t let it add shows. Open the show’s share menu and choose Copy RSS feed link, and send that to whoever runs your server. Once they add it, pull to refresh on the Podcasts tab.
”Couldn’t reach discovery. Try again when you’re connected.”
Discover couldn’t load. Check your internet connection and try again. If you’re already online, try again later. Shows you looked at before may still appear, with “Couldn’t refresh. Showing saved results."
"Couldn’t load podcasts. Try again shortly.”
Discover is having a problem on its side. Your own podcasts still play. Try again in a little while.
How do I make Favorites and podcast groups?
Press and hold a show (or use the … menu on its page):
- Add to Favorites puts it in Favorites.
- Groups > New Group makes a group with that show in it. A show can be in more than one group.
Once you have a favorite or a group, a row appears above All podcasts: All, Favorites, then each group. Tap one to show just those shows. Press and hold a group to rename it or choose Delete Group. Deleting a group leaves the shows in your library.
Favorites and groups are saved on this device, for each account and library. Audiobookshelf has nowhere to keep them, so they don’t appear in the web app or on your other devices.
How do I filter and sort podcast episodes?
Open a show for its episodes.
- Filter: All Episodes, Unplayed, In Progress, Played or Downloaded. SoundLeaf remembers the filter for each show, so a show you keep on Unplayed opens that way next time.
- Sort: by Release Date, Recently Listened, Date Added, Duration or Title, either way round. This is saved per show too.
- Search episodes, inside this show.
Each row says what it is and where it stands: season and episode number, when it was published, the title, and whether it’s queued, on the watch, downloaded, played or partly played. The circle on the right plays it, with your progress drawn around the ring.
Swipe a row
- Right, for Mark Played or Mark Unplayed.
- Left, for Play Next and Add to Queue (or Remove from Queue when it’s already there), and Download (or Stop, or Delete Download).
Select several episodes
- Choose Select from the show’s … menu, or press and hold a row and choose Select.
- Tap the other episodes you want.
- For a run of episodes, press and hold one you haven’t selected, choose Select a Range, then Select all above or Select all below.
Pressing and holding an episode you already selected offers Deselect all above and Deselect all below instead. Select All is in the bar.
The bar along the bottom downloads them, marks them played or unplayed, and holds the rest under more actions: queue them, send them to the watch, remove their downloads.
How do I download a whole show?
Open the show’s … menu. Under Whole show · up to 100 episodes per download:
- Download Unfinished skips episodes you’ve already finished.
- Download All Episodes takes everything.
Each shows how many episodes it would fetch. Big shows go 100 at a time: run it again for the next batch. These only appear if your Audiobookshelf account is allowed to download. See downloads.
Up Next works for books and podcasts
Books and podcast episodes have separate Up Next queues. Open it from the mini player or the full player. Episodes reach it from a swipe, from selecting several, or from the episode screen, and when one ends the next starts on its own. Playlists and the rest are on queue, playlists and bookmarks.
Settings for each show
The gear in a show’s header opens its own settings. They save as you change them.
Downloads
- Use global defaults follows the Podcasts section in Settings > Downloads. Turn it off to set this show on its own:
- Auto-download new episodes. Turning it on starts from now, so it never pulls the whole back catalogue onto your phone.
- Limit auto-downloads to, the most new episodes per refresh.
- Keep last downloaded. Past that count, the oldest download goes.
- Remove played downloads.
- Add to Up Next: put a newly downloaded episode at the Top or Bottom of Up Next, or Don’t add.
Playback
- NFC & QR, to make a tag or code that plays this show. See NFC tags and QR codes.
- Playback speed for this show, or the default.
- Sort episodes.
Watch, when a watch is paired
- Keep on the watch: off, or the newest 5, 10, 20, 50 or 100 episodes. See Apple Watch.
Feed
- Check for new episodes asks your server to read the feed now, and says how many it found. Audiobookshelf only allows this for admin accounts.
Listening away from your server
Every show’s episode list is kept on the phone, not just the shows you have opened, so you can browse your shows with no connection and play the episodes you’ve downloaded. Downloads keep going while you use other apps or lock the phone. Don’t force-quit SoundLeaf, or iOS stops them. Played marks and positions you set offline reach your server on the next sync.
Read podcast transcripts
When a show publishes a transcript, SoundLeaf shows it with the episode. A transcript with timestamps follows the audio as it plays.
In the episode player, switch from Now Playing to Transcript. The current line stays highlighted as the audio plays.
In the transcript:
- With a timed transcript, tap a line to jump the audio there.
- Scroll and it stops following, then picks the current line back up five seconds after you stop.
- Speaker names and timestamps appear beside the text, when the file has them.
- Paper colour and text size are the reader’s own, separate from the rest of the app.
When an episode’s transcript has downloaded along with it, you can read it offline.
Where transcripts come from
Audiobookshelf doesn’t keep podcast transcripts, so SoundLeaf gets them from the podcast’s own host when you play or download an episode. You can turn that off: Settings > Downloads > Fetch Transcripts, on by default.
Transcripts with timestamps can follow the audio. Plain-text and HTML transcripts have no timestamps, so you can read them but they don’t follow along.
Why can’t Overcast or other podcast apps see my server’s feeds?
Audiobookshelf can open an RSS feed for a show (Open RSS Feed in its web app), and people often try to subscribe to that feed in another podcast app. It fails when the feed address only works at home or over a VPN like Tailscale.
Some podcast apps refresh feeds from their own servers on the internet, not from your phone. Overcast, for one, fetches every feed centrally on its servers. Those servers aren’t on your home network, so they can’t reach an address that only works there. The feed needs a public address, or you need an app that talks to your server directly.
SoundLeaf talks to your Audiobookshelf server directly, from your phone, so it works with a home-only address while you’re at home, and with your remote address when you’re out. See server addresses.
Podcast problems and fixes
A show I added on the server isn’t here
Pull to refresh on the Podcasts tab. That reads shows and episodes from your server now.
”Couldn’t check for new podcasts. Showing the ones on this device.”
SoundLeaf couldn’t reach your server, so it’s showing what it already has. Everything downloaded still plays. Check your connection, then pull to refresh. See connection troubleshooting.
An episode is missing from a show
If you’re an admin, open the show’s settings and tap Check for new episodes. That asks your server to read the feed again. If it still doesn’t appear, or you’re not an admin, ask whoever runs your server to check the feed and the server’s downloads.
No transcript on an episode
The show may not publish a transcript. SoundLeaf can only show what the feed offers. Also check Settings > Downloads > Fetch Transcripts is on.
The transcript is there but doesn’t follow the audio
If it’s an HTML or plain-text transcript, it has no timestamps, so it can’t follow the audio. If SoundLeaf says the timing doesn’t match, use Sync transcript, or Download and Sync when the episode isn’t downloaded yet.
Auto-download isn’t fetching old episodes
That’s on purpose. Auto-download new episodes starts from the moment you turn it on. Use Download Unfinished in the show’s … menu, or select a run of episodes and download them.
”Your account does not have download permission.”
Your Audiobookshelf user isn’t allowed to download. An admin can turn on download permission for your account in the Audiobookshelf web app.