Is Your Podcast Feed Broken? Check It Free in Seconds

A few months ago I was helping someone troubleshoot why their episodes weren't downloading for their subscribers. Their feed's XML was valid, and all required fields were present. It turns out the problem wasn't the feed at all but instead the server hosting their audio files.

When they uploaded the files, they accidentally set the permissions incorrectly, which blocked external requests to the files. Apple's crawler hit those URLs and got a 403. Their own browser worked fine because their session had access, and their podcast app worked fine too, since it had already cached the episodes. Nobody on their end saw a problem, because nobody on their end was hitting the feed the way Apple's servers were.

That's the part that gets people. A feed can be perfectly valid (or invalid for mysterious reasons) and still be invisible to the platforms that matter, because the files it points to aren't actually reachable from the outside.

A valid feed can still be broken

An RSS feed isn't just a list of episodes. It's a structured file full of required and recommended fields that platforms, apps, and directories depend on to list and serve your show correctly. But the fields being correct only gets you halfway there. Every image, every audio file, and the feed URL itself has to be reachable to your listeners. A firewall rule, a permissions change, a CDN misconfiguration, or a caching setting on your web host can block those requests without touching a single line of your feed's XML.

Most of this happens silently. Your podcast host says everything is published. Your dashboard looks fine. Your own browser loads everything without a hitch. But a directory crawler hitting your server from the outside gets a different answer, and you have no way to see that from where you're sitting.

What the checker actually catches

We built the Unleashed Podcasts Podcast Feed Checker to validate the things that matter most. Here's what it looks at and why each one is worth checking.

Your show image. The itunes:image field needs to be present, and the image URL needs to load. A broken image link means your show displays as a blank square in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere else. Apple also rejects submissions with missing artwork.

Author and category. These sound basic, but I've seen feeds missing both. No itunes:author and your show looks unclaimed. No itunes:category, and directories can't file your show anywhere, which hurts discoverability.

Explicit flag. The itunes:explicit field needs to be declared either way. Undeclared means some platforms won't surface your show at all, or will flag it incorrectly.

Owner email. This one trips people up constantly. The itunes:owner email is what Apple uses to verify you own the show when you try to claim it. If it's missing, you can't claim your listing.

Language tag. Missing language metadata can cause your show to be excluded from region-specific directory results.

Episode duration and descriptions. Every episode should have an itunes:duration and a description or summary. Missing duration confuses apps that show episode length. Missing descriptions leave listeners with nothing to read before they decide to hit play.

Audio file reachability. This is the big one. The checker tests whether your recent episode audio files load from outside your network, the same way a directory or a new listener would hit them. A moved file, an expired CDN link, or a server permissions change can block outside access while your own devices load everything fine. This check catches that gap before your listeners or Apple's crawler do.

Feed canonical URL and website. If your feed URL redirects through a chain before resolving, some apps won't follow it correctly. And your linked website should actually load (surprisingly, not always the case after domain changes or hosting migrations).

How to run a check

Go to unleashedpodcasts.com/podcast-checker. Paste your RSS feed URL into the field and run the check. Results come back in a few seconds. No account, no signup, no email required. You get a full breakdown of what passed, what needs attention, and what's broken.

If you don't know your RSS feed URL, check your podcast host's dashboard. It's usually labeled something like "RSS Feed" or "Podcast Feed," and it's the URL you submitted to Apple Podcasts or Spotify when you first set up your show.

Reading your results

The checker returns one of three statuses for each item: Pass, Warn, or Fail.

Pass means everything looks good. Nothing to do there.

Warn means something is present but might cause problems. A Warn on your feed URL usually means there's a redirect happening that could confuse certain apps. A Warn on episode descriptions might mean some episodes are missing them even if most have them. Warns are worth fixing, but they're not emergencies.

Fail means something is broken or missing entirely. Fails need attention before they cause real problems. If your audio files are failing reachability checks, that's a fix-it-today situation, and it's worth checking your web host's permissions and firewall settings first since the feed itself may be fine. If your owner email is missing, add it before you try to do anything with your Apple Podcasts listing.

Most podcast hosts let you update feed metadata without re-submitting your show. Check your host's documentation for where to set fields like itunes:author, itunes:category, and itunes:owner. Changes usually propagate within a few hours.

Keep an eye on feed health over time

Running a one-time check is great. But feeds can break after the fact, too. A hosting migration, a domain change, an expired certificate, an accidentally deleted image. We built the podcast feed checker as a standalone free tool, but feed health monitoring is also part of what Unleashed Podcasts does as part of managing your show. If you want a system that keeps watch so you don't have to, you can check it out at unleashedpodcasts.com/.

For now, go run the free check. It takes less than ten seconds, and you might be surprised what comes back.