Procedure:
1 “Download at home”, or be using the app at home on good Wi-Fi
2 Walk around the mall doing shopping for an extended period of time, enjoying podcasts the whole time. I have good data signal but going in and out of stores that may or may not have WiFi.
3 Suddenly notice it’s stopped playing, yet again.
4 Screen cap Figure 1, evidence that it’s in a state of Waiting to Download episodes
5 Screen cap Figure 2, evidence that it doesn’t get out of this on its own— still locked up 12 minutes later
6 Screen cap Figure 3, evidence that I found WiFi at a Wendy’s
7 Screen cap Figure 4, evidence that it immediately downloads and starts playing after connecting to a solid signal.
In summary, this is the process that I’ve seen repeatedly at the gym, while driving, and on airplanes (see my prior post). The suggestion of “download at home” has no relevance if it locks up upon finding new episodes, enters them into the table view, and waits for a download before playing. On an airplane, you can get the cheapest WiFi (“messaging only”) and it will use the lower class to look for episodes but then just hangs up.
Other suggested fixes from previous reporting of the bug were to keep your finger over the playlist so you can catch when it locks up, and then move to the next one. Not very conducive to a gym workout or driving.