How to Fix Spotify Podcast Not Updating?

As a podcast creator, there are few things more irritating than publishing a new episode, announcing it everywhere, and then opening Spotify only to find that the episode is nowhere to be seen.

You may already have scheduled the social posts, emailed your audience, told the guest when the episode would go live, and spent hours recording and editing it. If you cannot see the episode on Spotify, there is a fair chance some of your listeners cannot see it either.

The good news is that a Spotify podcast not updating does not automatically mean something is seriously broken. Sometimes Spotify is simply waiting for an updated RSS feed. Other times the episode never reached the feed in the first place, the wrong RSS feed is connected to Spotify, a scheduled publishing time has not arrived yet, or the podcast was recently moved between hosting platforms and the migration was not completed properly.

The older version of this guide focused heavily on clearing caches and restarting devices. Those things can help when one Spotify app is displaying stale information, but they do very little when Spotify itself has never received your new episode.

So, instead of randomly trying fixes, let’s work from the source of the problem outward.

If you are unfamiliar with how podcast distribution works, I would first read my detailed guide to the podcast RSS feed. It makes most of the troubleshooting below much easier to understand because, for externally hosted podcasts, the RSS feed is usually the bridge between your podcast host and Spotify.

First, Find Out Where Your Podcast Is Hosted

Before changing anything, answer one question:

Is your podcast hosted with Spotify for Creators, or somewhere else?

This matters because the troubleshooting process is different.

If you upload your episodes directly through Spotify for Creators, Spotify is the host. Spotify says audio episodes published with the Now option should go live on Spotify immediately, unless you deliberately scheduled them for later.

If your podcast is hosted with Buzzsprout, Transistor, Captivate, Libsyn, Podbean, RSS.com, Castos, or another provider, Spotify normally receives new episodes by reading the RSS feed supplied by that host. Spotify supports externally hosted shows from a long list of podcast hosting services.

That gives us two very different troubleshooting paths:

Your setup	First place to check
Spotify hosts the podcast	Spotify for Creators
Another service hosts the podcast	Your host and RSS feed
You recently changed hosts	RSS redirect and Spotify’s saved feed
Episode appears on Spotify web but not one app/device	Spotify app/cache
Many Spotify features are failing	Possible Spotify service issue

Don’t skip this distinction. A lot of wasted troubleshooting comes from trying to repair an RSS feed for a Spotify-hosted episode or clearing an app cache when the external host never published the episode into RSS.

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If Spotify for Creators Hosts Your Podcast

Let’s start with the simpler case.

When Spotify hosts the show, you do not have to wait for Spotify to fetch your episode from some external RSS feed before making it available on Spotify. You upload the episode directly to Spotify for Creators.

Spotify currently says an audio episode should go live on Spotify immediately when you choose to publish it now, while scheduled episodes remain unpublished until the selected date and time.

If your new episode is missing, this is what I would check.

1. Make Sure the Episode Was Actually Published

Open Spotify for Creators and go to your Episodes section.

Find the missing episode and check whether it is:

• published;
• scheduled;
• still a draft;
• still processing;
• showing an upload or publishing error.

It is surprisingly easy to complete the title, description, artwork, and other details but leave the episode as a draft instead of finishing the publishing step.

Spotify also allows creators to schedule episodes. If you choose Schedule rather than Now, confirm the date and time carefully. Spotify says scheduled publish times use your local time, which is particularly worth checking if you prepared the episode while travelling or somebody else on your team scheduled it.

If the episode is still a draft, publish it.

Scheduled time is wrong? Edit the schedule.

If Spotify shows an upload or processing failure, solve that before trying anything with RSS.

2. Check the Audio File if the Upload Failed

Spotify for Creators currently accepts MP3, M4A, and WAV files for audio episodes.

Spotify does not impose a general file-size limit, but it warns that large uploads take longer and are more likely to fail if the internet connection is interrupted. It also recommends keeping unnecessary embedded artwork and metadata inside MP3 files reasonably small.

If Spotify keeps refusing or failing the episode, play the audio file locally first.

Make sure it is not corrupt and that the entire recording plays correctly. If necessary, export the episode again from your audio editor and upload the new file.

This is one of the situations where repeatedly refreshing Spotify will accomplish nothing. If the original media file never completed processing, there is no finished episode for Spotify to publish.

3. Check Whether You Accidentally Scheduled the Episode

Scheduled publishing deserves its own mention because it looks almost exactly like an update problem.

You finish uploading an episode, open Spotify, don’t see it publicly, and assume something broke. In reality, you may have selected tomorrow instead of today or chosen the wrong time.

Open the episode details and check the publishing status before making any technical changes.

If you want to cancel or change a scheduled publishing time, Spotify lets you revert the episode to a draft and edit the schedule.

4. Check the Public Spotify Page, Not Only the Creator Dashboard

Once Spotify for Creators says the episode is published, open the podcast’s normal public Spotify page.

I would test it in two places if possible: once through Spotify on the web and once through the Spotify app.

If the episode appears on the public web page but one phone still shows the older episode list, then a local app problem becomes plausible.

That is when closing and reopening Spotify, updating the app, or clearing Spotify’s cache becomes a reasonable troubleshooting step.

The key difference is that you have first proved the episode exists on Spotify.

Clearing your phone’s cache cannot force Spotify to ingest an episode that never reached Spotify’s servers.

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If Your Podcast Is Hosted Somewhere Else

This is the more common source of a Spotify podcast not updating.

Suppose you host with Buzzsprout. You publish episode 27 in Buzzsprout, Buzzsprout adds episode 27 to your RSS feed, and Spotify periodically reads that feed and discovers the new episode.

The chain looks like this:

Podcast host → RSS feed → Spotify → listener

If the episode disappears somewhere along that chain, you need to find where.

The fastest way is to start with the RSS feed rather than Spotify itself.

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Step 1: Check Whether the Missing Episode Is Actually in Your RSS Feed

This should be your first real troubleshooting step for an externally hosted podcast.

Open your podcast host and copy the RSS feed URL. If you don’t know where it is, your hosting provider should show it somewhere under distribution, podcast settings, feed, or RSS.

Paste the feed into your browser.

You may see XML that looks messy. That’s completely normal.

Use your browser’s Find function and search for the exact episode title.

If the episode is missing from the RSS feed

Spotify is probably not the problem yet.

Spotify cannot import an episode that your host is not sending through the feed.

Go back to the hosting platform and check whether:

• the episode is published rather than drafted;
• the publish date is correct;
• it has been included in the public RSS feed;
• your hosting plan limits how many episodes remain inside the feed;
• the episode has accidentally been unpublished;
• there is an error with the audio file or episode data.

Spotify itself specifically warns that some podcast hosts limit the number of episodes included in an RSS feed. This can result in older or imported episodes appearing missing even though they still exist inside the hosting dashboard.

If your host only includes the newest 100 episodes and you are wondering why episode 20 never appears during a migration, increasing the feed limit may solve the issue.

If the episode is present in the RSS feed

Now we know much more.

Your host has successfully published the episode, but Spotify has not yet reflected the updated feed.

At this point, check the episode’s basic RSS information, give Spotify a reasonable amount of time to refresh it, and then move further down this guide if it still does not appear.

This is much more useful than restarting your laptop.

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Step 2: Give Spotify Some Time to Fetch the New Feed

RSS distribution is not always instantaneous.

Spotify-hosted shows are published directly to Spotify, but externally hosted podcasts depend on Spotify detecting changes in the feed.

Likewise, Spotify says that when Spotify hosts a podcast and distributes its RSS feed elsewhere, new episodes and changes generally appear across other platforms within a few hours, although creators should allow up to 24 hours.

I would use the same general principle here: don’t start rebuilding the feed because an episode has been missing for ten minutes.

If your RSS feed contains the correct episode and everything looks valid, give Spotify a reasonable opportunity to process the change.

The important phrase is whether your RSS feed contains it.

Waiting 24 hours for an episode that never entered the feed isn’t patience. It is waiting for something that Spotify has no way of discovering.

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Step 3: Validate the Podcast RSS Feed

If the episode is inside the feed but Spotify continues to ignore it, check whether the feed itself is valid.

A podcast RSS feed is structured XML. A formatting problem, inaccessible audio file, missing required information, invalid characters, or another feed error can interfere with podcast services reading it correctly.

The original Tiny Quip guide recommended Cast Feed Validator, and that is still a reasonable tool to keep. Spotify itself suggests tools such as Cast Feed Validator and Podba.se Validator when troubleshooting feed validation problems during podcast imports.

You do not need to understand every RSS tag manually.

Run the feed through a podcast validator and look for errors around:

• the missing episode;
• the enclosure/audio URL;
• malformed XML;
• missing show information;
• artwork;
• dates;
• duplicate or invalid episode identifiers.

Spotify also has a specific “missing elements” error for externally hosted feeds and recommends working with the podcast host when required metadata such as title, description, or artwork is absent.

If you want to understand what these RSS elements actually do rather than blindly following validator warnings, my podcast RSS feed guide goes into GUIDs, enclosure URLs, validation, redirects, artwork, and other common feed problems in more detail.

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Step 4: Check the Episode’s Audio URL

Sometimes the RSS entry exists, but the audio behind it does not work.

Inside a podcast RSS feed, the episode usually contains an enclosure URL pointing to the media file.

If that URL returns an error, requires a login, redirects incorrectly, or is blocked from public access, Spotify may have trouble processing or playing the episode.

This can happen after moving media files, changing storage providers, editing an old website, or using a self-hosted setup where podcast media isn’t configured correctly.

If you use a mainstream podcast host, contact the host when the enclosure appears broken. You normally should not need to manually edit XML produced by Buzzsprout, Libsyn, Transistor, Podbean, or another managed host.

If you maintain the RSS feed yourself, check both the XML and the actual media file before blaming Spotify.

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Step 5: Check the Episode’s Publish Date

Podcast apps generally use the publication date from the RSS feed when arranging episodes.

If you accidentally give a new episode an old date, it may technically appear on Spotify but sit far down the podcast’s episode list instead of appearing at the top.

That can easily look like a missing update.

Search the show’s episode list for the title before assuming it isn’t there.

Spotify’s own episode-order guidance says most podcast platforms display episodes chronologically and recommends changing release dates when the order needs correcting.

If another company hosts your show, change the publication date at that host. Don’t edit Spotify’s public page expecting it to override the feed.

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Step 6: Make Sure Spotify Is Reading the Correct RSS Feed

This is especially important if you recently changed podcast hosts.

Suppose your show used to be hosted with Podbean and you have now moved it to Transistor. You publish your latest episode on Transistor, see it correctly inside the new RSS feed, but Spotify continues reading the old Podbean feed.

The result is exactly what you would expect: everything looks correct at the new host, but Spotify never sees the new episode.

For externally hosted podcasts, Spotify for Creators lets you check the RSS feed and hosting provider currently connected to your show under Settings. If you changed hosts, you can update that information with the new feed.

I have a complete guide on how to change your podcast RSS feed on Spotify for Creators because migrations need a little more care than simply pasting one URL over another.

A proper host migration should also use a redirect from the old feed to the new feed so podcast platforms and existing subscribers understand that the show moved rather than interpreting the new feed as an unrelated podcast.

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Step 7: Check the Redirect if You Recently Changed Podcast Hosts

A half-finished migration is one of the easiest ways to create missing episodes.

When moving to Spotify for Creators from another host, Spotify specifically warns that creators need to finish redirecting the old RSS feed after the import is complete. If you import the podcast into Spotify but fail to redirect the old feed, new episodes published through Spotify for Creators may not reach the existing audience following the previous feed.

The reverse matters too.

If you leave Spotify hosting for another provider, Spotify offers a 301 redirect so the old Spotify RSS feed points toward the new one.

So, if your Spotify podcast stopped updating immediately after a hosting migration, I would investigate the redirect before touching anything else.

Check:

• which feed Spotify currently knows;
• whether the old feed redirects to the correct new feed;
• whether the new feed contains the missing episode;
• whether your episode GUIDs survived the move;
• whether you cancelled the old hosting account too early.

A migration problem won’t be fixed by clearing Spotify’s cache.

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Step 8: Don’t Unpublish and Republish the Episode as Your First Fix

The older version of this article recommended unpublishing and republishing the missing episode.

I would remove that as a routine troubleshooting step.

If the RSS feed has an actual problem, deleting and republishing can introduce another variable without fixing the underlying cause. Depending on how your host handles episode identifiers, careless deletion and recreation can also create duplicate episodes or change how podcast directories recognise the entry.

Start by identifying what is wrong.

If the episode never reached the RSS feed, fix the publishing issue at your host.

If the enclosure is broken, fix the media.

Spotify is reading the wrong feed? Fix the feed connection.

If everything is correct and your host specifically recommends republishing as part of its troubleshooting process, you can consider it then.

But don’t use “delete it and upload it again” as the podcast equivalent of turning a router off and on.

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What if the Episode Updated but the Audio or Artwork Did Not?

This is a slightly different problem.

Maybe the episode appeared correctly on Spotify, but you replaced the audio file, and Spotify still plays the old recording. Or perhaps you uploaded new episode artwork, but Spotify continues displaying the old image.

Spotify says podcast services can sometimes continue using cached media even after the RSS feed changes. Its recommendation is to save the replacement audio or artwork at a slightly different URL, giving listening platforms a new media location to recognise and download.

This normally needs to happen through your podcast host.

For example, if you simply replace episode7.mp3 with a new file at exactly the same URL, a platform may continue using a previously cached copy. If your host generates a new media URL for the replacement, Spotify has a clearer signal that the asset changed.

The same principle can apply to artwork.

Before replacing files manually, though, check your host’s recommended method. Good podcast hosting services usually have their own process for updating episode media safely.

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What if Spotify Shows the Episode but Your Phone Doesn’t?

Now we finally reach the cache problem from the old guide.

If the episode exists on Spotify’s public web page and another device can see it, but your own Spotify app continues showing the older episode list, the problem may be local.

At that point, I would try:

1. close Spotify completely and reopen it;
2. make sure the Spotify app is updated;
3. sign out and back in if necessary;
4. clear Spotify’s local cache;
5. reinstall the app only if the problem remains isolated to that device.

This is a listener-side display fix, not an RSS-distribution fix.

That difference matters.

If nobody can see the episode, clearing your phone’s cache isn’t going to publish it.

If everyone else can see it and only your phone cannot, the RSS feed probably doesn’t need touching.

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What if Spotify Itself Is Having Problems?

Sometimes your podcast is fine.

If multiple Spotify features suddenly stop working, episodes across several shows refuse to load, or listeners begin reporting broader Spotify problems at the same time, check whether Spotify itself is experiencing an outage.

Tiny Quip already has a separate guide on how to check if Spotify podcasts are down and what to do when the problem looks wider than your individual show.

This is worth checking before making major changes to a perfectly healthy RSS feed.

If Spotify is experiencing a temporary service problem, rewriting your RSS XML isn’t going to help.

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Spotify Podcast Missing After Importing From Another Host

Imports deserve special attention because a podcast can contain dozens or hundreds of old episodes.

Spotify says missing episodes during a move to Spotify for Creators can happen when the previous host limits how many episodes are included in its RSS feed. An episode may also have been removed from the source feed or affected by a Spotify rules or policy issue.

If the number of imported episodes looks wrong:

1. compare the number of episodes in your old hosting dashboard with the number visible in its RSS feed;
2. check whether your hosting plan has a feed-length limit;
3. confirm the missing episodes are still published;
4. validate the feed;
5. correct the source feed before trying the import again.

If an episode never existed in the feed Spotify imported, Spotify could not have known it was there.

This is another reason I recommend keeping your own archive of every podcast audio file instead of treating the hosting platform as permanent storage.

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Spotify Podcast Not Updating After Changing the Category, Title or Description

Not every “Spotify podcast not updating” search is about a missing episode.

Sometimes the episode appears, but the show name, description, category, cover art, or another piece of metadata still looks old.

For an externally hosted podcast, first check whether the new information appears in the RSS feed.

If your host still has the old value in the feed, Spotify has nothing new to read.

If the feed is correct, give Spotify time to refresh its metadata.

Categories need a little more context because Spotify can use information from your RSS feed as well as its own categorisation systems. If that is specifically what you are changing, my guide on how to change your podcast category on Spotify explains that process separately.

And remember that artwork and audio files can sometimes remain cached even after other metadata updates, which is why a changed file URL may help in those particular cases.

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Your Spotify-Hosted Episode Appears on Spotify but Not Apple Podcasts or Other Apps

This is the opposite problem.

If Spotify for Creators hosts your show, publishing an episode makes it available on Spotify automatically. Getting the same show onto Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pocket Casts, and other podcast services requires enabling your RSS feed and submitting the show to those platforms. Spotify does not automatically distribute it to every outside directory on your behalf.

Once those directories already have your feed, new and updated episodes normally appear within a few hours, although Spotify recommends allowing up to 24 hours.

So if the episode exists on Spotify but is missing everywhere else, check whether:

• your Spotify RSS feed is enabled;
• the affected platform already has your podcast submitted;
• the episode appears in Spotify’s RSS feed;
• enough time has passed for the external directory to refresh;
• that specific directory is reporting an error.

Do not confuse “Spotify is not updating” with “Apple hasn’t fetched Spotify’s RSS feed yet.”

They are two different problems.

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A Simple Troubleshooting Order I Would Actually Use

The original guide had six steps, but several of them were general device fixes. I would replace that sequence with this one:

Sl.no	Check	What the result tells you
1.	Who hosts the podcast?	Tells you whether to troubleshoot Spotify or an external RSS feed
2.	Is the episode actually published?	Rules out drafts, scheduling and upload failures
3.	Is it inside the RSS feed?	Tells you whether the podcast host successfully published it
4.	Does the audio enclosure work?	Rules out broken or inaccessible media
5.	Is the RSS feed valid?	Finds structural feed problems
6.	Is Spotify using the correct RSS feed?	Catches host-migration and wrong-feed problems
7.	Has enough time passed?	Prevents unnecessary changes during normal propagation
8.	Is the issue only on one device?	Only then start app/cache troubleshooting
9.	Is Spotify itself having problems?	Rules out a service-wide issue
10.	Contact the correct support team	Host first for feed issues, Spotify when Spotify is the remaining failure point

That order saves a lot of random troubleshooting.

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When Should You Contact Your Podcast Host?

Contact your hosting provider rather than Spotify when:

• new episode is not appearing in the RSS feed;
• RSS feed returns an error;
• media enclosure does not work;
• feed validator reports problems generated by the host;
• an older episode has disappeared because of a feed-length limit;
• your show metadata doesn’t update inside the feed;
• you need help creating or fixing a redirect after moving hosts.

Spotify specifically recommends contacting the original hosting provider when an externally hosted feed contains errors or missing elements.

The podcast host controls the source feed. Spotify cannot repair XML or media files generated by another company’s system for you.

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When Should You Contact Spotify for Creators Support?

Spotify becomes the right place to escalate the problem when you have already confirmed that:

• episode is published;
• RSS feed loads normally;
• missing episode exists inside it;
• media URL works;
• feed validates;
• Spotify is connected to the correct feed;
• enough time has passed for a normal update;
• there is no obvious broader Spotify outage.

At that point, collect the information Spotify support will actually need.

I would send them:

• Spotify show URL;
• RSS feed URL;
• exact title of the missing episode;
• episode’s publish date;
• a screenshot showing the episode at your hosting provider;
• confirmation that it appears in the RSS feed;
• any relevant validator result;
• details of a recent host migration, if there was one.

That is far more useful than simply sending “my podcast isn’t updating.”

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Will Changing the Podcast RSS Feed Fix a Missing Episode?

Only if Spotify is reading the wrong feed.

Do not change your RSS feed simply because one episode is delayed.

A feed URL change is normally associated with moving hosts or fixing a genuinely incorrect feed connection. Changing it unnecessarily can create bigger distribution problems.

If you recently switched podcast hosts and Spotify still points at the previous host, then yes, updating the feed can be exactly the fix you need. Follow my full guide on changing your podcast RSS feed on Spotify for Creators rather than improvising the migration.

If you haven’t changed hosts, investigate the existing feed first.

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Should You Delete and Reupload a Missing Spotify Episode?

Not until you know why it is missing.

If the problem is a bad audio export and your host specifically requires a new upload, replacing the file can make sense.

But if the episode is missing because Spotify is following the wrong RSS feed, deleting and uploading it again to the same new host changes nothing.

Likewise, if the podcast host never added the episode to its feed because of a publishing error, fix that publishing problem instead.

Deleting and recreating episodes also has the potential to affect the episode’s GUID, which podcast apps use to identify individual episodes. A changed identifier can sometimes lead platforms to interpret the replacement as a completely different episode.

If the goal is actually to remove an old or incorrect episode rather than fix a delay, use my separate guide on how to remove a podcast episode from Spotify.

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Can Monetization Delay a Spotify Podcast Episode?

Normally, don’t assume monetization is the cause simply because your show has ads or paid content.

Spotify has separate systems for monetization and episode publishing, and a missing public episode should still be troubleshot from its publishing status, feed, media, and distribution first.

If the episode is intentionally subscriber-only, however, remember that not every listener will see or access it in exactly the same way as free content.

If you are configuring paid episodes, I have a detailed guide on creating paid podcast subscriptions on Spotify that explains how subscriber-only content behaves.

And if the reason you’re watching every episode so closely is that you’re trying to build revenue from the show, the updated guide on whether Spotify pays podcasters explains how Spotify’s current monetization options work.

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Don’t Forget the Episode Once It Finally Appears

Getting the episode onto Spotify is only half of publishing.

Once it appears, open it as a listener and quickly check:

• the title;
• episode description;
• artwork;
• audio playback;
• beginning and ending of the recording;
• episode number or season information if you use them;
• whether explicit-content settings are correct;
• any links included in the description.

It is much easier to correct a mistake before the episode has been promoted everywhere.

Distribution also cannot rescue an episode that people don’t enjoy once they press play. If you’re still improving the actual production side, my guide to the best microphones for podcasting covers options for cleaner audio without assuming everybody needs an expensive studio.

The microphone is obviously not what fixes an RSS feed, but once the technical problem is solved, the episode itself still needs to be worth hearing.

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Frequently Asked Questions [FAQs]

Wrapping Up: Start With the Source, Not the Spotify Cache

When a Spotify podcast is not updating, I would resist the urge to start randomly restarting apps, deleting episodes, or rebuilding the RSS feed.

First, identify where the podcast is hosted.

If Spotify for Creators hosts it, check whether the episode is genuinely published, whether it was accidentally scheduled, and whether the upload finished successfully.

Suppose another platform hosts the podcast, open the RSS feed and find the missing episode. If the episode isn’t there, fix the problem at your host. If it is there, validate the feed, check the audio URL, make sure Spotify is following the correct RSS address, and allow enough time for Spotify to refresh it.

And if the problem began immediately after changing hosting providers, investigate the RSS migration and redirect before touching individual episodes.

Only after you have confirmed that Spotify itself already has the correct information would I start worrying about app caches or individual devices.

That troubleshooting order may sound less exciting than “clear cache and restart everything,” but it tells you where the episode actually disappeared, which is the information you need to fix the problem without creating a second one.