Podcasts
Litara includes a built-in podcast manager. You can subscribe to any podcast via its RSS feed URL, download episodes to your server, and play them from the web or mobile app — with progress synced across devices.
Litara is mainly meant to archive podcasts that may disappear in the future, or to keep an archive of your favorite podcasts/episodes. For just listening to podcasts, Litara will not have the advanced podcast features you may be familiar with.
Podcasts must be enabled by an administrator before they appear in the UI. See Admin Settings below.
Enabling podcasts
An admin must enable the feature under Admin → General → Podcasts. Once enabled, a Podcasts entry appears in the sidebar for all users.
Optionally, set PODCAST_STORAGE_PATH in your environment (or docker-compose.yml) to control where downloaded episode files are stored. If unset, files are saved to <data>/podcasts/ inside the container.
Subscribing to a podcast
- Navigate to Podcasts in the sidebar.
- Click Subscribe and paste the RSS feed URL.
- Litara fetches the feed, creates the podcast record, and imports the episode list.
Downloading episodes
Episodes are not downloaded automatically unless you configure a download policy. To download an episode manually:
- On the Podcast detail page, click the download icon next to any episode.
Download status is shown as a badge on each episode row:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not downloaded | File has not been fetched |
| Pending | Queued for download |
| Downloading | Currently being fetched |
| Downloaded | File is on the server and ready to play |
| Failed | Download attempt failed — click the icon to retry |
Automatic download policies
On the podcast detail page you can configure a per-podcast download policy:
| Policy | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Manual | No automatic downloads (default) |
| All | Download every new episode as soon as the feed is refreshed |
| Latest N | Keep only the N most recent episodes downloaded |
Playing an episode
Only downloaded episodes can be played. Click the play button on any downloaded episode row to start playback. The mini-player bar appears at the bottom of the screen.
Web player
The web player floats at the bottom of every page while an episode is playing.
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Play / Pause | Toggle playback |
| Skip back 30 s | Jump back 30 seconds |
| Skip forward 30 s | Jump forward 30 seconds |
| Progress slider | Seek anywhere in the episode |
| Playback speed | 0.5× – 2× (saved across sessions) |
Mobile player
Tap the mini-player bar at the bottom to open the full-screen episode player. It provides the same controls as the web player.
Progress tracking
Playback position is saved to the server every 10 seconds. When you return to an episode, playback resumes from where you left off. Progress is shown as a small bar and a timestamp on each downloaded episode row.
An episode is automatically marked as listened when playback reaches 95% of its duration.
Feed refresh
Litara refreshes subscribed podcast feeds on a schedule (configurable per podcast, minimum 15 minutes). You can also trigger an immediate refresh from the podcast detail page using the Refresh Feed button.
Unsubscribing
Click Unsubscribe on the podcast detail page. You will be prompted whether to keep or delete downloaded episode files.