How to add Podcasts to your Apple Watch without the iPhone (watch OS 4)

So I wanted to go jogging and leave my phone at home. Trouble is that i like to listen to Podcasts while I run, and Apple only wants you listening to music. So what to do? After some Google’n I came across an app called Overcast that claims to allow this. So I quickly downloaded the app set up all my podcasts and “wah wah” surprise it didn’t work. Why? because Apple updated to Watch OS 4 and broke it!

So now what? Well, turns out you CAN add music to your watch, and what is a podcast but a long mp3 right? So how do you convince iTunes that a podcast is a song? Easy!

So heres how you can trick your watch into playing a pod cast.

NOTE: this requires a computer with iTunes, an iPhone, an Apple Watch, and some patience.

Step 1:
Open iTunes on your desktop or laptop computer. Then create a playlist called Pods (or what ever you want really I don’t care)

Step 2:
Select the Podcasts dropdown and start getting your podcasts downloaded to your computer. NOTE: they have to be downloaded no clouds next to them.

Step 3:
Click the ellipsis and in the drop down menu select Podcast Info

Under the options tab chose the media kind dropdown and change it from Podcast to Music. Then click Ok.

At this point that podcast you were just changing will disappear. But fear not it has merely moved to the music folder. Keep doing this until you have all the podcast you want to load on your watch.

Step 4:
Now go back to the music section by selecting the dropdown at the top once again and select Music. If you look in your recently added library you should now see your “podcasts” that are now “music”. Select all of them and add them to the “Pods” playlist you created in step 1.

Step 5:
Sync your music to your phone. Now I don’t generally use iTunes to do this but in this case you need to. So i only select the one playlist to sync.

Step 6:
Once your music is on your iPhone you will need to open the Apple Watch app. In the “My Watch” section scroll down to the “Music” app menu item. Click it and you will see the playlist section near the bottom. Click the “Add Music” button and navigate to your “Pods” playlist. Select it!

Last Step:
Put your Apple watch on the charger if its not there already. This will cause the music to sync to the apple watch. This could take a few minute so go stretch before your run.

Last thing is enjoy your podcasts while running!!!

Leave Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *