Downloads, Retention, and Storage
Automatic and manual downloads, episode limits, cleanup policy, recovery, cellular choices, and offline expectations.
Coming soon. Passage has not been released. This guide previews the current development version; controls and availability may change before launch.
Following is separate from downloading
A follow determines episode membership. Download settings determine which audio files to keep locally. You can follow a show without downloading every entry, and you can download a single episode for a trip without turning on automatic downloads for the entire show.
Global Download settings offer Manually or Automatically and a Use Cellular Data choice. Show overrides and named-follow settings can change effective behavior. A follow set to Use Global inherits the applicable default rather than becoming a fixed copy of today’s global value.
What automatic downloads do
A new automatic follow seeds matching episodes up to its effective episode limit. After that, automatic downloads target newly discovered matching episodes. Deleting an episode does not silently backfill its place with an older episode.
This keeps cleanup from triggering a rolling download of a show’s whole archive. If you want an older item after deleting something, choose it explicitly. Feed refresh discovers new metadata; it is not a command to redownload everything missing from local storage.
Episode limits
Limits include Unlimited, recent counts of 1, 2, 3, 5, or 10, and oldest-count choices of 1, 2, 3, 5, or 10. A named follow can use the global limit or its own choice. Unlimited can consume substantial storage on large feeds; choose it deliberately.
Rules and limits work together. A limit of five applies to the follow’s selected episodes, not a guarantee that five episodes exist. Missing duration or a broad exclusion can reduce the matching set before download policy is considered.
Completion-based cleanup
Delete Episodes offers Manually, When Completed, or 24 Hours After Completion. These settings are distinct from played state, following a show, or removing an item from a playlist. Review the global choice and any show override when a finished file disappears sooner than expected.
Storage shows downloaded/imported usage and audio-file counts, with a route to inspect downloaded episodes and remove local files. Passage’s automatic cleanup follows its deletion policy; deliberate removal remains a separate user action.
Interrupted downloads and recovery
Passage keeps recovery information for background podcast downloads and uses retry/resume handling to recover interrupted attempts. A failed request, changed source, low local storage, or an unavailable publisher may still need attention. Confirm that a download completed before relying on it offline.
If a file fails repeatedly, check available space and the publisher’s current source. Retry the episode deliberately. Do not assume a visible library entry means its audio download is complete.
What stays local
Podcast downloads remain on the device that downloaded them. iCloud library sync can bring a follow or played/starred choice to another device, but does not transfer those downloaded podcast files. Imported podcast episodes are local too. Audiobook audio transfer uses a separate optional iCloud Drive feature.