Improve syncing performance when a user is subscribed to a large number of podcasts

[emilylaguna]

Expected behavior

When syncing large number of podcasts we should show an updated UI showing the syncing progress, and/or speed up the process of syncing lots of podcasts initially

Actual behavior

The sync progress is very slow, and the UI doesn't update to reflect its progress.

Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. Subscribe to a large number of podcasts while signed into a syncing account
2. Delete the app and reinstall it
3. Run the app and sign into your syncing account
4. The syncing process will take quite a while

Tested on [device], iOS [version], Pocket Casts [version]

N/A

[joashrajin]

Reported initially in #5459891-zen

The user said it got worse when updating to 7.20+. Asked them to join the Beta in the meantime

[joashrajin]

5828452-zd-woothemes

Android user here who doesn't have too many subscriptions, but they would like the syncing process to be more efficient when signing in to a new device

[joashrajin]

I found an annoying bug. After I reached 1k podcasts subscriptions the app got slow. Now I have 2k+ podcast subscriptions the app doesn’t work on background and it’s very slow. Every time I press play and minimize the app to use my iPhone the app crash and I’ve to open again play again but it’s so slow that I’ve to wait like to minutes so I can press play.

6253291-zd-woothemes

[joashrajin]

2897 podcasts subscriptions causing the app to crash

6211846-zd-woothemes

[joashrajin]

Surely I've tried everything I can do, including rebooting my iPhone 6sp to reopen the app, still go crashing. Tha last version that doesn't go crashing is 7.35. I subs 1400+ feeds.

6269623-zd-woothemes

[joashrajin]

@emilylaguna, in this case, the user faces many app crashes on an iPhone XR using iOS 16.3.1 and Pocket Casts v7.40.1. They mentioned that if the iPhone alarm triggered while Pocket Casts was playing, it made the app crash too.

Do you think we should keep the report here, or make a separate bug report?

6463866-zd-woothemes

[emilylaguna]

@joashrajin I think we can leave it here.

[igotdes]

The user in #6463866-zen has shared crash logs. I'm not putting them here as I'm not sure if it's safe to share them publicly, but please let us know if you have trouble accessing them in the Zendesk ticket.

[joashrajin]

7183150-zd-a8c

[thabotswana]

Pocket Casts has been very slow for me lately with a lot of hiccups. But it’s my fault because I’m subscribed to over 1000 feeds!

What is the best way to administer it? I’m not going to unsubscribe from any feeds but that being said, I’d like to know if other things may help. For example, clearing the queue, clearing the downloads or any other thing you might suggest.

7226082-zd-a8c

[igotdes]

7812327-zen:

Is there any way we can optimize the app for those with a large archive of podcasts? It just isnt working the way i want to meaning its been really sluggy and slow. Its been a build up of 5 years and i dont wanna start over

User has more than 5000 podcast subscriptions on their account.

[joashrajin]

8077928-zd-a8c

user has over 3k podcasts

[joashrajin]

8786395-zd-a8c