Admittedly I still use iTunes as my go-to podcast player. One of the biggest reason is, it offers cross-device and platform synchronization on subscriptions as well as the episode progresses. So you can supposedly and seamlessly pick up where you were left off on another device. In reality, this might not be the case, often times podcasts are out of sync between my iOS devices and Windows iTunes. The biggest issue I found is that iTunes would stop fetch new podcasts on Windows. Here are three ways you can make sure new podcasts shows up on your iTunes on Windows.
Method #1, Manual Refresh
Unlike iOS devices iTunes there is no pull-down to refresh gesture. You are stuck with the old button click. You can do that by going to Podcast > Library > Refresh (bottom of the list). This will Refresh ALL subscribed podcast in the list.
Method #2, Refresh per selected Podcast
If there is a particular podcast that you are interested in, not picking up new episodes from the feed. You can select the podcast that you are interested in and navigate to the top right > “…” icon > Refresh Podcast. This will fetch for new shows on the selected podcast only.
Method #3, Increase Auto Refresh Rate
Last but might not be the least method is to let the computer to do the job for you. You can configure iTunes to increase the duration of frequency
Navigate to the Podcast home page, right next to the Refresh button click on Defaults… this will launch the default podcast settings. From there you can change and increase the refresh rate up to every hour.
If you are being patient with iTunes, it will eventually fetch all the new podcasts for you. Enjoy listening to your next episode!