Importing and Migrating Feeds from Other Hosts

When creating a new feed, you'll have the option to import the feed from another podcast hosting platform. This will pull all published episodes from your old host into your Hello Audio account.

What to Expect

The general process is giving Hello Audio your feed's link, and we move all the content over. Then you'll set up a "301 redirect" at your old host that points to your new feed in Hello Audio. Keep your old host running for about a month for the apps to catch on to the change, then you can cancel your old podcast hosting account.

When moving podcast hosts, there's a number of "clean up" tasks that may be required after the migration finishes. This is for all hosts, not Hello Audio in particular. Though the 301 redirect should point all podcast apps to your new feed location, there will inevitably be hiccups.

For example, I moved from Libsyn to Blubrry and ended up with 2 shows on Spotify. I contacted their support and it was a quick fix. But there will most likely be issues like that to deal with after moving.

In addition to the redirect, you can log in to the platforms like Apple and Spotify and manually point them to the new feed at Hello Audio right away.

For public podcasting, there are some features Hello Audio doesn't support while other hosts do. If you use any of the following, you'll lose those features when moving your feed to Hello Audio:

  • Per-episode images
  • Episode prefixes, other than Chartable
  • More than 1 category and 1 subcategory

You should also be aware that you stats don't migrate with your feed. There's no way for us to know the stats from your previous host. The databases like Apple and Spotify will keep your stats running, but the numbers you see in your old podcast hosting account will not appear in Hello Audio.

You'll also need to update any embedded players from your old host. Since the media isn't hosted there any longer, those players won't function.

Knowing the above, you're ready to begin importing your feed!

Begin the Migration

Click "Create New Feed" then the "Import Feed" on either the private or public option. If you import to a private feed it is set as Date-Based to start. You're free to change the type after the import finishes.

You'll need the link to the RSS feed of your podcast. This is the link you gave Apple and Spotify when initially publishing your show, for example. If you don't know what your RSS feed link is, search "rss feed [your podcast host]" e.g. Libsyn.

If you open this link, it appears as a bunch of computer code. Don't worry! That's the correct link. Podcast apps and hosts like Hello Audio know what to do with that code.

Note for Libsyn and Podbean Users

Libsyn and Podbean limit feeds to the 100 most recentepisodes by default. To transfer all your episodes into Hello Audio, you'll need to turn off their limiters if you have more than 100 episodes.
    Libsyn instructions - Scroll to "Episode/Post Limit"
    Podbean instructions

Paste that link in the box that appears and click Submit. The import could take quite a while. Possibly an hour+ for large feeds.

Your feed list is updated with a status of the import progress. Hover over the ? to see details. The status updates on each page refresh.

In your feed list, you'll see the imported feed appear. You may need to refresh after a few minutes to initially see it among your other feeds. Its episode list begins to be populated as the content is migrated over.

It's possible the import fails, or not all episode make it over. This could be due to a number of factors. Check with your other podcast host's support if the entire feed fails. If it's a small number of episodes, you may want to just add those yourself manually inside Hello Audio.

After the Import is Complete

Once complete, you'll see the notification change, indicating the import has finished. Go to your imported feed and ensure all episodes are present. Check the dates and times, as well as show notes to confirm completeness. 

For example, my feed that was on Blubrry/PowerPress had multiple image tags (not compliant with the podcasting spec) and the importer grabbed the website image rather than podcast. I had to manually change that in Hello Audio.

If all content is there, you're ready to set up the 301 redirect. 

Set Up a 301 Redirect at Your Old Host

The exact steps are host-specific. Start by searching for "how to set up a 301 redirect [your podcast host, e.g. Libsyn]". That should walk you through the process.

All 301 redirects will need your new feed URL. Grab that in your feed by clicking the clipboard next to your feed URL, which will copy it to your clipboard. Paste that into your host's 301 redirect field.

With the redirect in place, keep it running for about a month for all the podcast directories to learn of the change. After that, you can close your old hosting account if you'd like.

You can also log in to the podcast directories and manually update your feed. Here are the links to Apple and Spotify.