Add Podcast Syncing/Player Container

I wanted to add a Podcast Syncing Server as container. So far tried OPodSync.

But so far did have some Problems so far with Syncing. There is no official Container, so I used ganeshlab/opodsync with latest.

Did anyone have better experience with this or similar containers?
I Would really, when a podcast player and syncing serves would be added :slight_smile: to the app store.

I’ve played with OPodSync a few times on ZimaOS, and your experience is pretty normal. There’s no official image, the community builds aren’t consistent, and most of the issues come from outdated dependencies or sync endpoints expecting APIs that behave slightly differently.

The ganeshlab/opodsync image does run, but reliability depends heavily on folder permissions and the exact environment variables you pass in. Even then, syncing can be hit-and-miss.

A few things I’d suggest looking at:

1. Rebuild it from source
OPodSync behaves much better when built fresh from the GitHub repo. If you’re comfortable with Docker, a local build usually cleans up most of the weirdness.

2. Try PodSync (the more maintained project)
Not the same feature set, but the podsync/podsync container is actively updated and much more predictable. Worth trying if your workflow aligns with it.

3. Consider the gPodder backend
Some users have had better results running a gPodder sync server. It’s older, but the API is stable, and the containers tend to be less temperamental.

4. App Store request
+1 from me on adding a proper podcast sync/player solution to the App Store. It fills a real gap, and having an officially supported container would smooth this out for everyone.

ganeshlab/opodsync had have a new update recently. But still it did not help 100 %.

But I figured out that doing a full sync instead works a bit better.

Towards, gpodder… a) I used gpodder.net for years… thats why I wanted a local service in the first place.

Looks like there is no image and to create a full NextCloud only for Podcast syncing is a bit to much!

Good to hear the latest ganeshlab/opodsync update helped a little, even if it is still not perfect. Full sync usually behaves better with that container because incremental sync has always been the unreliable part.

Regarding gPodder, I fully understand why you want a local service. gpodder.net worked well, but relying on an external server defeats the whole purpose of running ZimaOS locally. And setting up a full Nextcloud stack only for podcast syncing is definitely too much.

The real issue is what you have already discovered. There is no maintained, lightweight, self hosted podcast sync backend with a clean official container. OPodSync is close but not stable enough. gPodder Server is reliable but not packaged in a consistent Docker-friendly way.

I still support this as an App Store request. A small dedicated podcast-sync backend, properly containerised and tested, would fill a real gap.

If you like, I can help experiment with a minimal gPodder container build to see if we can achieve something stable on ZimaOS without dragging in a full Nextcloud setup.

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