When viewing a podcasts on the iPod app on the iPhone, there's an option below to "Get more episodes". When you click on that, iTunes app is launched, and you're shown the latest 20 episodes.
Is there a way to view more than the last 20 episodes? I want to download even older ones.
In the iPhone app, at the bottom of the list of episodes you will always find the link you can tap to "Get More Episodes". That is a hardwired link to that podcast's page on iTunes. This link will be shown regardless of whether or not there are more episodes actually available.
The podcast pages in the iTunes app and in iTunes on the desktop are the same and contain the same episode list. The episode lists themeselves are not controlled or determined by Apple or iTunes, but by the makers of each podcast. Podcast makers use different feed systems (like adlib or feeedburner) and they have different bandwith limitations depending on their own usage terms.
Podcasts like This American Life, for example, in order to minimize bandwith costs, will only keep the latest episode on their episode list. So when you tap on "Get More Episodes" you will only get a list of one. Podcasts like This Week In Tech, for example, have bandwith sponsors that allow them to host most of their back catalogue. So when you tap on "Get More Epidodes", you will get a list of fifty or more. It basically all depends on how each podcast maker handles their feed and bandwith costs.
Hope this helps.
It seems that the 20 limit you see is a limitation set by the podcast provider, not Apple. When I tried this with several podcasts, some had their full archive of podcasts available, while others limited it to the last 10, for example.
You could try to find the podcast in iTunes on your desktop and see if that limitation exists there as well. Most likely it will have the same 20 episode limitation. If that is the case, you could try going to the podcast's website to see if they have an archive of old podcasts available.
