Getting started with Podcast Shelf

• a phone running Android 8.0 or later, and the app, available on Google Play;
• an Audiobookshelf server, version 2.4.0 or later, with a podcast library;
• an account on that server. A regular account is enough: only subscriptions and OPML import need an administrator account.

No server yet? Try the app on our demo instance, then set up your own with the guide Installing Audiobookshelf with Docker and Caddy.

1. Enter the server address, the one you open in your browser (for example https://podcasts.example.com). A server served under a sub-path works too.
2. Choose “Username and password”, or “API key”: you create one in Audiobookshelf, Settings › API Keys.
3. If the server has several podcast libraries, pick yours. You can switch later in the settings.

The session renews itself: you do not have to sign in again.

Your server has no HTTPS address, or its certificate comes from your own certificate authority? Open “Advanced options” when signing in:

• Allow unencrypted connection (HTTP): the password and the session then travel in clear text. Keep it for a network you trust, such as your home network.
• Trust certificates installed on this phone: for a certificate signed by an authority you installed in Android's settings.

These options only apply to the chosen server, never to any other address.

Episodes your server downloads for your subscriptions go into the “Up next” playlist on their own, even when the app is closed (a check every six hours).

Prefer to build the playlist yourself? Turn off “Add new episodes” in the settings, Playlist section. Turned back on, only episodes arriving from then on are added. The setting applies to this phone: your other devices keep their own.

To add episodes already on the server, open the “Podcasts” tab: a button on each podcast adds all its unplayed episodes. You can also add episodes from the Audiobookshelf web interface.

The library is empty? You first need to subscribe to podcasts on the server. With an administrator account, you can do it from the “Podcasts” tab.

In the settings:

• Download playlist episodes (on by default): each episode that enters the playlist downloads to the phone;
• Download on Wi-Fi only;
• Delete an episode once played, to free up space on its own;
• the space taken by downloads, and “Delete all”.

Deleting downloads touches neither the playlist nor your listening history.

Podcast Shelf shows up in Android Auto with the playlist and downloaded episodes. Sign in on the phone first, while parked.

If you installed the app outside the Play Store (APK file), Android Auto only shows it once “Unknown sources” is enabled in its developer settings.