TideCaster — Support | Port City Creations

Contact

For questions, bug reports, or feedback: support@portcity.tech

You can expect a response within 48 hours.

Frequently Asked Questions

General

What is TideCaster? TideCaster is a privacy-first listening app for iOS. It plays podcasts, free audiobooks from LibriVox, text-to-speech articles from RSS feeds, and audio files you import from your device.

How much does TideCaster cost? TideCaster is free with no ads, no in-app purchases, and no subscriptions.

Does TideCaster collect my data? No. TideCaster collects zero data — no analytics, no telemetry, no accounts. See the Privacy Policy for full details.

Podcasts

How do I subscribe to a podcast? Go to the Discover tab, search for a podcast by name, and tap it to subscribe. You can also tap the + button to add a podcast by its RSS feed URL (useful for private feeds from Patreon, Supercast, etc.).

Why aren’t my episodes downloading? Check your download settings in Settings. If “WiFi Only” is enabled, episodes won’t download on cellular. You can also tap a queued download to override and download it immediately on cellular.

How do I listen to a private/premium podcast? Tap the + button in the Discover tab, paste the private feed URL from your podcast provider (Patreon, Supercast, Supporting Cast, etc.), and tap Subscribe.

Can I control download and cleanup per podcast? Yes. Open a podcast’s detail page and tap the gear icon to set per-podcast auto-download limits, playback speed, and retention period.

Audiobooks

Where do the audiobooks come from? Audiobooks are sourced from LibriVox , a volunteer project that produces free public domain audiobook recordings. All titles are free and legal to listen to.

Can I download audiobook chapters for offline listening? Yes. Open an audiobook and use the download buttons on individual chapters, or download all chapters at once.

Text-to-Speech Reader

How does the text-to-speech feature work? Subscribe to an RSS feed (blog, newsletter, or news site) from the Discover tab using the + button. TideCaster fetches new articles and generates spoken audio on your device using Apple’s built-in speech synthesis. No text is sent to any server.

Can I share articles from Safari? Yes. Use the iOS Share Sheet in Safari (or any app) to share an article URL to TideCaster. The article is added to your Saved Articles feed and audio is generated automatically.

Can I change the reading voice? Yes. Each text feed can have its own voice and reading speed. Go to the feed’s detail page and tap the gear icon. You can also set a default voice in Settings. For more voice options, download Enhanced or Premium voices from iOS Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content > Voices.

Local Audio Files

What file formats are supported? TideCaster supports any audio format that iOS can play, including MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, and CAF.

How do I import audio files? Tap the + button in the Library toolbar and choose “Import Audio Files.” Select files from iCloud Drive, the Files app, or any connected storage provider.

My imported file shows “Permission Denied” — what happened? iOS security-scoped bookmarks can expire if the source file is moved or deleted from iCloud Drive. Open the file in the player and tap “Re-import File” to select it again.

Playback

Does TideCaster support CarPlay? Yes. Connect your iPhone to a CarPlay-compatible vehicle and TideCaster appears on the CarPlay dashboard. You can browse your library and control playback from the car’s screen.

How does the sleep timer work? Open the full-screen player and tap the moon icon. Choose a duration (5, 10, 15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes) or “End of Episode.” When the timer expires, audio fades out over 3 seconds.

Does TideCaster save my playback position? Yes. Your position is saved automatically every few seconds, and also whenever you pause, skip, or switch apps. If iOS terminates the app in the background, your position is restored when you reopen it.

Can I set different playback speeds for different podcasts? Yes. Change the speed while listening to any podcast and it’s saved automatically for that show. Each podcast remembers its own speed.

Sync and Backup

How does iCloud sync work? When enabled, your subscriptions, playback progress, and settings sync across all your Apple devices signed into the same iCloud account. Sync uses Apple’s iCloud infrastructure — no data passes through Port City Creations servers.

What if I delete the app? Deleting the app removes all local data. If iCloud sync was enabled, your data remains in iCloud and will be restored if you reinstall. To fully remove synced data, go to iOS Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Manage Storage.

System Requirements

iOS 18.0 or later
iPhone or iPad

Troubleshooting

The app uses a lot of storage. Go to Settings > Storage to see how much space downloads and generated audio are using. You can adjust auto-cleanup settings to automatically remove played content after a set number of days.

Audio stops when I lock my phone. Make sure no other audio app has taken over the audio session. If the problem persists, force quit and reopen TideCaster.

Podcast feeds aren’t refreshing. TideCaster checks for new episodes based on your refresh interval (Settings > Refresh Interval). You can also pull down on the Library to manually refresh. Background refresh requires iOS Background App Refresh to be enabled for TideCaster in iOS Settings.