How do I fix frequent Apple Podcasts app freeze-ups on iPhone 17 Pro with iOS 26.1?

HI oriole621

welcome to this Apple (user-to-user) Community! Congratulations on the new iPhone!

Re: "How do I fix frequent Apple Podcasts app freeze-ups on iPhone 17 Pro with iOS 26.1?"

Thank you for sharing that you have the latest iOS update installed ... great!

There are various possible causes ... so not easy to guess which one in your case.

As your iPhone is so new you may want to reach out to the experts for complimentary support:

One stop for technical support, Apple hardware service, and software support.

Call Apple Support at 1-800-APLCARE (or use the app): AppleCare - Apple

More info. about complimentary support:

_________________________________

Else: Some trouble-shooting steps you might want to try (one at a time) to see if one fixes your issue,

✽ Force the app to close.  Then open Podcasts again, and see if it works ok now

✽ If needed: Restart your iPhone, and see if that has helped re-establish order.

✽ If you have un-necessary third-party (non-Apple) apps like virus-checkers, ad-blockers, cleaners, browser extensions, even VPN, on your iPhone, try turning them off, (or use uninstalkers from their developers) and see whether or not the issue has been caused by interference.

✽ Any third-party apps you find necessary need to be kept updated to the newest compatible version.so they don't cause incompatibility issues.

✽ Ensure your iPhone has at least 8Gb storage space free so your iPhone can operate smoothly.

Check in Settings > General > iPhone Storage

All the best :-)

Thank you for joining the discussion, and for sharing your experience.

You might want to send feedback to reach those who work on the software behind-the-scenes at Apple. They will likely not reply, yet your feedback will be carefully read, and logged. (You could include a link to this discussion thread if you wish.)

If others are having this issue too, the more feedback Apple receives on which hardware modes, and which software versions, are affected, the more likely we will see an update that addresses the issue.

Web-form for feedback: Feedback - Apple Podcasts - Apple

Same issue over here. Multiple times a day and the only way to fix is force close the app. It drives me absolutely nuts and has been happening constantly across all versions of iOS 26.