Podcast Embeds Not Showing

[SlavicLitPod]

For quite some time I have been able to successfully embed my podcast episodes from my host into my Ghost posts. For instance: War and Peace (Book 3, Part 1)

Lately, these embeds have stopped showing up on my new posts. To clarify, I am talking about posts and not emails (I know that was an issue awhile back in the forums). See here: The Performance by Dovlatov

In my editor, there is the same embed code from my podcast host as the working post, but suddenly my new posts don’t seem to display the embed. I have also tried pasting embeds from other podcast sites - Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc. I have tried pasting the share URL, embedding their iframes, and any other variant I could think to try.

I’m running on Ghost v. 5.59.4. Normally, I am using Chrome, but I have replicated this issue on Firefox and Safari (mobile as well).

When I inspect the page code, I don’t even see the embed code at all.

Any help is much appreciated!

[RyanF]

Looking at the two posts, I can’t see anything out of the ordinary (like errors or malformed markup).

Are there any differences in templates in your theme?

Are you able to share the embed code?

[SlavicLitPod]

Sure!

The working embed looks like this:

<script async defer onload="redcircleIframe();" src="https://api.podcache.net/embedded-player/sh/8100a5ac-e63a-4676-9165-e34193c74a47/ep/f446b7fb-d53b-4cfc-97ff-2accbfc2c998"></script>
    <div class="redcirclePlayer-f446b7fb-d53b-4cfc-97ff-2accbfc2c998"></div>
    <style>
    .redcircle-link:link {
        color: #ea404d;
        text-decoration: none;
    }
    .redcircle-link:hover {
        color: #ea404d;
    }
    .redcircle-link:active {
        color: #ea404d;
    }
    .redcircle-link:visited {
        color: #ea404d;
    }
</style>
<p style="margin-top:3px;margin-left:11px;font-family: sans-serif;font-size: 10px; color: gray;">Powered by <a class="redcircle-link" href="https://redcircle.com?utm_source=rc_embedded_player&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=embedded_v1">RedCircle</a></p>

The one that is not working looks like this:

<script async defer onload="redcircleIframe();" src="https://api.podcache.net/embedded-player/sh/8100a5ac-e63a-4676-9165-e34193c74a47/ep/0163b0d5-f305-4595-b371-c81b0a6f3b1b"></script>
    <div class="redcirclePlayer-0163b0d5-f305-4595-b371-c81b0a6f3b1b"></div>
    <style>
    .redcircle-link:link {
        color: #ea404d;
        text-decoration: none;
    }
    .redcircle-link:hover {
        color: #ea404d;
    }
    .redcircle-link:active {
        color: #ea404d;
    }
    .redcircle-link:visited {
        color: #ea404d;
    }
</style>
<p style="margin-top:3px;margin-left:11px;font-family: sans-serif;font-size: 10px; color: gray;">Powered by <a class="redcircle-link" href="https://redcircle.com?utm_source=rc_embedded_player&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=embedded_v1">RedCircle</a></p>

Just to test an extra variable, I pasted the Spotify URL to the episode into the post that is not working as well. I can see it in the editor but not the final post.

Neither of them are showing in the published post.

Edit: Sorry, didn’t see your comment about templates. These should both be using the same post template. I was making posts that used the embeds fine for a few months now. Just recently I noticed it stopped working.

[RyanF]

Thanks for sharing those snippets. I tested them and they seemed to work as expected:

I’m trying to think about other possibilities as to why these would’ve stopped showing up. Did you recently update your theme or upgrade Ghost?

[SlavicLitPod]

I’m not sure if it is theme-specific. I am starting another website using Ghost that uses a completely different theme and am running into the same problem with the podcast player. This podcast player is from a different host as well (Spotify for Podcasters instead of RedCircle).

Here on the different theme: The Dinner Party I am also not seeing the player with the embed code:

<iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/1NNa8wx0jOIuaTcPJLIFZD?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="352" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe>

I can try contacting my host (I do not self host - I’m not that tech-savvy) to see if there was an update recently that might be affecting things. I wanted to double check that it’s not an issue on my end before doing that.

The only other thing that others had trouble with that I thought might be applicable here was if the embed was somehow serving mixed content. However, it seems to me that the src is serving over https and should not be causing an issue there. Plus, I would assume that old posts would suffer from the same issue as newer ones.

[RyanF]

Are you adding the iframe via an html card in the editor?

[SlavicLitPod]

Normally, yes. That was working perfectly fine for me up until recently.

However, since I’ve had this issue I have tried adding the episode’s URL to an “Other /embed” block as well as just pasting the URL into the post. In my picture above, you can see that this is displaying properly in the editor but is not showing anything on the published post.

[RyanF]

With the Redcircle podcast, I’d use the HTML card.
Do other embeds work (like from YouTube)?
Are you using the beta editor (you’ll see Beta feedback in green text in the lower lefthand corner)?
Which version of Ghost are you using?

[SlavicLitPod]

I disabled the Ghost beta editor, created a new post, and I once again see embeds. This is on v. 5.59.4.

I have had the beta editor enabled since I started posting, so it seems like maybe a new issue.

Either way, glad to have found a solution!

Edit: I just wanted to add that this only works when you create a new post after disabling the beta editor. It doesn’t actually fix the posts that were made with the beta editor.

[RyanF]

Thanks for sharing that! I’m on the same version and in the beta editor, but I can’t reproduce the issue The embeds still show for me.

[SlavicLitPod]

It’s not particularly consistent. The RedCircle embed works for me when embedded in the html block. Posting just a Spotify link, for instance, also will produce the proper link. However, on my other website, the html block still will not give an embed with the Spotify for Podcasters code.

At this point, as long as I can have some working embed on my sites that’s okay.

The only downside is, of course, having to go back and redo all of the posts to make sure they are on the old editor.

I’ve also followed up with my host in case it could be something on their end.