I see there are a few bug reports about problems changing the download directory. None help, so I will add my experiences.

I have installed gPodder in Ubuntu 12.10. 

In Preferences > edit config, I think there should be a setting to change the download directory. But there isn't. It's there in Fedora 17 (I have a dual boot), but not in Ubuntu.

I have tried changing the download directory via command line, but I can't work out what commands I have to enter.

Which version of gPodder are you using on each distro?

In Fedora, I have gPodder 2.20.2

In Ubuntu, it's 3.3.0

(In reply to comment #3)
> In Fedora, I have gPodder 2.20.2
> 
> In Ubuntu, it's 3.3.0

In version 3.3.0, you can set the download directory via the GPODDER_HOME or GPODDER_DOWNLOAD_DIR variable (depending on whether you want to move the Database and settings file as well or just the downloaded files). You can find this info in the README file, including instructions on how to do it:

https://github.com/gpodder/gpodder/blob/master/README

Also, the User Manual has a section "Changing the downloads folder location":

http://wiki.gpodder.org/wiki/User_Manual

Hi Thomas,

I tried following the github README instructions, but they don't work. With gPodder closed, I ran: 

export GPODDER_DOWNLOAD_DIR=/home/gwyn/Everything/Podcasts

But after that, gPodder continues to downloads podcasts to /home/gwyn/gPodder/downloads. 

I can't change the gPodder_Home either. 

There is no option to change the download directory in gPodder itself in Ubuntu 12.10 (gPodder 3.3.0).

Gwyn

(In reply to comment #5)
> export GPODDER_DOWNLOAD_DIR=/home/gwyn/Everything/Podcasts

Did you run "gpodder" in the same Terminal window *after* setting the environment variable there? If you start it from the icon, the environment variable won't be picked up (unless you use e.g. /etc/environment and re-login).

Thanks, Thomas. That worked. But does this mean that I always have to open gPodder from a terminal? I tried opening it from the icon, and gPodder created a new home directory and didn't have any of my podcast settings.

How can I make gPodder open correctly (with my new download directory etc) by clicking the gPodder icon?

Gwyn

Sorry ... I just restarted my computer and I seem to have to re-run the export commands to set download directory and to change gPodder_Home. Otherwise, gPodder thinks I am starting up for the first time...

Gwyn

(In reply to comment #7)
> Thanks, Thomas. That worked. But does this mean that I always have to open
> gPodder from a terminal? I tried opening it from the icon, and gPodder created
> a new home directory and didn't have any of my podcast settings.
> 
> How can I make gPodder open correctly (with my new download directory etc) by
> clicking the gPodder icon?

You have to set a session-wide environment variable:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnvironmentVariables#Session-wide_environment_variables

Or a system-wide environment variable:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnvironmentVariables#System-wide_environment_variables

Or edit the .desktop file of gPodder:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnvironmentVariables#Launching_desktop_application_with_an_environment_variable

In all cases, the variable name is GPODDER_DOWNLOAD_DIR, and the variable value is the path to the download directory.

Hi Thomas,

I created/edited ~/.pam_environment. It took a bit of experimenting before things worked. I didn't understand exactly what I had to add. (I tried typing 'export' to start with ... and a bunch of other things ...)

I wrote some instructions (below) for the gPodder user manual to make things clearer. I didn't add them to the manual, however, as they would just be instructions for Ubuntu. I think it would be good to have very specific instructions about what people have to type... for dummies like me... so you might want to include them.

Thanks for your help.

Gwyn


To change GPODDER_HOME or the download directory, do this:

* Open a terminal
* Type: gedit ~/.pam_environment

Add one or two of the following lines (depending on whether you want to change both these variables or just one):

* GPODDER_HOME=[path to directory you want to use]
* GPODDER_DOWNLOAD_DIR=[path to directory you want to use]

(In reply to comment #10)
> Hi Thomas,
> 
> I created/edited ~/.pam_environment. It took a bit of experimenting before
> things worked. I didn't understand exactly what I had to add. (I tried typing
> 'export' to start with ... and a bunch of other things ...)
> 
> I wrote some instructions (below) for the gPodder user manual to make things
> clearer. I didn't add them to the manual, however, as they would just be
> instructions for Ubuntu. I think it would be good to have very specific
> instructions about what people have to type... for dummies like me... so you
> might want to include them.

Thanks, I've included that now in the Wiki page as additional section. Please feel free to revise and update it (it's a Wiki :) in case you want to update it.

I've tried setting the environmental variable as suggested below and have had no success. The download directory remains stuck on the default /home/username/gPodder/Downloads

How can I test from terminal to see if the variable is being set correctly?

Rather than just telling users to edit the pam_environment file, some step by step instructions on what to do afterwards would be really helpful as most of us are used to this functionality working correctly as it did in Gpodder 2.x! For example: do I need to modify anything so that Gpodder picks up the variables?

I've got 10Gb of podcasts sitting on my data drive, currently inaccessible and insufficient space on my system drive to move them.

If I enter in terminal (after a reboot) printenv (I believe this should print the environmental variables), neither of the set variables in .pam_environment

GPODDER_HOME=/media/data/data/GPodderNew/
GPODDER_DOWNLOAD_DIR=/media/data/data/GPodderNew/

are displayed.

I'm using Lubuntu 12.10 and regret upgrading to it as it has caused no end of problems with Gpodder.

(In reply to comment #13)
> If I enter in terminal (after a reboot) printenv (I believe this should print
> the environmental variables), neither of the set variables in .pam_environment
> 
> GPODDER_HOME=/media/data/data/GPodderNew/
> GPODDER_DOWNLOAD_DIR=/media/data/data/GPodderNew/
> 
> are displayed.
> 
> I'm using Lubuntu 12.10 and regret upgrading to it as it has caused no end of
> problems with Gpodder.

In the Terminal, try:

export GPODDER_HOME=/media/data/data/GPodderNew/
export GPODDER_DOWNLOAD_DIR=/media/data/data/GPodderNew/
gpodder --verbose

Thomas, I've done as you have suggested and have got the following results:

podder --verbose
1358186833.751551 [gpodder.log] DEBUG: ==== gPodder starts up (ui=gtk) ===
1358186835.379944 [gpodder.sync] WARNING: Could not find eyeD3
1358186835.497687 [gpodder.extensions] DEBUG: Found extension "flv2mp4" in /usr/share/gpodder/extensions/flv2mp4.py
1358186835.520684 [gpodder.extensions] DEBUG: Found extension "m4a_converter" in /usr/share/gpodder/extensions/m4a_converter.py
1358186835.522070 [gpodder.extensions] DEBUG: Found extension "normalize_audio" in /usr/share/gpodder/extensions/normalize_audio.py
1358186835.523418 [gpodder.extensions] DEBUG: Found extension "notification" in /usr/share/gpodder/extensions/notification.py
1358186835.531188 [gpodder.extensions] DEBUG: Found extension "rename_download" in /usr/share/gpodder/extensions/rename_download.py
1358186835.532461 [gpodder.extensions] DEBUG: Found extension "rm_ogg_cover" in /usr/share/gpodder/extensions/rm_ogg_cover.py
1358186835.533764 [gpodder.extensions] DEBUG: Found extension "rockbox_convert2mp4" in /usr/share/gpodder/extensions/rockbox_convert2mp4.py
1358186835.535259 [gpodder.extensions] DEBUG: Found extension "tagging" in /usr/share/gpodder/extensions/tagging.py
1358186835.536586 [gpodder.extensions] DEBUG: Found extension "ubuntu_appindicator" in /usr/share/gpodder/extensions/ubuntu_appindicator.py
1358186835.537896 [gpodder.extensions] DEBUG: Found extension "ubuntu_unity" in /usr/share/gpodder/extensions/ubuntu_unity.py
1358186835.539261 [gpodder.extensions] DEBUG: Found extension "woodchuck" in /usr/share/gpodder/extensions/woodchuck.py
1358186835.943350 [gpodder.dbsqlite] INFO: Loading podcasts
1358186835.988139 [gpodder.dbsqlite] DEBUG: Database opened.
1358186835.990894 [gpodder.dbsqlite] INFO: Loading episodes for podcast 1
1358186836.035782 [gpodder.dbsqlite] INFO: Loading episodes for podcast 2
1358186836.059655 [gpodder.dbsqlite] INFO: Loading episodes for podcast 4
1358186836.149012 [gpodder.dbsqlite] INFO: Loading episodes for podcast 5
1358186836.196694 [gpodder.dbsqlite] INFO: Loading episodes for podcast 6
1358186836.204888 [gpodder.dbsqlite] INFO: Loading episodes for podcast 7
1358186836.223495 [gpodder.dbsqlite] INFO: Loading episodes for podcast 8
1358186836.253043 [gpodder.dbsqlite] INFO: Loading episodes for podcast 9
1358186836.265320 [gpodder.util] DEBUG: run_in_background: <bound method UserAppsReader.read of <gpodder.gtkui.desktopfile.UserAppsReader object at 0x8d6a7$
1358186836.283879 [gpodder.my] INFO: Reloading settings.
1358186836.728998 [gpodder.util] DEBUG: run_in_background: <function find_partial_downloads at 0xb74d764c> (False)
1358186836.731370 [gpodder.gtkui.main] DEBUG: Setting up auto update timer with interval 20.

** (gpodder:2068): WARNING **: Invalid borders specified for theme pixmap:
        /usr/share/themes/Lubuntu-default/gtk-2.0/images/null.png,
borders don't fit within the image

** (gpodder:2068): WARNING **: Invalid borders specified for theme pixmap:
        /usr/share/themes/Lubuntu-default/gtk-2.0/images/scrollbar_vertical.png,
borders don't fit within the image
1358186838.503367 [gpodder.my] WARNING: Flush requested, but sync disabled.

in Terminal. 

They mean nothing to me but hopefully to you.

I don't get it as to why this only affects Ubuntu and not Debian/ Linux generally.

In the meantime I've established a workaround on a test PC by mounting a directory on a different drive, on to the gpodder download directory. This fools gpodder and seems to work reliably.

Extract from my blog:

To mount one folder on to another you need to use the following command syntax:

sudo mount -o bind <source folder path> <destination folder path>

This is what I did:

In my case my gPodder folder is located in /home/username/gpodder/ and I wanted it to be located on /media/data/gpodder/

1. I moved all files located in the source folder /home/username/gpodder/ to the destination folder /media/data/gpodder/

2. Opening Terminal I entered the command

sudo mount -o bind /home/username/gpodder/ /media/data/gpodder/

This mounted the destination folder on to the source folder, effectively redirecting it to the new location.

Whilst this command is useful, it’s of no use if you have to keep reentering it every time you wish to use gPodder.

To make this permanent you will need to edit /etc/fstab and add it in. Using the above example this is what I did:

1. In Terminal enter the following to edit fstab as sudo:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

2. At the bottom of the file add the following comment:

# Mount Folder /media/data/Documents/ on to /home/username/gpodder/

3. Then add the following line below:

/media/data/gpodder/ /home/username/gpodder/ auto bind,gid=46,defaults 0 0

4. Save the file

5. Exit nano and from Terminal enter the following to rerun fatab and mount devices listed in it:

sudo mount -a

If the syntax was correct, there should be no error messages and you should be returned to the command prompt.

Using you file manger check that the /home/username/gpodder/ folder contains the same content as /media/data/gpodder.

If uncertain, create a file or folder in one and see if it appears in another, you may have to refresh the display (F5) to display the change.
GPodder will continue to think it is saving podcasts to the default folder location, but using this trick it will actually be saving them to a location of your choice without the need to fiddle around with environmental variables.

Full blog post is at wp.me/pGYbv-9o.

(In reply to comment #15)
> Thomas, I've done as you have suggested and have got the following results:
> [...]
> In the meantime I've established a workaround on a test PC by mounting a
> directory on a different drive, on to the gpodder download directory. This
> fools gpodder and seems to work reliably.

On Linux, you can just create a symlink in your home directory and avoid all the bind mount crazyness ;)

ln -s /media/data/gpodder /home/username/gpodder

This will equally fool gPodder and is just as reliable (and is permanent / does not need any modification to the fstab).

Greetings! I an new here so please excuse my newbieness.

I am using Linux Mint 17.1 with Cinnamon.

I tried the command "ln -s /media/data/gpodder /home/username/gpodder".
It did create a symlink in the gPodder folder but other than that it doesn't do anything. nothing was moved to my external drive.

Here is the exact command I used:
ln -s /media/kelley/Data/kelley/gPodder /home/kelley/gPodder

Thanks for any help you can give.

Kelley

I found that after I rebooted my laptop that the changes did indeed take place. The sysmlink does work! Thank you!