# Subscribing on your phone

This is the part that isn't obvious. A private feed is not in any podcast directory. You cannot find it by searching for its name. You subscribe by handing the app the URL itself.


# 1. Get the URL, on the computer

``` bash
$ earmark feed
2026-08-23   0:22:14    10.4 MB  Attention Is All You Need

1 episode(s), 10 MB total
feed      https://filedn.com/XXXX/audio/feed.xml
```


# 2. Get that string onto your phone

Text it to yourself, email it, or put it in a note. Then copy it.


# 3. Paste it into the app

The exact place differs:

| App | Where the URL goes |
|----|----|
| **Castbox** | The **search bar** at the top, the same one you'd search a show's name in. Paste the URL, hit search, and the show comes back as the only result; tap it, then **Subscribe**. |
| **Overcast** | **+** → **Add URL** |
| **Pocket Casts** | **Profile** → **Add RSS feed** |
| **AntennaPod** | **+** → **Add podcast by RSS address** |
| **Apple Podcasts** | **Library** → **Edit** → *Add a Show by URL*. Works, but unreliably; don't design around it |

Castbox is the one worth spelling out, because pasting a URL into a *search box* looks wrong. It isn't: Castbox detects that what you pasted is a feed rather than a search term and fetches it directly.


# 4. Publish something and pull to refresh

``` bash
earmark publish paper.pdf
```

New episodes appear on the next refresh.


# If nothing shows up

Almost always the feed URL doesn't actually serve. Check from the computer first, before blaming the app:

``` bash
earmark feed --check
```

Artwork and show titles are a separate matter: every app caches them aggressively, so a cover you add later can take hours to appear even when episodes are arriving fine.


# Authentication

The feed needs none, so nothing else is required. If you ever move to a host behind HTTP basic auth, Castbox and Overcast both accept credentials inlined as `https://user:pass@host/path`.