Help Centre
Feedprobe is a diagnostic tool for RSS and podcast feeds — paste a URL, get every defect that breaks readers. This page covers common questions, known limitations, and how to reach us.
Getting started
Using Feedprobe is straightforward:
- Go to the App page. You will see one input field — no signup, no email, no account required.
- Paste your feed URL (e.g.
https://example.com/feed.xml). - Click "Analyze". Feedprobe fetches the feed, parses it the way a real reader does, and returns a colour-coded report.
- Read the verdict. Each defect is listed with what breaks as a result — missing guid, unparseable date, encoding mismatch, wrong content type, and more.
- Fix, re-check, repeat. Make the recommended fixes in your feed generator and run the tool again until the report is clean.
If you are not sure where to start, click "Try a known feed" on the App page to load a sample URL and see what a normal report looks like.
Frequently asked questions
1. "My feed was rejected by Apple Podcasts / Spotify with 'invalid' — what does Feedprobe tell me?"
Feed directories and podcast apps often reject a feed with a single word like "invalid" and nothing about what is wrong. Feedprobe breaks that silence: it reports the specific defects in your feed — missing guids, unparseable dates, encoding mismatches, wrong content types — each with what breaks as a result. You get actionable information you can take back to your feed generator or podcast host.
Note that Feedprobe cannot tell you why a specific directory rejected you. Directories have their own additional requirements (category codes, artwork sizes, language tags). Feedprobe checks the technical soundness of the feed document itself. If the feed report is clean but the directory still rejects it, the issue is likely a directory-specific policy that our tool does not test for.
2. "The report says 'missing guid' or 'duplicate guid' — what does that mean and how do I fix it?"
Every item in an RSS feed should have a <guid> tag with a unique, permanent ID string. Podcast directories use the guid to track which episodes they have already seen. Without it, or if two items share the same guid, the directory may skip new episodes or overwrite old listings.
How to fix: In your feed generator or CMS, ensure each item gets a unique guid. A common pattern is to use the episode's URL (e.g. https://yoursite.com/episode/123) or a UUID. For podcast feeds, the guid should not change when the episode's enclosure URL changes — once assigned, it stays the same for the item's lifetime.
3. "Feedprobe says 'unparseable date' — what date format should I use?"
RSS 2.0 requires dates in RFC 822 format, e.g. Mon, 25 Aug 2026 14:00:00 +0000. Atom feeds use RFC 3339 (ISO 8601), e.g. 2026-08-25T14:00:00Z. If the date is in a different format, or if the field is empty, readers cannot determine which items are new and may place items in the wrong order or skip them.
How to fix: Check your feed generator's date settings. Most CMS and podcast hosting platforms output the correct format automatically. If you are generating the feed by hand, use RFC 822 (pubDate) for RSS or RFC 3339 (updated / published) for Atom. Feedprobe tells you which items have the problem and what was found instead of a valid date.
4. "Feedprobe could not reach my feed — is my server down?"
There are several reasons Feedprobe might not reach your feed:
- The feed host is behind Cloudflare. The platform Feedprobe runs on cannot connect to IPs owned by Cloudflare. If your feed is on a Cloudflare-proxied domain, it will report as unreachable. This is a platform limitation, not a problem with your feed or server.
- The URL is wrong or the server returned an error. Check that the URL is exactly correct and publicly accessible. A 404 response is reported as a fetch failure, not a feed with zero items.
- The server is genuinely down or firewalling this tool. Try loading the feed URL in your browser. If it loads for you but not for Feedprobe, your server may be blocking the tool's IP range.
Feedprobe does not follow redirects beyond one hop, so if your feed URL redirects multiple times it may not reach the final destination.
5. "The report says 'wrong content type' — what does that mean?"
A feed should be served with a Content-Type header of application/rss+xml, application/atom+xml, or at minimum text/xml. If the server sends text/html (meaning a web page) or application/json, most readers and directories reject the feed outright because it does not look like a feed document.
How to fix: This is a server configuration issue, not a content issue. Your web server (Apache, Nginx, or your hosting provider's dashboard) should be configured to serve XML files with the correct MIME type. For podcast feeds hosted on platforms like Buzzsprout, Transistor, or Simplecast, this is handled automatically — if you see this error on a hosted feed, contact your hosting provider's support.
6. "How do I re-check my feed after making fixes?"
Simply paste the same URL into the App page and click "Analyze" again. There is no cache — Feedprobe fetches the feed fresh each time. If you have made the fixes correctly, the report should show fewer (or zero) defects. There is no "save report" or "compare with previous" feature yet — run the tool once before fixing and once after, and compare the two reports yourself.
Other common questions
"Does Feedprobe support Atom feeds?"
Yes. The tool detects both RSS 2.0 and Atom feeds and checks the appropriate fields for each format. Atom uses <id> instead of <guid>, and <updated> / <published> instead of <pubDate>.
"Does Feedprobe follow enclosure links or download media?"
No. Feedprobe fetches only the feed document itself (the XML). It does not download audio files, images, or any other enclosure content. This keeps the tool fast and means it can be used without risk of large bandwidth bills.
Known limitations
No history or saved reports. Every analysis is a fresh fetch. No past reports are stored or accessible. The Pro tier (not yet built) will include history that is saved locally in your browser.
No email, alerts, or scheduled re-checks. This tool has no email sender and cannot send you notifications. It answers when you ask it, and only then. If you want to monitor a feed for changes, you need to revisit the App page manually.
No bulk analysis yet. You can check one URL at a time. Bulk analysis is planned for the Pro tier but is not built.
No payment infrastructure is wired. The Pro tier on the Pricing page is a demo — the checkout form does not take real payments.
No directory-specific validation. Feedprobe checks the technical soundness of the feed document. It does not test for directory-specific requirements (Apple Podcasts category codes, artwork size rules, language tags, etc.).
No legal entity. The operator has not yet registered a legal entity. The site's terms and privacy policy are statements of intent, not legally binding documents.
Contact us
Feedprobe does not yet have an email address or contact form. The operator has not set up a way to receive support requests by email. If you have a question or find a bug, please reach the operator through whatever channel brought you to this site.
This is a known gap: support contact routes have been requested and are waiting on the operator to configure them. When an email address or help desk is available, this page will be updated.
In the meantime, the App page works without any contact — just paste a feed URL and see what the tool finds.