Audio not playing on WP Engine

Hi Hugh,
First of all thanks for making SSP! I am sure once I have resolved my issues, it will be perfect for my requirements and the plugin will be perfect for my site. 😉

I have asked my host (WP Engine) to disable the cache on the /podcast-download/ path.

They confirmed that this is correct:

I have excluded that URL path from our caching:

^/podcast-download/.+

But still am seeing 404 errors and the mp3 is not playing.

First of all I tried hosting the audio with Google Drive, then with SoundCloud, and finally uploading the mp3 into my site directly. The last method I am told will not work with iTunes as the server does not support byte-range requests, but tbh iTunes would be nice, but not the end of the world.

WP Engine have replied with this info:

I visited the download / podcast page, and when I executed the play button I received this error.

GET http://inewforest.co.uk/podcast-download/8741/dionis-macnair-episode-1.mp3?_=1
404 (Not Found)(anonymous function)
@ mediaelement-and-player.min.js?ver=2.16.2:27m.event.dispatch @ jquery.js?ver=1.11.2:3r.handle @ jquery.js?ver=1.11.2:3

So it looks like seriously-simple-podcasting plugin is adding a rewrite rule to podcast-download. Here is what I was able to find:

wp-content/plugins/seriously-simple-podcasting/includes/class-ssp-admin.php
115:        add_rewrite_rule( '^podcast-download/([^/]*)/([^/]*)/?', 'index.php?podcast_episode=$matches[1]', 'top' );

wp-content/plugins/seriously-simple-podcasting/includes/class-ssp-frontend.php
101:            $link = $this->home_url . 'podcast-download/' . $episode_id . '/' . $episode->post_name . '.' . $ext;

Now then can we verify that this link is the correct url?

[audio src="http://inewforest.co.uk/podcast-download/8741/dionis-macnair-episode-1.mp3" /]

I did notice that the path that you specified in your reply is:

[audio src="http://inewforest.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/iNewForest-Podcast-Dionis-Macnair-MBE-September-25-2014.mp3" /]

Can you please reach out to the plugin vendor and let him know of our findings?
———————-

So this is where I am at now. Do you have any suggestions or things I could try?

Thank you,

Rich

https://wordpress.org/plugins/seriously-simple-podcasting/