Why does iTunes keep re-downloading my deleted podcast episodes?

I delete my podcast episodes from iTunes after I listen to them. Recently, I migrated from a Lion machine to a Mavericks machine (both iTunes 11), bringing my iTunes Library with me (but not my preferences file). Since then, when iTunes updates my podcast, it insists on re-downloading the episodes I've deleted (and worse, now they're marked as unplayed).

Is there a setting I need to change to stop this? It used to work fine.

Solution 1:

I still don't know why it was doing this, but I've since set iTunes to automatically delete played podcasts after 1 day, and stopped deleting them manually. That does what I need.

Solution 2:

Try this: Go to Settings. Tap on the 'Podcast' section. Tap on 'Limit Episodes'. Select how long you want your episodes to be kept.