From 7f88d4b0369fa8f5fb4bd51e5a2abc9a9de7b0b1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Harry Rose <harryrose@protonmail.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2026 19:43:09 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Early out if the description doesn't contain and timestamps

---
 server/models/PodcastEpisode.js                     |  6 +++++-
 .../parsers/parsePodcastDescriptionForChapters.js   |  8 ++++++--
 .../parsePodcastDescriptionForChapters.test.js      | 13 +++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/server/models/PodcastEpisode.js b/server/models/PodcastEpisode.js
index 7c107a87..fdef2c50 100644
--- a/server/models/PodcastEpisode.js
+++ b/server/models/PodcastEpisode.js
@@ -91,8 +91,12 @@ class PodcastEpisode extends Model {
       Logger.debug("[PodcastEpisode] New episode doesn't have chapters, attempting to generate them from timestamps", rssPodcastEpisode.title)
       try {
         podcastEpisode.chapters = parsePodcastDescriptionForChapters.parse(podcastEpisode.description, podcastEpisode.audioFile.duration)
+
+        if (podcastEpisode.chapters.length > 0) {
+          Logger.info(`[PodcastEpisode] Successfully generated ${podcastEpisode.chapters.length} chapters`)
+        }
       } catch (error) {
-        Logger.error(`[PodcastEpisode] createFromRssPodcastEpisode: Failed to auto generate chapters for "${podcastEpisode.title}"`, error)
+        Logger.error(`[PodcastEpisode] createFromRssPodcastEpisode: Failed to generate chapters for "${podcastEpisode.title}"`, error)
       }
     }
 
diff --git a/server/utils/parsers/parsePodcastDescriptionForChapters.js b/server/utils/parsers/parsePodcastDescriptionForChapters.js
index 53585d64..1fa59f83 100644
--- a/server/utils/parsers/parsePodcastDescriptionForChapters.js
+++ b/server/utils/parsers/parsePodcastDescriptionForChapters.js
@@ -36,6 +36,12 @@ module.exports.parse = (podcastDescription, audioDurationSecs) => {
   // Split on "</p>", "<br />", "\n", </li>
   const descriptionLineSplitRegex = /\<\s*\/\s*p\s*\>|\<\s*br\s*\/\>|\n|\<\s*\/\s*li\s*\>/
 
+  // Early out if there aren't any timestamps in the entire description
+  if (timestampRegex.exec(podcastDescription) == null) {
+    Logger.debug('No timestamps found in description, bailing out early')
+    return []
+  }
+
   var descriptionLines = podcastDescription.split(descriptionLineSplitRegex)
   var newChapters = []
 
@@ -98,8 +104,6 @@ module.exports.parse = (podcastDescription, audioDurationSecs) => {
     newChapters[newChapters.length - 1].end = audioDurationSecs
   }
 
-  Logger.info(`Successfully generated ${newChapters.length} chapters`)
-
   if (newChapters.length == 1) {
     throw new Error('Only one chapter found, treating as invalid description')
   }
diff --git a/test/server/utils/parsers/parsePodcastDescriptionForChapters.test.js b/test/server/utils/parsers/parsePodcastDescriptionForChapters.test.js
index 24ca3f0a..c4765415 100644
--- a/test/server/utils/parsers/parsePodcastDescriptionForChapters.test.js
+++ b/test/server/utils/parsers/parsePodcastDescriptionForChapters.test.js
@@ -1,8 +1,21 @@
 const chai = require('chai')
 const expect = chai.expect
 const parsePodcastDescriptionForChapters = require('../../../../server/utils/parsers/parsePodcastDescriptionForChapters')
+const sinon = require('sinon')
+const Logger = require('../../../../server/Logger')
 
 describe('parsePodcastDescriptionForChapters', () => {
+  it("should early out if description doens't contain timestamps", () => {
+    let loggerDebugStub = sinon.stub(Logger, 'debug')
+    let description = '<p>Introduction text paragraph 1</p><p>Introduction text paragraph 2</p>'
+    let chapters = parsePodcastDescriptionForChapters.parse(description, 1000)
+
+    expect(chapters).to.be.empty
+    expect(loggerDebugStub.calledWith('No timestamps found in description, bailing out early')).to.be.true
+
+    sinon.restore()
+  })
+
   var testCasesTestingSuccess = [
     {
       testName: 'Should handle descriptions using html paragraphs',