Fine tune iTunes' podcast update schedule

Dec 19, '06 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: ttt

I had two major problems I wanted to fix with iTunes podcasting. One was that it didn't update them if I happened to quit the app (unlike Safari, which uses SyndicationAgent to monitor feeds). The other was that the built-in scheduling only makes three huge jumps between hourly, daily, and weekly. The combined problem being that if I happened to quit iTunes before a nightly update, I wouldn't have anything waiting for me until I noticed the problem when I wanted to sync my iPod in the morning ... and then the scheduling was wrong for every day afterwards.

The solution is a simple iTunes AppleScript:

tell application "iTunes" to updateAllPodcasts
You can use iCal, or any other scheduling app you like, to run it when it makes the most sense for you. I use cron with the following entry:
00 5,17 * * * 
  osascript -e 'tell application "iTunes" to updateAllPodcasts'
So now I have podcasts downloaded and waiting for me both before I get up, and before I get home!

[robg adds: Please note that I broke the cron entry onto two lines for a narrower display here. It needs to be entered as one long line without any breaks if you wish to use it...]

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