Mark Robinson

Just about every morning I start my day by refreshing my iTunes podcast subscriptions and then sync my iPhone. I decided today to automate that process, so that I just have to grab my iPhone in the morning before heading out to work.

I automated the process by using two Applescripts that are run each day by a reoccurring event in iCal.

Step 1 - Start the Apple script editor
Step 2 - Create a file called updatePodcasts (I saved the scripts in a folder called applescripts in my documents folder)
Step 3 - Put in the following command in the file: tell application “iTunes” to updateAllPodcasts
Step 4 - Save the file
Step 5 - Create a file called updateiPhone (You can do something similar for iPods)
Step 6 - Put the following command in the file: tell application “iTunes” to update “phonename” (replace phonename with actual name of your iPhone or iPod)
Step 7 - Save the file
Step 8 - Create a new calendar in iCal called Automation (I choose to hide this calendar from view to reduce clutter after I added the events)
Step 9 - Select the Automation Calendar
Step 10 - Create a new event at the time you want to refresh your podcasts, set the event to reoccur everyday, set the alarm with an action of Run Script selecting the updatePodcasts script that you created
Step 11 - Create a new event at the time you want to sync your iPhone/iPod, set the event to reoccur everyday, set the alarm with an action of Run Script selecting the updateiPhone script that you created

Your Mac will now automatically refresh your podcasts and sync your iPhone/iPod each day assuming that it’s not asleep.