"iTunes has stopped updating this podcast because you have not listened to any episodes recently. Would you like to resume updating this podcast?"
iTunes stops downloading podcasts if you haven't listened to any of the last 5 downloaded episodes. I perhaps because bandwidth gets expensive? But it's annoying because sometimes you're traveling and not able to sync, or you occasionally listen to the podcast on Stitcher or some other podcatcher right on your phone. Doesn't mean you want them to stop downloading.
This script http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=updateexpiredpodcasts used to work, but somewhere in iTunes version 11 they wised up to it and it stopped working. Now they are actually checking the downloaded tracks to see if any are played.
So, I wrote a little script that gives 'em what they want. It plays the first unplayed episode in each subscribed podcast, and then back-tracks to the beginning of the podcast so that when you go to listen you don't know the difference. In order for a track to be identified as "played" it appears it needs to have been playing for at least 15 seconds. While the script is running it sets the volume to 0. But it will return the volume to what it was previously set at when it's done. So you can run this via launchd or cron once a day, in the middle of the night.
Yes, it's kludgey. I can't even say for sure that it works, as I just wrote it. I borrowed some of Doug's code, so credits to him.
UPDATE: This actually appears to work. I've been running it as a cron job late at night for a couple weeks and haven't had the "expired podcast" issue. Only weirdness I'm seeing is that the iTunes "messages" (little note that pops up to tell you when a new track is playing) sticks on the last track processed.
--check if itunes is running. if not, activate it
set itunesOK to my itunes_is_running()
if itunesOK is false then
tell application "iTunes"
activate
end tell
end if
tell application "iTunes"
with timeout of 300 seconds
--see if there's a currently playing track so we can return to it when done
set playTrack to false
if player state is playing then
set aTrack to current track
stop
set playTrack to true
set myMessage to "Running the StopExpired script, will return to your track shortly"
set myReturn to my growlMessage(myMessage)
end if
--see what the volume is currently set at
set curVol to (get sound volume)
--turn the volume all the way down so what we're about to do is not audible
set sound volume to 0
set podcast_playlist to some playlist whose special kind is Podcasts
-- filter multiple names
set each_podcast to {}
try
set each_podcast to my ASCII_Sort(my get_discrete_list_of(get album of every track of podcast_playlist))
end try
--display the list (debugging only)
--set selectedVoice to {choose from list each_podcast}
-- loop thru each podcast
if each_podcast is not {} then
repeat with this_podcast in each_podcast
--create a list of unplayed episodes of within each podcast
set each_unplayed to {}
try
set each_unplayed to (every track of podcast_playlist whose album is this_podcast and unplayed is true)
end try
if each_unplayed is not {} then
set this_unplayed to (item 1 of each_unplayed)
--for debugging
set myMessage to this_podcast & ": " & name of this_unplayed as string
set myReturn to my growlMessage(myMessage)
--download the episode, if it's not already
try
set url_track to (get URL track of this_unplayed)
set myMessage to "DOWNLOADING " & name of this_unplayed & " URL: " & URL track as string
set myReturn to my growlMessage(myMessage)
download url_track
end try
try
play this_unplayed
delay 20
set player position to 0
stop this_unplayed
--back track this_unplayed
end try
--why is this necessary? I don't know. Sometimes the last track just keeps playing.
stop
end if
end repeat
end if
--update all the podcasts
updateAllPodcasts
--return the sound volume to previous level
set sound volume to curVol
set myMessage to "StopExpired script complete"
set myReturn to my growlMessage(myMessage)
--if there was a track already playing, return to it
if playTrack is true then
play aTrack
set playTrack to true
end if
end timeout
end tell
--if itunes was originally closed, then close it again
if itunesOK is false then
tell application "iTunes"
quit
end tell
end if
to get_discrete_list_of(list1)
script a
property list1ref : list1
end script
set list2 to {}
script b
property list2ref : list2
end script
repeat with i from 1 to length of list1
set this_item to item i of a's list1ref
considering case
if this_item is not "" and this_item is not in b's list2ref then set end of list2 to this_item
end considering
end repeat
return b's list2ref
end get_discrete_list_of
on ASCII_Sort(my_list)
set the index_list to {}
set the sorted_list to {}
repeat (the number of items in my_list) times
set the low_item to ""
repeat with i from 1 to (number of items in my_list)
if i is not in the index_list then
set this_item to item i of my_list as text
if the low_item is "" then
set the low_item to this_item
set the low_item_index to i
else if this_item comes before the low_item then
set the low_item to this_item
set the low_item_index to i
end if
end if
end repeat
set the end of sorted_list to the low_item
set the end of the index_list to the low_item_index
end repeat
return the sorted_list
end ASCII_Sort
--subroutine showing messages in growl (preferably)
--and if no growl, default dialog with timeout
to growlMessage(myMessage)
--show our output message
-- Check if Growl is running:
set isRunning to my growl_is_running()
--Only display growl notifications if Growl is running:
if isRunning = true then
tell application "GrowlHelperApp"
-- Make a list of all notification types:
set the allNotificationsList to ¬
{"Notification 1", "Notification 2"}
-- Make a list of the default enabled notifications:
set the enabledNotificationsList to ¬
{"Notification 1"}
-- Register the script with Growl
-- using either "icon of application"
-- or "icon of file":
register as application ¬
"StopExpired" all notifications allNotificationsList ¬
default notifications enabledNotificationsList ¬
icon of application "Script Editor"
-- Send a notification:
notify with name "Notification 1" title "StopExpired output" description myMessage application name "StopExpired"
end tell
else
display dialog myMessage giving up after 1
end if
end growlMessage
--sub checks if growl is running
on growl_is_running()
tell application "System Events" to return (exists process "GrowlHelperApp")
end growl_is_running
--subroutine checks if itunes is running
on itunes_is_running()
tell application "System Events" to return (exists process "iTunes")
end itunes_is_running
