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merlyn (47)

merlyn
  merlyn@stonehenge.com
http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/
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PAUSE-ID: MERLYN [cpan.org].
See my home page [stonehenge.com].

Journal of merlyn (47)

Friday September 16, 2005
03:16 PM

applescript to delete already-heard podcasts from iTunes

[ #26743 ]
So, I'm amazed this isn't easier to do. I want to delete the podcasts I've heard. So I created a smart playlist that says "is podcast" and "played count > 0". Hey, looky, there they are. But I can't delete from that window! I have to go back to the podcasts window finding each one over again.

With great trepidation, I fire up the AppleScript Editor. And after staring at the docs far too long again (because every time I look at AS, I go crazy), I came up with this:

-- do this here to get standardaddition value
set trashloc to path to trash

tell application "iTunes"
    repeat with pp in (every playlist whose special kind is Podcasts)
        repeat with p in (every file track of pp whose played count > 0)
            set loc to location of p
            tell application "Finder" to move loc to trashloc
            delete p
        end repeat
    end repeat
end tell

which I'm sharing with y'all to save the pain I experienced.


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applescript to delete already-heard podcasts from iTunes 5 Comments More | Login | Reply /

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  • Option-deleting [macosxhints.com] a song from a Smart Playlist will delete it from your iTunes Library. Also, option-deleting a whole playlist will delete the playlist and all of the songs it contains (which is probably not what you want to do with your "Played Podcasts" Smart Playlist).
    • Too many secrets.

      Too much of this is undocumented. {sigh}

      --
      • Randal L. Schwartz
      • Stonehenge
    • Neat. I didn't know about opt-delete.

      Also, because I can ... not that it is any longer necessary, but still:

      use Mac::Glue ':all';
       
      my $itunes = new Mac::Glue 'iTunes';
       
      my $podcasts = $itunes->obj(
          playlist  => 1,
          playlists => whose(special_kind => equals => enum('podcasts'))
      );
       
      my $tracks = $podcasts->obj(
          file_track => whose(played_count => g_t => 0)
      );
       
      for my $track ($tracks->get) {
          my $locati

  • On my windows version 5.0 of iTunes, you can specify in the Podcasts preferences window which podcasts you want to keep (one option being "All unplayed episodes"). I haven't used this option but presumably it would automatically delete your played podcasts. (I'm also making an assumption that the Mac version has this same option and functionality)
    • "played a few seconds" is not "played all the way through". If you just start listening to a podcast, it's considered "played" by that option. I want to delete only the ones I've heard all the way to the end.
      --
      • Randal L. Schwartz
      • Stonehenge
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