automate app launch at midnight ?

Question

How might I use Automator or Applescript to launch iTunes at midnight, and kill it at 5am ?

(This is the only time when I have unlimited bandwidth.. rural sat-based ISP.. ugg.)

Thanks.

Answer 1

This is the easiest, non-technical, method:

_{(I'm on Snow Leopard, I've edited these to match Mavericks - the exact buttons to click may be wrong)}

1. Make an Applescript and type this: tell application "iTunes" to activate
2. Open Calendar.app
3. Make a new event today for 00:00
4. Set it to repeat every day
5. Alert should be Open file. Select Other > find the applescript you just made
6. Make an Applescript and type this: tell application "iTunes" to quit. Save it somewhere
7. Make another event tomorrow for 05:00
8. Set it to repeat every day
9. Alert should be Open file. Select Other > find the applescript you just made

Done!

The calendar app does not have to be running to allow the events to take place.

Answer 2

You can also run EDITOR=nano crontab -e and add lines like this:

0 0 * * * open -a itunes
0 5 * * * osascript -e 'quit app "itunes"'

Answer 3

You can use an application like Power Manager to automate the launching of iTunes and subsequent quitting at 5am.

Launching iTunes

Launching an application can be achieved with the built-in Launch an application daily task:

Quitting iTunes

For quitting iTunes at 5:00, I would use the Run a script daily task to perform the following AppleScript snippet:

#!/usr/bin/osascript
tell application "iTunes" to quit

Disclosure: I work on Power Manager for DssW.