30 Second Rewind in itunes U

Are you sure the 30 second rewind disappeared for you? I didn't have it with the previous operating system either (unfortunately). I've got it in podcasts, but I don't think I've ever had it in iTunes U - "ever" being since last September, when I first began using iTunes U.

I don't think it was ever available in iTunes U, but here's how I added it via an Automator script.

1. Open Automator.
2. Choose that you want to make a service.
3. Use the dropdowns to select that the services receives "no input" and is available only in iTunes
4. Add the automator action "Run AppleScript", which you can pick from the library in the left pane.
5. In the text field for the applescript, write the following:

on run {input, parameters}
tell application "iTunes"
set player position to (player position - 30)
end tell
return input
end run

6. Save the services with the name "Rewind 30 seconds"

Restart iTunes. In iTunes, a new services item "Rewind 30 seconds" should now appear. Verify it works.

Now we want to associate it with a keyboard shortcut, so

1. open the services preferences pane, go to Keyboard / Keyboard shortcuts
2. In the left pane, go Application Shortcuts
3. Add a shortcut for iTunes called "Rewind 30 seconds"
4. Associate it with whatever keystroke you liked (CMD-9 worked for me)
5. Close system preferences, reopen the preference pane to be sure the shortcut saved.

Restart iTunes. It should work now.

Thanks for the great tip! I listen to many podcasts on my iPhone but sometimes I end up listening to them on my Mac in iTunes and I always was bummed that there was no 30 Second Rewind feature in iTunes on the mac.

I am trying to follow your instructions, but I'm not having any luck. I have Leopard, not Snow Leopard - can this be done in Leopard or does it require Snow Leopard. I've looked around in Automator and can't find anything about telling it to "make a service" like step 2 says in your instructions. I've tried the Applescript code and it does tell iTunes to rewind the 30 seconds, but is there another way to create this ability to tell iTunes to rewind/fast forward on Leopard in some sort of automated mode like tying the Applescript to a certain keyboard sequence?

Thanks very much. Any idea if something similar can be done on an iPad in it's Videos app?? Thanks for the excellent suggestion. If I only had Snow Leopard ... 😉

-Bob

While the Automator script is really nice, this topic is about the iPod app on iPhone (and for that matter about the Music app on the iPod touch), and not about Mac OS X.

As Noske mentions: when playing back iTunes U content on an iOS device there should be a 30 second rewind button, similarly to podcasts and audiobooks. It was available before, I hope Apple will correct this with 4.2.

Just found this article:
http://www.ismashphone.com/2009/06/22-more-iphone-30-features-you-may-not-know.h tml

It says that the 30 second rewind "only works for media bought and downloaded from iTunes."

I can confirm this with iTunes U content. I quickly downloaded some iTunes U content on my iPhone, the 30 sec rewind option is there. Same for podcasts: all my podcasts are downloaded by iTunes, even if I added the feed manually as I didn't like the feed available in the iTunes store itself.
However, this theory doesn't work with audiobooks. Most of my audiobooks are not from iTunes, yet all have the 30 sec rewind.

It's really lame from Apple to disable this functionality for non-iTunes iTunes U content (we have couple of language course CDs, I rip them and wanted to set them as iTunes U as they are educational: I guess I need to go the audiobook route for now).