best practice for running pcastconfig --sync_library

Every so often pcastconfig --sync_library fails with a ruby method not found error (uid) and if I run it again it might fail the same way but in a different place or it might run to completion with no errors. I've taken to turning off Time Machine before running pcastconfig --sync_library and sometimes I turn off podcast producer and xgrid as well just to 'feel' safer.

Does anyone know what is the best practice? --sync_library isn't in the man page for pcastconfig and the docs don't mention anything about turning anything off before running it.

another error I see sometimes is database locked

any ideas or tips appreciated