App version: x.y.z (state whether from Google Play/F-Droid/Custom built APK)
Google
Problem you may be having, or feature you want:
At the moment podcasts can only be refreshed in intervalls. I would like to refresh my podcasts and therefore download my podcasts before I leave to work. This is usually the same time every day.
Suggested solution:
Add an Option top refresh podcasts at specific time
It was something that was previously available.
With Android evolution it has been removed as it’s no longer something possible. At least reliably from my understanding.
But if a specific time ist not possible how can an intervall be possible? In the end a specific time would be to start at specific time for the first time and then do an intervall of 24 hours.
Podcasts can of course also be refreshed manually, like I do every morning when I first pick up my phone. I just take a quick glance at AntennaPod’s InBox (to see what the automatic refreshes already pulled down) and then do a drag-down refresh for the latest/greatest while I get ready.
I am not a developer but I guess it’s probably because apps can ask the OS to wake / trigger them periodically so they can do some actions.
This way they don’t have to stay awake and the system can save some battery putting them to sleep.
If someone more knowledgeable could confirm ?
Exactly, we can ask the system for a periodic task. Only alarm clock apps can request an exact time
Ok, but is there a possibility to do a refresh of my podcasts at specific time with an app like tasker?
Or another way, if I set intervall to 12h and do a manual refresh at 7 a.m. will then be the intervall 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. every day until I restart my mobile? When is the intervall triggered? After finishing the refresh? In that case I would get a delay of some seconds every time the refresh is executed.
We basically tell the Android system “run this code roughly every 12 hours”. Then it gets sometimes called after 12 hours, sometimes after 15 hours. Whenever the system thinks that it is a good time to perform heavy background tasks. The Android system uses AI to determine that: DeepMind, meet Android - Google DeepMind
Not really. Might work for a few days, but definitely not reliably
Antennapod documentation still claims you can set a time, it should be updated.
Welcome to the community, @Glenda-Good! Thanks for mentioning this. I updated the documentation here: Fix docs mentioning time based refresh by ByteHamster · Pull Request #423 · AntennaPod/antennapod.github.io · GitHub
I am looking for a solution to this, too. Simply doing an automatic synch every 12 hours is not sufficient in most situations. Imagine listening to podcasts in your car, and when you arrive at home you’d like to continue listening on a different device. You certainly don’t want to wait another 12 hours to be able to do so.
What about this question? If AP can not wake up the system to do its work, how can apps like Tasker or Foldersync do so? The latter can even specify an exact chron job for synchronising folders. How do they do something that AP can not?
What about an option to do an automatic refresh when the app is opened? Actually this is my way of working as I have it set to never refresh automatically refresh but whenever I open the app I do a screen pull-down to refresh.
But then I don’t have it set to automatically add new episodes to the queue as soon as they drop which I guess is what many users do for things like hourly news bulletins etc.
No offence meant, but to me this feels absolutely wrong. Technology should be working for us and not the other way round! Humans should not be forced to be trained like animals: ring this bell to get food!
Technology should be able to receive a one time command or a receive a setting, and then do its work without the need for humans to repeat the same action over and over again. Just my 2 cents!
Actually, if you have those two devices synchronized through one of the services given in the settings and start playing on one device, the episode is immediately available on the other device as well. Even if it is outside the refresh interval.
Bearing in mind that AP is developed by volunteers giving freely of their time, effort and expertise then not too much of an ask for users to modify their usage to the way the app works than to expect them to rush to meet every little perceived need. In fact every app in the world could be tweaked to work more closely in line with way any particular user would like it to work.
Of course you are right about volunteer developers and I did not mean to disrespect their work! My statement about technology was meant as a general statement. I see so many devices, be it electronic, mechanical or others, that force users to adopt to the device or the tool, to act as the tool demands. It is my belief that any kind of tool should be adopted to the human users and not the other way round. But that is not a demand, it’s a philosophical state of mind. So, please don’t take it personally!
Your suggestion, that the app could do an automatic refresh when being opened, is a good compromise and I vote for this idea! Opening the app is the perfect time when a refresh and a synchronisation is needed. It might also make periodical synching totally obsolete. In fact, when a device is not in use, there is no real need to wake it up and consume energy.
If I am not mistaken, the app already does an automatic synch when closing the app, when a podcast episode is paused or when it has been finished. So, between closing the app and reopen it or opening the app on a different device, there is no real need for synching, is there? 
Often the tool works the way is does because it is designed to work that way and the developer wants it to work that way. Someone else may want it to work in a different way but that is a human not a technology issue.
You can do that already….