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Tutorial How to automate podcast downloads with Download Station and Audio Station

Wouldn't it be cool if your Synology could pull the latest Podcast, download it to your Synolgoy box and send you an e-mail when the download is completed? Well, it is possible using Download Station and Audio Station.

This tutorial assumes that you have already set up e-mail alerts within your Synology NAS.

First of all, you need to download the Download Station app from the Synology package centre. Once installed open it up and click on RSS Feeds, this is the last option on the left-hand tab.


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Running across the top of Download Station is a tool bar that contains a big + sign.

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If you click on this you will be presented with a dialogue box to enter the URL of the RSS feed that you want to track:-

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To get the RSS URL address head on over to podbay.fm and search for the podcast that you would like to download. For this example we will choose LINUX Unplugged. Once you have searched for and found the podcast right click on the heading RSS and select 'copy link location':-

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Go back to your Synology NAS tab in your browser and paste the link in to the dialogue box. Select 'Automatically download all items' and choose the destination of where you would like to download the podcast to. I have set up a folder where Audio Station is pointed to so that it will be scanned automatically when Audio Station updates its database. Once you have chosen the download folder, click Select and then Add.

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This will start to pull all the podcasts for the show you have selected.

Now for the e-mail notifications. Click on the icon in the bottom left of the Download Station window, the one that looks like a cog wheel, and select 'Notification' and Enable email notifications. You will need to supply a From: address and a Receipients: address. I have mine set to both the same e-mail address and have not experienced any issues.

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Click on Advanced and select the options your would like to receive notifications on. I personally have all options enabled on this screen.

**Warning** If there are a lot of episodes it will pull ALL the episodes and you will receive an e-mail for each download. I would suggest turning off the e-mail notification whilst you do the initial pull and turn it back on when it has finished.

Next we head on over to Control Panel >>> Indexing Service and click on Indexed Folder in the Media Section.

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This will ensure that the music folder for Audio Station is indexed.

When you receive the e-mail, your podcast has downloaded, however, it may take a little while for it to appear in your chosen download folder.

In closing I would just add that although the initial pull downloads all the podcasts for that show it only does this the once. Any subsequent shows will result in only the latest podcast being pulled.



Latest reviews

Really nice tutorial!
AdrianEarnshaw
AdrianEarnshaw
Thank you
Upvote 0
Very informative and well done!
AdrianEarnshaw
AdrianEarnshaw
Thank you
Upvote 0
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