User friendly way to schedule jobs in Mac OS X

Question

Is there any easy way to schedule repeated jobs in Mac OS X? I know I could use cron, but I'm looking for a more user friendly way to do it, a GUI for schedules, something like this.

[Lingon](http://www.peterborgapps.com/lingon/) has been updated! Rejoice! — octern, Jun 15 '13 at 15:02

score 49 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 22 '09 at 04:43

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You can schedule jobs via iCal. Create an event. Edit the event, and you'll see "Run Script" and "Open File" as options as alarms.

answered Sep 22 '09 at 04:43

Richard Hoskins

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+1 for mentioning this question at http://superuser.com/questions/102979/how-can-i-schedule-a-daily-task-with-automator-on-os-x-10-6 :-) – Arjan Jan 31 '10 at 19:10
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Not anymore. Mountain Lion has broken this. – Robert Ryan Jul 27 '12 at 01:13
It may support the feature under ML because the event has an option for "Open File", so I presume that allows you to run custom script. But I can't, because I set up my iCal to sync with Google Calendar, and Google simply revert the notification back to default. – Antony Sep 23 '12 at 15:02

score 14 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 01 '11 at 04:24

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Well, there's CronniX, Maintidget, Macaroni and MacJanitor.

alt text

Have you tried using one of the launchd instead of cron? Apparently, Apple doesn't use cron anymore.

Lingon (abandoned, but supposedly works on Leopard and Snow Leopard)
Launchd Editor
launchctl

edited Sep 01 '11 at 04:24

Gaff

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answered Sep 22 '09 at 02:51

hanleyp

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Yes, use Launchd over cron!!! – The Tentacle Sep 24 '09 at 18:36
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Lingon has been updated! Rejoice! Especially good because all of the programs linked in this post are discontinued, dead links, or more than 3 years out of date. – octern Jun 15 '13 at 14:59

score 10 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 01 '11 at 04:26

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Lingon is a GUI for creating and working with launchd. It's no longer being worked on, but works well for creating and editing Launch Agents and if you are on Leopard or Snow Leopard it's the suggested method over cron.

enter image description here

edited Sep 01 '11 at 04:26

Gaff

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answered Oct 29 '10 at 12:53

eric.s

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Lingon 3 is now available for Lion, so it is being updated. – Jamie Forrest Nov 16 '11 at 04:18
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[Lingon X](http://www.peterborgapps.com/lingon/) is now available for Mountain Lion. – orome Feb 10 '13 at 21:00

score 6 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 06 '11 at 09:29

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This solution does use crontab but makes it user-friendly by using the Automator

Adding a calendar event tends to clog up iCal for me. I'm using a combination of Automator and crontab.

On the Automator part, I'm recording each action I need to perform as an app (Automator > File > New > Application Template) and save it to a convenient location (File > Save as). Make sure you save it as an Application and not Workflow.

Then it's just a case of adding a cronjob for it:

0 * * * *  open /path/to/the/save/automator/app

Friendly would be nice, but right now I'm just looking for something that will run an application at a specified time on specified days -- or even every day -- under Snow Leopard, which ignores my old cron file.

edited Jul 06 '11 at 09:29

Community

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answered Oct 29 '10 at 11:30

Paul Ardeleanu

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The OP wants something more user-friendly than `cron`, and you suggest... `cron`? – Daniel Beck Oct 29 '10 at 11:33
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Mea culpa! I was only trying to provide my solution to this problem. – Paul Ardeleanu Oct 29 '10 at 11:53
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It is conceivable that the OP thought cron was difficult, so showing that it is a one-liner may be informative. – rocketsarefast Jun 22 '13 at 19:08

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 29 '13 at 13:40

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You could try Auto Scheduled Task for Mac http://www.readmesoft.com/mac

Run an application, open a file, or apple script, automator workflow by schedule

It's a GUI tool and easy to use:

Auto Scheduled Tasks software screen

edited Nov 29 '13 at 13:40

user2098299

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answered Jul 19 '12 at 02:53

Rubyhog

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Just tried this one, worked fine :) The UI is not very modern, but I don't really care in this case. – BoD May 04 '14 at 16:18

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Oct 08 '15 at 18:27

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Have a look at Task Till Down.

edited Oct 08 '15 at 18:27

Sathyajith Bhat

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answered Feb 17 '12 at 14:31

Frank

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Requires Java, which is no longer installed with OS X by default. – Daniel Beck Feb 17 '12 at 16:40

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 14 '13 at 08:43

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There is also Scheduler for Mac at www.macscheduler.net. I am the developer of it. :) User feedback is appreciated. And one more thing... It's free.

answered Sep 14 '13 at 08:43

Joao Varela

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Welcome to Super User! Please read: [How do I recommend software in my answers?](http://meta.superuser.com/questions/5329/how-do-i-recommend-software-in-my-answers) – slhck Sep 14 '13 at 09:36
None of these tools work. I have S3tools installed for backup to Amazon. It works from command line, but it's not an "application". A couple of commands work just fine for me, but there's no way of using the same thing in GUI, including your tool. – PKHunter Oct 01 '15 at 22:15

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 24 '19 at 19:06

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For those who might read this today (11/24/19)

Lingon still works!!! And it's NOT been abandoned. Works for Hight Sierra, Mojave and Catalina

Lingon for High Sierra and later

answered Nov 24 '19 at 19:06

Allen S

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Why would anyone downvote such a helpful comment? It's dated, refers to the relevant OS, and includes a link. – kd4ttc Dec 06 '19 at 16:02

score 0 · Answer 9 · edited Sep 01 '11 at 04:23

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How about Crontooie, a GUI frontend for cron:

alt text

edited Sep 01 '11 at 04:23

Gaff

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answered Sep 22 '09 at 02:56

John T

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User friendly way to schedule jobs in Mac OS X

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