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Is there a button or key combination that can rewind 5 or 10 seconds when watching a movie on iTunes?

Often I pressed the left arrow button, and the whole movie is reset to 00:00:00 and I need to find where I was watching and it was quite disturbing.

nonopolarity
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3 Answers3

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For macOS users, hold down Command + Option, then press left/right arrow to skip backward/forward five seconds.

For Windows users, hold down Control + Alt, then press left/right arrow to skip backward/forward five seconds. The shortcut also works for VLC.

I also have KMPlayer and 5KPlayer installed as alternative players, and the shortcut is easy to remember:left/right arrow for 5 second rewind/forward.

Nimesh Neema
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dasliit
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To skip back/forwards 5 seconds, press ⌥⌘← or ⌥⌘→ respectively. Hold the keys down to keep jumping 5 seconds until you release.

grg
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    actually, on my system, ⌥⌘← won't work by itself. I have to press and hold them, sort of like press and hold a button on the remote control. So to rewind for 5 seconds, I have to press and hold all three keys and wait until it might be a point or conversation that I missed – nonopolarity Nov 07 '17 at 13:57
  • there were times by the way, when I press the ← key once, because that's the most intuitive key to press, and it went to the beginning of the movie, and I had to click the timeline bar to find that particular point in the movie again – nonopolarity Nov 07 '17 at 13:59
1

There is not a dedicated button for this, but you can make one for yourself fairly easily.

Open Script Editor.app and add this to it:

-- iTunes rewind 5 seconds
tell application "iTunes" to set player position to (player position - 5)

Save it to ~/Library/Scripts/ (where ~ is your Home directory)

Then you can use FastScripts to assign it a global keyboard shortcut.

(FastScripts allows for 10 free keyboard shortcuts. If you need more, it's $10. Or you could use Keyboard Maestro instead.)

If you want to make a rewind button, it's the same idea:

-- iTunes Fast-Forward 30 seconds
tell application "iTunes" to set player position to (player position + 30)

Source: https://www.sixhat.net/applescript-how-to-skip-30rewind-10-seconds-in-itunes.html

TJ Luoma
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  • I am ok with using AppleScript... but I am increasingly alert to using third party apps... isn't there a built in app or setting that can bind a key to a script? Or another solution that is totally part of Apple? – nonopolarity Nov 15 '19 at 07:57
  • I don't understand the desire to avoid 3rd-party apps, but regardless: I suspect if there was a solution built-in to macOS then FastScripts would never have become a successful product. Which is to say… no, I don't know of a built-in way of doing this. – TJ Luoma Nov 15 '19 at 23:31
  • 3rd party apps, if in the App Store, at least can be scrutinized by Apple. If it is an app out there that is downloaded by millions of people, it might be dissected by some users too. If it is just used by hundred of thousands of people, what if the app has some hidden malware... I guess it is more common on the PC but I don't know whether some may appear on the Mac too – nonopolarity Nov 16 '19 at 09:39
  • it seems that we can create an AppleScript file rewind-itunes.scpt and then use https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/175215/how-do-i-assign-a-keyboard-shortcut-to-an-applescript-i-wrote to add the keyboard shortcut to it... although I tried but it doesn't work yet (iTunes won't react to the keyboard shortcut). One answer there involved setting something in Security and mentioned Automator and an "app" but there is no app. – nonopolarity Nov 16 '19 at 10:11
  • As far as understatements go, malware being “more common on the PC” is a bit like saying “the Titanic encountered a little ice.” Not that malware is impossible on the Mac, but it is extremely uncommon. You’re far more likely to find malware masquerading as Flash installer/updater than in paid apps which have been around for years and years with extremely well-known developers. If you’re really worried, go to https://objective-see.com/ and start using their free tools. – TJ Luoma Nov 17 '19 at 06:25
  • so every time I need to have some little things done, I need to install some third party app, which may constantly remind me to update as well? So after a year, my Mac may end up with 50 third-party apps? It is something I hope to avoid. I am hoping to find a built in solution... a way to tie a keyboard shortcut to an AppleScript... should really have something built-in in the OS – nonopolarity Nov 17 '19 at 06:30
  • You can keep saying that it should be built-in as often as you like, but they aren’t. You can either accept the facts or not, but at this point there’s no sense in me continuing to try to help when you’re determined to be dissatisfied because things are the way you think they ought to be. – TJ Luoma Nov 17 '19 at 06:34
  • with that link about how to bind a keyboard shortcut to an AppleScript, if it works, doesn't that already accomplish the task? – nonopolarity Nov 17 '19 at 10:43