Comments on: Folder Actions Tutorial: Automation, Meet the Filesystem

By: Relfi

Relfi — Sun, 08 Nov 2015 11:48:03 +0000

@Libby I guess you've either figured it out by now or forgotten all about it but in case you, or someone else, is still stuck...

sas08 was addressing the issue that you had, i.e. when you rename the screenshot it asks you to rename it again (ad infinitum, or until you hit cancel).

The problem is indeed pretty obvious, if you think about it. * Screencapture app has been changed to save new files to the new folder (e.g. Desktop/Screenshots) * The script is monitoring this Screenshots folder for "new" files (IMPORTANT: it is monitoring for ALL new files that are placed in this folder, not just screenshots) * Your script notices each screenshot (saved by screencapture app, with default name) and asks you to rename the file * The file is then renamed with the filename you supply * Your script then notices this "new" file and prompts you to rename it!

The solution can be as simple as sas08 describes, i.e. add a "Move Finder Items" Action, with the "To:" field set to "Desktop", to the end of you workflow.

However, I prefer a slightly more complex solution; I agree with the original poster's recommendation to save screenshots to a separate folder to avoid cluttering the desktop. To make this work follow these steps: * Turn off the Folder Action on the Desktop/Screenshots folder * Create a new subfolder "Desktop/Screenshots/temp" * Edit your Automator workflow to be triggered on this new temp subfolder, rather than the Screenshots folder itself * Add a "Rename Finder Items: Add Date or Time" Action immediately after the "Rename Finder Items: Name Single Item" Action (no need to set/get any more variables, just set the dropdowns as required) * Add a "Move Finder Items" Action with the "To:" field set to "Desktop/Screenshots"

I hope this helps.

By: Libby

Libby — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:32:02 +0000

Hey all-

I am having the same issue of multiple prompts to rename the file. Sometimes only twice, sometimes 4 times. I don't understand why!

sas08- Is that the issue you were addressing? You seem very tech smart so I couldn't completely follow your advice!

Those above- (Or at least those that are within the dates post Yosemite release) IS there an additional step that Yosemite system users needs to take?

PLEASE HELP!!

I feel like i'm talking to an elderly person hard of hearing every time I want to save a screenshot... Save As: [entered file name] "WHAT??" Save As: [entered file name again] "WHAT???" Save As: [enter file name AGAIN!] "Ohhhh, I hear you now honey."

I think you all catch my drift.

Would love some advice!

By: sas08

sas08 — Sun, 15 Feb 2015 00:41:36 +0000

Pretty trivial to fix. What I ended up doing, simply, was to have the final action after the rename be to move the file to ~/Desktop. Which is really where I want my screenshots anyway. They don't live on my computer for a long time... I usually upload them to chat, email to support or whoever, or move them to a folder for my blog.

If you want them to go to ~/Desktop/Screenshots, it's obviously pretty trivial: set your screenshots (using the early directions of the tutorial) to go to some other folder, and set the folder action to work upon that folder, and move the renamed files to ~/Desktop/Screenshots.

Obviously any file added/renamed in the folder is going to trigger the Folder Action. If you delete .DS_Store files... they'll get moved... come back... some issues there. I just ended up touching one in and prompt$ chmod 000 .DS_Store. Don't know if that's necessary. But whatever.

Finally, you may wish to additional rename task(s) before moving the file. You can add date (for reference)...and/or minutes/seconds time (so files are uniquely named).

By: Samuel

Samuel — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 23:08:54 +0000

I am having the exact same issue

By: user3846537

user3846537 — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 11:49:45 +0000

Hello, I hope you see this. I used your tutorial to do this, it is great. but one problem, once I save an Item as a different name it re asks me to save it because it recognizes that there is a new file again. Is there any way to fix this problem?

By: John Spannenburg

John Spannenburg — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 08:42:53 +0000

Strangely I get some weird stuff. It does a rename but duplicates the files and the unrenamed version remains. It's a folder in Dropbox by the way.. After a few seconds it then prompts another rename which if I do it... creates another copy with that name... maybe this goes on in a loop? If I cancel it stops but the unrenamed file versions remain. Could this be a dropbox thing?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 22:53:34 +0000

Hey, nice example, thanks for writing that up. As an added touch, I grabbed the date and time from the variables section (no need to include a setter for these) and added it to the name. You can even customize the format of the date, so that my screenshots now have names of the form, "2013-01-17 4/52 PM Descriptive name". A big improvement, thanks again! -Jeff