What's wrong with this script? I keep getting a syntax error on the word message on line 9. property defaultEmailApplication : "Microsoft Outlook" -- change this to the name of your default email application on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items repeat with added_item in added_items tell application "Finder" set file_extension to name extension of added_item if file_extension is "eml" then set file_path to quoted form of POSIX path of added_item tell application defaultEmailApplication activate set new_message to make new message with properties {visible:true} set message_content to read file file_path as «class utf8» tell new_message set message_subject to subject of (first message of (import message from message_content)) set message_body to content of (first message of (import message from message_content)) set message_attachments to every mail attachment of (first message of (import message from message_content)) set subject to message_subject set content to message_body repeat with attachment_file in message_attachments make new attachment with properties {file name:attachment_file} end repeat end tell end tell end if end tell end repeat end adding folder items to

I'm trying to write an Applescript to automatically remount an smb share when it is disconnected for whatever reasons. I have a script to check if the share is present in /Volumes and if not then mount it. This part is working fine, complete with error handling and retry 10x with delay. If I run this script manually, it works as intended. What I really want is for the script to get triggered automatically when the smb mount is lost so it can be remounted. So I set it up as a folder action and attach it to /Volumes using "Folder Actions Setup.app" But turns out the script only gets triggered when something is added, not when it is removed. I confirmed this by adding a display dialog "i am triggered" to the top of the script. So this is not helpful for my purpose. I attached the folder action to ~/Downloads instead and it's still the same -- only triggered when something is added, not removed. The reference on folder actions has "on removing folder items..." clause so this should work, but it doesn't. I'm on Sonoma 14.2 Anyone has any idea what is wrong? Thanks in advance

I often use AirDrop to move photos from my iPhone to my Mac, and I'd like to automatically convert any HEIC photos to JPEG. I created this folder action in Automator, and it works when a photo is dragged into the Downloads folder but not when it has arrived via AirDrop. Is there a trick to getting folder actions to work with AirDropped files?

On a fresh Monterey install, when right-clicking on a folder and selecting

Actions Setup...

, I get the following warning: I click on

Service

, I can create my action via Automator etc. The problem is that the action never triggers and each time I'm clicking on the

Actions Setup...

I still get the same warning, wondering if the service is actually running, which would explain why the actions are not triggered. This may be linked to a file permission issue or a Privacy setting issue, one service not having Full Access to the hard drive. Is there at least a log somewhere telling me if it tried or not to run the action? Didn't find anything useful in the Console. Action is of course running fine in Automator.

I'm creating a folder action to display a notification when a new file is downloaded and would like the notification to display the filename. I can't figure out how to extract the filename of the downloaded file and pass it on to the variable.

I need an Automator Folder Action workflow to transfer files to my dropbox folder. I have a folder with many subfolders and when new files in a specific format are created, it will move them in the exact same name folder in my Dropbox folder. For example, if I just created a new CBZ file in a specific directory, I want it to search for the same folder name in dropbox and then transfer itself in said folder. Can someone help me to do this with Automator? Thanks

I want to trigger the automator folder action when I remove a file from a folder, is there a way to achieve this? The folder action works perfectly when I add something to it but not when I remove it. How can I achieve this? Thanks in advance! **Edit 1:** It is perhaps better if I give more details about what I want to achieve. I have a folder on the desktop and I want his color to change depending on whether it is full or empty. I have already a working shell code which works perfectly when I run it through terminal. Using that shell code with automator folder action works only when I put a new file inside the folder but not when I remove it.

I'm a graphic designer and need an organized folder scaffold for all of my projects. I have a work flow now that: - asks for the project name - asks where the project folder needs to be stored - then creates the sub folders that I will be using. Such as a folder named "Project 1" then inside are the sub folders named "images", "Photoshop", "drafts", "Illustrator" and so on. I am trying to create a folder action that sorts files that are added to the project root folder into the an appropriate sub folder, either by file extension or by part fo the file names. For example: - .jpg files shoudl be moved to the image folder - .psd files should be moved to the Photoshop folder - file names that contain the word "draft" should be moved to the drafts folder. What I've tried so far is to make a folder action that does this but it sends those files to the folder originally writen in the folder action. If I make a folder action that sends .psd files to the Photoshop folder into "Project 1", then that action to the next folder "Project 2" will still send those files to the Photoshop folder in "Project 1", instead of in "Project 2". Any suggestions on how to do this?

I'm looking for a way to send a file back to its original path after adding them to a folder. Specifically, if a file does not meet a criteria after being dropped at a folder, I want to send it back to its original folder. I can not specify the "original" folder in the script, because the files may come from different places, and each file should go back to its own original path. I know I can achieve something similar using a "Quick Action" instead of a Folder Action, but this is not ideal because I usually drag and drop an open file from the top bar icon.. just to the left of the file name, there is an icon which is dragable.. This icon is useful to move the file around, but does not have the 'Quick Action' menu available. Also, some end users are older people who are not as technologically advanced, and they usually prefer just to 'drag to a folder on the dock', instead of 'right click, then go to Quick Actions, then select this specific action".. Any help would be really appreciated.

I'm running Mountain Lion (10.8.3). I have three or four folder actions set up which stopped working some time ago, and I can't figure out why. Thinking it could be a problem with the scripts, I created a new folder named "Test" on my desktop, and attached the "add - new item alert.scpt" sample script. When I created a new text file in the folder, nothing happened. I checked the system log to see if there were any error messages being output, but I couldn't find any. (In fact, searching the system log using Console.app for "folder" didn't produce any results at all) How do I figure out why none of my folder actions are working?

I use a custom python script to actively organize my downloads. Since moving to Big Sur, it still works 100% of the time, but about 5-10% of the time on a big download I'll end up with multiple copies of the same file. This is due to safari writing the file to the incoming directory, but without any indication that it is an incomplete file. (Previously it would have a .download extension, which indicates it's incomplete). This application is not constantly running, it is only triggered by a folder action when a file is created in the incoming directory. Previously the script would have detected the .download extension, and skips those files, allowing those to be retriggered later. Is there a way to turn that back on? Or using python detect it is actively being downloaded? Since the script isn't being run continuously there isn't a good method to compare file sizes, to see if it's increasing. Plus, what would be the finished file size? (eg. It stopped increasing, but does that mean it's finished? How long do we wait after it's stopped increasing to assume it's done?) -- My gut instinct is that file sizing monitoring could be made to work, but there might be a better method to solve this. So I'm open to any suggestions that could solve this minor pita problem. This code was written back in python 2.2 days? I've been thinking about updating it to use path lib, but it works.

#!/usr/bin/env python
"""
:Module: sort_downloads
:Date: 20150-20
:Platforms: Mac (Tested under Mac OS X)
:Version: 1
:Authors:
    - Benjamin Schollnick
:Copyright (C) 2015, Benjamin Schollnick
:License - MIT,

:Description:
    This will take a starting folder (e.g. Downloads folder), and move any
    files found in the directory, to a different folder
    (e.g. Sorted_Downloads), and organize by file types (based off extensions).
    Any file type not identified by a file type will be placed into a folder
    that is dated in the mm-dd-yyyy format.

    This allows better organization, and groups together files downloaded
    (generally) in the same day.

    Under MOSX, I use launchd to run this script, any time my download folder
    is updated.

**Modules Used (Batteries Included)**:

   * os
   * sys
   * datetime
   * time
   * shutil
   * logging

**Required 3rd Party Modules**:

   * None

"""
import os, os.path
import sys
import datetime
import shutil
import logging

INBOUND_DIR = r'/Volumes/3TBDrive/support/incoming_downloads'
SORTED_DIRECTORY = r'/Volumes/4TB_Drive/sorted_downloads'


def return_datestamp(include_time=None):
    """
    Return the formatted time date string
    """
    datestamp = datetime.datetime.now()
    if not include_time:
        datestamp = str(datestamp).split(" ")
    else:
        datestamp = str(datestamp).replace(":", "-")
    return datestamp


LOOKUP_TABLE = {'.TORRENT'  : "Torrents",
                '.DOWNLOAD' : None,
                '.DMG'      : "Disk Images",
                '.ISO'      : "Disk Images",
                '.ZIP'      : "Zip Files",
                '.JAR'      : "Java",
                '.SWF'      : "Flash",
                '.PDF'       : "PDF",
                '.PY'       : "Python",
                '.PYC'      : "Python",
                '.WEBLOC'   : "BookMarks",
                '.EPUB'     : "Ebooks",
                '.RAR'      : "RAR",
                '.7Z'       : "7Z",
                '.TXT'      : "Text",
                '.PAGES'    : "Pages",
                '.HTM'      : "HTML",
                '.HTML'     : "HTML",
                '.CSS'      : "StyleSheet",
                '.JS'       : "JavaScript",
                '.CSV'      : "CSV",
                '.MPG'      : "Movie",
                '.MPEG'     : "Movie",
                '.M4V'      : "Movie",
                '.MOV'      : "Movie",
                '.AVI'      : "Movie",
                '.MP4'      : "Movie",
                '.EXE'      : "Windows",
                '.MSI'      : "Windows",
                '.DOC'      : "MS Word",
                '.DOCX'     : "MS Word",
                '.XLS'      : "Excel",
                '.XLSX'     : "Excel",
                '.PKG'      : "Macintosh",
                '.APP'      : "Macintosh",
               }

def return_new_path(filename):
    """
    Args:
        filename - the Fully qualified filename

    Returns:
        The name of the folder to place the file in

    """
#    print(filename)
    output = None
    if os.path.isfile(filename):
        extension = os.path.splitext(filename)
        if extension.upper() in LOOKUP_TABLE:
            output = LOOKUP_TABLE[extension.upper()]
    else:
        output = None
#    print(output)
    if output == None:
        output = return_datestamp() #+ os.sep + os.path.split(filename)
    return output

def main():
    """
    Args:
        None

    Returns:
        None

    """
    logger = logging.getLogger("FVS")
    loghandler = logging.FileHandler(sys.argv + ".log")
    formatter = logging.Formatter("%(asctime)s %(levelname)s %(message)s")
    loghandler.setFormatter(formatter)
    logger.addHandler(loghandler)
    logger.setLevel(logging.WARNING)

    #
    #   Get the contents of the inbound_directory
    #
    contents_of_inbound = os.listdir(INBOUND_DIR)

    for file_x in contents_of_inbound:
        complete_filename = os.path.join(INBOUND_DIR, file_x.strip())
        if os.path.isfile(complete_filename) and not file_x.startswith(".") and \
            not file_x.lower().endswith(".part"):
            #       print return_new_path ( complete_filename )
            if os.path.getsize(complete_filename) <= 0:
                # if Filesize is zero or less, skip.  Incomplete file.
                continue
            new_path = SORTED_DIRECTORY + \
                r"/%s" % return_new_path(complete_filename)
            logger.info("Moving ... %s to %s", file_x, new_path)
            if not os.path.exists(new_path):
                logger.warning("Making sorted directory - %s", new_path)
                os.mkdir(new_path)

            if os.path.exists(os.path.join(new_path, file_x)):
                #
                #   File Already exists, rename it to prevent naming conflicts
                #
                dstamp = return_datestamp(include_time=True)
                logger.warning(
                    "%s already exists, renaming to %s-%s",\
                    file_x, file_x, dstamp)
                fname, extension = os.path.splitext(complete_filename)
                new_filename = "%s-%s%s" % (fname, dstamp, extension)
                os.rename(complete_filename, new_filename)
                shutil.move(os.path.join(INBOUND_DIR, new_filename), new_path)
            else:
                #   Move the file, as is.
                if new_path.strip().upper() != SORTED_DIRECTORY.strip().upper():
                    shutil.move(complete_filename, new_path)

    if os.path.exists(INBOUND_DIR + os.sep + ".DS_Store"):
        os.remove(INBOUND_DIR + os.sep + ".DS_Store")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()#

I have folder actions automators for 2 different folders. One works automatically as expected, the other does not. Both are constructed the same way and both run manually, but one does not run automatically when folder contents change. Both execute a shell script with the following pattern: cp -n /path/to/source/filename-v* /path/to/destination/ Where the folder action monitors changes the the respective folder and the script simply copies the new files to the respective destination folders. **Both work when executed manually**, but one does not trigger on folder action like the other. > What am I not understanding? Is there another option for creating this type of automation without using automator? It's possible that this is just buggy: - Why aren't any of my Folder Actions triggering? - Unreliable Folder Action Furthermore

Trying to modify the view of a directroy, I prefer this view: But I hate the right part where we see the info on each app. Is it possible to modify it to be on default like this (without the information part on the right):

I am trying to set up a "drop" folder: i.e. A watched folder with an associated Apple Script in "Folder Action Scripts". The script is fairly simple. It defines a source link (the watched folder) and a destination path (a folder with the same parent as the watched folder) and runs a python script on the dropped file using the two variables defined as python arguments: on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items set dropFolder to quoted form of POSIX path of "IN/" -- use relative path set destinationFolder to quoted form of POSIX path of "OUT/" -- use relative path try repeat with EachItem in added_items set ItemInfo to info for EachItem if not folder of ItemInfo then set FileExtensionOfItem to name extension of ItemInfo if FileExtensionOfItem is "txt" then set theBaseName to my getBaseNameOf(ItemInfo) set pythonArg1 to theBaseName + "/packageElement" set pythonArg2 to destinationFolder set run_cmd to "python parser.py " + pythonArg1 + " " + pythonArg2 tell application "Terminal" -- pass file name to python using BASH from within this script activate do script run_cmd end tell end if end if end repeat end try end adding folder items to There is some problem - likely minor in the script. Or perhaps there is a file permissions error? I normally would trace my code using some simple technique like display dialog ...; however, *I can not see these dialogues if they are run from the watched folder.* My question is this: **What tools can we use to troubleshoot a folder action script such as this?**

This is mostly a test so that I can work up to the function that I want to create down the line. I'm very new to AppleScript so bear with me! I wrote this as an attempt to test a folder action that receives a new file and then displays an alert with the name of the newly added file. This Script was saved to ~/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts. And then assigned to a folder on my desktop called Return Name. I see the script run when a new item is dropped in but nothing happens. Can anyone just explain to me what is wrong here? Thanks! on adding folder items to InputFolder after receiving NewItem tell application "Finder" set FileName to name of NewItem activate display alert "New Items Added!" message ("File called " & FileName & " have been added" as string) end tell end adding folder items to

I actively manage a directory of folders that contain images that are organised by modification dates. Due to this, I had made a quick action that used an applescript and bash to help me ensure that newly added files had the right modification date. This was time consuming, and eventually I learned that I could set up Folder Actions that could automatically do that work for me. I did so, and now I face the struggle of adding multiple (lots of) folders to the Folder Actions Setup window. In the spirit of automating everything, is there a way to add Folders to the Folder Actions Setup window and all added folders to have my folder action enabled? Not sure where to start! There was an [app](https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24010/batch-apply-folder-actions) made for this, unfortunately the download link no longer works and the developer has removed it from his page of projects.

I need an Automator Folder Action workflow that when files are dropped into the folder the workflow is assigned to, it will first make a copy of the dropped files to one different folder, and then move the original dropped files to another different folder. For example, say I want to drop a single file into a "Hot Folder", then have that file first copied to a different folder, and then the same file that was first copied, moved to another different folder. This would leave the folder the file was originally dropped into empty while now having the originally dropped file in two different location by the Automator Folder Action workflow, one by copying it and the other by moving the file the copy was made from. Can someone show me how to do this with Automator?

I'm trying to setup a script as a folder action that will identify and change unwanted characters in the name of a file added to a target folder. The intent is to have this automation run as a folder action that should read the name of an incoming file or new folder, check for spaces and dashes, and replace them with underscores. Here is what I have so far: on adding folder items to theFolder after receiving theNewItems repeat with i from 1 to count of theNewItems set thisItem to item i of theNewItems tell application "Finder" set FileName to name of thisItem end tell end repeat set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {space, "-"} set FileName to the FileName's text items set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "_" set FileName to the FileName as text end adding folder items to How can I install this script as a folder action?

I need to set up a watch folder that runs a script on each item added. But the script could take 10 mins or more to process a single item. What I've done is put this code at the top of my script that keeps watching the folder and then acts when something is added: set watchFolderAlias to (POSIX file watchFolder as alias) set r to {} repeat tell application "Finder" to set r to ¬ (sort (get files of watchFolderAlias whose kind is "alias") ¬ by creation date) if (count of r) ≠ 0 then do(first item of r as alias) end if delay 5 end repeat on do(x) (* do 10 minutes of stuff with x *) end do ... and then I just keep it running. But this is cumbersome and awkward. But if I attach the do() stuff as a folder action then it will launch a new instance as soon as an item is added ... right? Am I missing a more elegant solution? (To clarify: If you attach a folder action script to a folder, that script is launched *multiple* times, once for each time you add items to the folder, *regardless* of whether another instance of said script is already running. This is what I'm trying to avoid. For example, if 10 items are dropped into the watch folder, and then, while the first 10 items are still being processed, another 5 items are dropped, this will launch a *second instance* of the script.) The only other thing I can come up with is to maintain a "status" file which will be set to "busy" by the script, and "idle" when done processing, so that the other instances of the script will wait for the "idle" state ... but this is also awkward.

I've been using folder actions for years. Ever since upgrading to High Sierra, my folder actions still work but the ability to add new ones is missing. When right clicking on a folder, there used to be options such as "Configure Folder Actions" and "Attach A Folder Action." Now, at least on my Mac, those options are gone. Where has this gone and how do I get it back? I'm the only one who uses this Mac and I'm logged in as an Administrator.