Copy Finder Items - how to generic for multiple user home directories?

I am creating an Automator workflow to allow my networked users to be able to copy certain files from a central location to their local home directory and overwriting their local copy. How to I make the destination of the Copy Finder Item to be generic home directory (something in the like of "~/Document/MegaSeg User Data/MegaSeg Database" instead of a fixed user home directory)?

Hi
It may be easier with an appleScript (which you could incorporate into an Automator action if you wanted).
--start script
set the_file to -- path to the file you want to copy goes here
set docs_folder to path to documents folder from user domain
tell application "Finder"
set target_folder to folder "MegaSeg Database" of folder "MegaSeg User Data" of docs_folder
duplicate the_file to target_folder with replacing
end tell
-- end script
This will replace existing files of the same name in the target folder. Hope it helps.

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Problem changing the location of multiple users home directories...

I've just set up a new entry level model iMac for my Mum. Without getting into a discussion about the benefits or otherwise of doing so, I partitioned the hard disk into two with the first partition for the system and the second a scratch disk for files etc. I set up two users, one for my Mum and one for my younger brother. I then copied the users folder across to the scratch disk and in advanced options in the users list set each account's home folder to the relevant user on the scratch disk. This is the same set up as I have on my own system and with which I have no problems and which runs well and cleanly. I have only one account on my system. However on the iMac, the second user (my brother) is unable to write to the new home directory. Downloads don't work and preferences including right click for magic mouse, dock etc are forgotten instantly. It seems there's a permissions issue.
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Message was edited by: Jimmy Hat
Message was edited by: Jimmy Hat

Jimmy Hat wrote:
I've just set up a new entry level model iMac for my Mum. Without getting into a discussion about the benefits or otherwise of doing so,
still not advisable though IMO.
I partitioned the hard disk into two with the first partition for the system and the second a scratch disk for files etc. I set up two users, one for my Mum and one for my younger brother. I then copied the users folder across to the scratch disk and in advanced options in the users list set each account's home folder to the relevant user on the scratch disk. This is the same set up as I have on my own system and with which I have no problems and which runs well and cleanly. I have only one account on my system. However on the iMac, the second user (my brother) is unable to write to the new home directory. Downloads don't work and preferences including right click for magic mouse, dock etc are forgotten instantly. It seems there's a permissions issue.
how exactly did you copy the home directories? did you do it using drag and drop in finder from one account? then the copied home directories both are owned by that account and the permissions need to be changed. please clarify if that's what you did.
I've set the machine up this way in order to keep all their files separate from the system after their last Mac got very bogged down. I expected it to work in exactly the same way as my own. Does anyone know how to successfuly set up both user accounts in this way?
Any advice would be much appreciated...
Message was edited by: Jimmy Hat
Message was edited by: Jimmy Hat

How to setup for multiple users accessing same share?

Hi!
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The *Copy Finder Items* action will not make duplicate copies. If you want multiple copies of the same item, you will need to rename or duplicate the item before copying, since the copy action doesn't have an option to rename, and the duplicate action doesn't duplicate to a different location.

Automator: Copy Finder Items Question

Hola,
Quick question about the Copy Finder Items action in automator: the "replace existing files" option, how is sameness determined? In other words, according to what criteria does Automator determine that two files are the same, and so eligible for replacement in the destination folder when that option is chosen? For example, would file Mydog.doc, modified 10/14/05, 230k be viewed as the same thing as Mydog.doc., modifided 2/21/06, 150k?
Cheers,
stu

As far as the Finder is concerned, the comparison is based on file name only.
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Copy Finder Items

I have a workflow that is reading images names & pathways from a text file, and copying the images in the text file into another folder. My problem is coming with the "Copy Finder Items" action. If I have the same image that I want copied into the folder, it will only copy it once. Actually, when I run the workflow, all of the images appear in the results section of the copy finder items. However, any duplicate images are not actually in the folder that it is copied to. Is there any way to correct for this, so that I can copy an image into a folder more than one time?
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The *Copy Finder Items* action will not make duplicate copies. If you want multiple copies of the same item, you will need to rename or duplicate the item before copying, since the copy action doesn't have an option to rename, and the duplicate action doesn't duplicate to a different location.

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OK, I am now going to try to teach you to fish
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Can't use "Copy Finder Items" after "Run Workflow"

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->
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->
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Get Specified Finder Items completed;
Run Workflow (wf1) completed;
Copy Finder Items failed
* -[NSAppleEventDescriptor count]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x113185d0
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I can confirm I got the same results for the workflow, just don't know why as of yet. And then I somehow got it to work.
I checked the results for each action and they didn't seem unusual. The results of "Get Specified Finder Items" is a single parenthesized text string representing the file's path. The results of "Copy Finder Items" is an alias, but that should be okay.
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I'm going to do some more testing.

Automator 2.2 "Copy Finder Items" Action Error

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Any ideas?
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I was having the same issue.
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Hello,
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Well, I don't know what's causing your problem, but let me suggest an optimization. Unless you have a specific reason to want this, there's absolutely no reason to copy the folder twice. Right now, you're copying to the desktop, renaming the folder, then copying to the external drive. Presumably, you must at some point delete the copy on the desktop. Copying twice means the backup will be half as fast as it could be. It also introduces extra room for errors by increasing the complexity of the task.
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Copy Finder Items - how to generic for multiple user home directories?

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