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.
It doesn't care about file size or modification date. If the name is the same the existing file will be replaced.

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Automator Copy Finder Items - file couldn't be saved error

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Hello all,
When I try to create an Automator workflow that finds a type of file (pdf) in a nested folder structure and copies those files to another folder - essentially extracting the pdfs from their nested folders - I get an error message.
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2) It returns 56 items
3) I use "copy Finder items" action and specify a new folder
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I was having the same issue.
I found another solution: instead of copying files, you could move files.
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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
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Maximum file/folder size for Copy Finder Items?

As I mentioned in another recent post, I used Automator a while back to set up a workflow that would Get Finder Items and then Copy Finder Items. Set it up as a iCal plugin. Worked fine for a long time, but I just checked and saw that the largest of the three folders (1.8 GB) was not being completely copied. The other two folders, much smaller (20 MB or so) were fine, but several folders within that large 1.8 GB folder were being skipped. I opened the workflow, and ran it, and it came up with an error that just told me to check the workflow. Is there a maximum size on this type of workflow? Seemed to work fine before . . .

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.

Can't use "Copy Finder Items" after "Run Workflow"

Create a simple Automator workflow:
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"Get Specified Finder Items" action (choose an image file here).
->
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->
"Copy Finder Items" (specify any location)
Now run the workflow. Everytime I get an error.
The log:
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.
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Thanks.

Found out that since Hebrew was set up first in the language option the filter on textual was failing. After I changed the order of the languages in the language preferences the file filter by name, extension etc… worked O.K.
Nati

Automator Copy Finder fails after logging in

Created a simple automator app to backup folders to external drive. Works fine initially. Later disabled auto login, resulting in having to enter password each time computer sleeps, log out, or restart. After log in, Automator app fails with message no permission to copy to disk. If I delete the Copy Finder Items step and recreate it, it works fine until the next login. Re-enabled auto login to avoid the hassle for now. Anybody else have this problem and come up with a solution?

As far as the Finder is concerned, the comparison is based on file name only.
It doesn't care about file size or modification date. If the name is the same the existing file will be replaced.

Automator Copy Finder Problem

I just used automator for the 1st time so please bare with me...
I want to make a backup of a directory located in another computer in my LAN, so I created a workflow in automator using *Get Specified Items* and then *Copy Finder Items*.
The first Run was OK. But after the second one the automator reports an Error. It seems that Copy Finder Items Failed because it couldn't create one specific file.
If however I decide to copy it directly through Finder (using the traditional copy & paste command) then everything works fine.
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

As far as the Finder is concerned, the comparison is based on file name only.
It doesn't care about file size or modification date. If the name is the same the existing file will be replaced.

Copying Finder items into same folder as Action

I want an Action that can copy Finder items directly into the same folder the Action resides in, i.e. without specifying where or asking the user where.
Is this possible? All I've been able to create so far is an Action whereby I need to specify the folder or get the user to specify it.

OK, I am now going to try to teach you to fish
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- the result of this action will be the paths to the items that were just copied, but since this is the end of the workflow it doesn't matter
You can use the View Results action to see what the current stack of cards is, so you can see if what is going in and coming out of your actions is what you expect, and tweak accordingly.

Help on Copy Finder Items

This is the problem:
I have a Toshiba USB Flashdisk formatted with a Windows format (so that both Mac and PC can read/write it).
I have a folder inside Documents where I want to backup to my flashdisk regularily (i'll plug in the drive, and then run the automator workflow).
It worked well when I first made this, but some time ago, it won't copy ALL the files. It'll only copy some of the files/folders which makes it fustrating.
Please Advice.
Thanks

I've also found that after an upgrade to Lion an Automator script I've been using to back up my Entourage 2008 identity to a USB drive no longer works, failing with a report that Copy Finder Items couldn't copy to the destination (which it had been happy doing under Snow Leopard).
I had saved the workflow as an application in the Utilities folder. First of all I also discovered that the Utilities folder permissions had been set differently, with "system" as the owner and as the only account with Read & Write permissions. I had to change the folder permissions and then having opened the "application" in Automator had to unlock it there too.
I've tried changing the destination of the copy to local locations like my account's Desktop or Downloads folders but still the script fails with a "Copy Finder Items can't copy ... to this destination" message.
The script is essentially the one described here:
http://www.officeformachelp.com/2009/04/quit_all_microsoft_applications_before_b acking_up/
but set up as an application rather than an iCal repeating event. Once I've quit all the Microsoft applications (by running the first part of the script), Finder allows me to drag the Entourage "Main Identity" folder to the folder on the USB drive to make a copy so at that level the permissions (and disk space) are ok.
Any suggestions welcome!

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?
Thanks

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.

IMac: I try to save a file and get 'the action "Copy Finder Items" encountered an error. Check the action's properties and try running the workflow again.'

I keep on running into this when I try to save a download file. Any help would be appreciated.
'The action "Copy Finder Items" encountered an error. Check the action's properties and try running the workflow again.'
I tried clicking the button to change the save but that has no effect.

Hi All,
I am having same issue too. Can anyone you advise? Thank you.

Help with what should be an easy workflow.. copy finder item

Hello,
I am writing a workflow to backup a folder to an external hard drive. The flow first copies the folder to the desktop, then re-names it with the date and then should be copying it to an external fire-wire hard drive.
The problem is that the "copy finder item" does not work - only the last sub-folder in the folder actually gets copied. I can't figure out what the problem is. This seems to affect both the copy to the desktop and then the subsequent copy to the firewire drive. Puzzlingly, it sometimes seems to work and copy the whole folder!
Any advice?
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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.
Instead, copy the folder to the destination on the external drive, then rename it once it's there. Perhaps, if you're lucky, in making this change, your problem will solve itself.

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I'm having another Automator problem in Leopard.
This time I have a workflow that is intended to combine PDFs selected in Finder and open the resulting document in Preview. The steps are:
1. Get Selected Items
2. Combine PDF Pages, Combine by appending pages
3. Open Finder Items, Open with Preview
The workflow runs fine if I'm running it from within Automator. When I save it as a plug-in, the Open Finder Items portion doesn't work. If I turn on Show this Action, I get a dialog box with a dropdown list of programs with Preview already selected along with Cancel and Continue buttons. Clicking the Continue button does nothing.
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Anyone have a clue for me?

I'm having a similar problem. When running from within Automator everything is fin, but the plug in doesn't get the finder items. Oddly, I have ONE old workflow that takes the word "folder" away from a file name. That one works fine, but doesn't require any action once I select it. It doesn't even open the automator show action dialog window to make any changes. Weird how this one is still working and the other ones won't.

Automator: Copy Finder Items Question

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