Automator (move finder items)

I have a service that moves finder items to a particular folder. Since I started using this I noticed I occasionally will need to move an item with the same name into this folder. Is there a way I can get the service to move the second item with the same name, but instead of overwriting the first item, have it add a -1 or something? If I open something like a zip file multiple times in finder, it creates the second one with a 1 after the name. That's exactly what I need. Any way to do that with a service like this?

No, I didn't give up on the thread, I just went to work with what you gave me to see what I could do with it. It's just that you've been nothing but extremely helpful and patient with me in the past; and I started to feel like I was coming to the board, putting up my problems, and you do everything for me. I know you're here to contribute to the community, but I don't like to take advantage. I am making an effort to learn this stuff now, I just have to make baby steps!
Okay, here is the deal with this item. I actually want to apply this with more than one operation, but the basic script or concept would remain pretty much the same. We create lots of documents like invoices, receipts, shipping labels, etc., that usually get saved as pdf onto the desktop. Then, they are named, often with the date and particular file name and finally moved into the proper folders. For example, shipping labels get saved to desktop with the default name of something like
vty3RlsIK.LabelGenerationServlet.part
Then I would change the name to something like
12-31-2009USPSLabel.pdf
Then, I would move it to the folder where we keep the shipping labels for records.
So, the service I created actually does more than just moving the file. It goes like this:
service receives selected pdf
in finder
name single item in finder item names (to: USPS_Label.pdf)
add date or time to finder item names (before name, underscore separator)
move finder items (to target folder)
open finder item (with default application)
The other ones I need would be similar, except they don't usually need to be opened afterward, just named and moved, for the most part. I figured I could continue to just use the name change function of automator before running the script, but if would run faster or more efficiently if that were also part of the script, I suppose that would be better. And I would like to be able to have the numbers go up through as many as I need. If it's a matter of just adding in all the possibilities of existing names up to the number I need, that's tedious work I don't mind doing now to save on having to name all these files in the future!
Also, these files are always named differently, so the source file would need to just be selected file, not the actual name.
Finally, I tried to play with the script to name the desktop like you said, but would it be something like
set source_folder to folder (path to desktop)
or
set source_folder to (path to desktop)
I still need to learn a little more before I understand the way that works. I am so used to only using the unix path, I like the ability to use (path to desktop) that's really interesting.
I think I may have rambled a bit, but that should explain the details of what I'm trying to accomplish.
thanks

Similar Messages

Folder Action + Move Finder Items = Zero KB files

I've got a folder action set that is supposed to run the Automator Action "Move Finder Items" on any file that gets placed in a specific folder (called "Folder A") and move it to "Folder B". I'm having an issue with larger files though.
As soon as I begin to transfer the file to "folder A" , the folder action runs and results in a "Zero KB" file in "Folder B".
Is there any way to keep the Folder Action from triggering until the file has completely copied to the folder with the Folder Action attached ("Folder A")?
A side note: I have this same folder action running on an iMac with Mac OS 10.6.3 and it works great . (This one was made with the newer version of Automator that shipped with 10.6 vs. Automator on 10.5 which made the action I am having trouble with)
Any input would be appreciated!

There is a check in *Snow Leopard* to see if the items have completed their copy/download, but Leopard does not do any checking - the script is triggered immediately. You can add your own delay with a *Run AppleScript* action, though, for example:
<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 10px;
font-weight: normal;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
width: 720px; height: 340px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #DAFFB6;
overflow: auto;"
title="this text can be pasted into an Automator 'Run AppleScript' action">
on run {input, parameters} -- wait for file copy to complete by testing the size of the containing folder
set theFolders to {} -- to handle items in different folders
set skippedItems to {}
repeat with anItem in the input -- get a list of unique folders
tell application "Finder"
get (container of anItem) as alias
if the result is not in theFolders then set the end of theFolders to the result
end tell
end repeat
repeat with aFolder in theFolders
set timeToWait to 30 -- time to wait for copy to complete
set interval to 2 -- test every interval seconds
set copied to false
tell application "Finder" to set currentSize to size of aFolder -- get initial size
repeat with timer from timeToWait to 1 by -interval -- check every interval seconds up to maximum time
delay interval
tell application "Finder" to set newSize to size of aFolder -- recheck size
if (newSize is equal to currentSize) then
set copied to true
exit repeat -- success
else -- update size
set currentSize to newSize
end if
end repeat
if not copied then set the end of skippedItems to quoted form of (aFolder as text) -- timed out
end repeat
showSkippedAlert for skippedItems
return input
end run
to showSkippedAlert for skippedItems
show an alert dialog for any items skipped, with the option to cancel the rest of the workflow
parameters - skippedItems [list]: the items skipped
returns nothing
if skippedItems is not {} then
set {alertText, theCount} to {"Error with waiting for items to copy", count skippedItems}
if theCount is greater than 1 then
set theMessage to (theCount as text) & space & " folders timed out"
else
set theMessage to "1 folder timed out"
end if
set theMessage to theMessage & " - copy of contents may be incomplete:"
set {tempTID, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {AppleScript's text item delimiters, return}
set {skippedItems, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {skippedItems as text, tempTID}
if button returned of (display alert alertText message (theMessage & return & skippedItems) alternate button "Cancel" default button "OK") is "Cancel" then error number -128
end if
return
end showSkippedAlert
</pre>
The action will check the folder sizes, and when there is no change (or the wait times out) the input items are passed on.

Automator Filter Finder Items

A very simple task, which I have attempted to figure out many times over the last few months; but my repeated attempts haven't been successful. This should be easy for someone to resolve…
I would like to strip out all the files of a certain extension (.txt) from an hierarchy of nested folders, & move them to the Trash. (Told you it was easy!)
Here's what I think ought to work:
• Create an Automator Workflow
• 'Ask for Finder Items' to select the topmost folder
• 'Get Folder Contents' with 'Repeat for each subfolder found' — (the results successfully include all the relevant files)
• 'Filter Finder Items': "find files where any of the following are true: file extension is .txt" — (I tried "txt" as well as ".txt")
• 'Move Finder Items to Trash'.
The files turn up (alongside loads of other junk) in the 'Get Folder Contents' step, & they are reported in the results; but when I try to filter out everything apart from the .txt files, so that only the .txt files remain, the filter reports no results.
So the 'Filter Finder Items' action completes with no results, & with a warning that: The action “Move Finder Items to Trash” was not supplied with the required data.
I think it must be something obvious, but I can't figure it out, & although I've searched extensively online, everyone else with similar problems has other complications which get resolved… so they lose interest just at the point where I think they're going to reveal the solution.

You need to understand the issues here. Automator was released with 10.4 (Tiger), and many of the core automator actions date from that time. This introduces forward-compatability problems: things that should work (and maybe did work) in 10.4 might not work as specified in 10.6, depending on if/how the underlying cocoa APIs have changed. Now, in the best of all possible worlds, Apple would update automator actions with each new upgrade, but it's probably not needed for the bulk of the actions, and Apple may not be aware of problems that do exist with given actions (that depends on whether people filed meaningful bug reports on them).
Don't be confused by the seeming simplicity of what I did: the Move Finder Items to Trash action probably uses cocoa file system APIs directly, whereas my applescript leverages the developed programmatic underpinnings of the Finder - the Finder has a built-in system for moving files in bulk, whereas the action is obviously moving files one at a time (which is where things are getting congested).
Filter Finder Items seems to be a simple metadata search (just another use of the spotlight framework, which hasn't changed much since its inception) so I can't see any way in which it would fail. it is, of course, limited by the same things that spotlight is limited by - it won't find material that's not indexed and may not do exactly what one always expects (e.g., may not recognize an extension as an extension unless the extension belongs to an app registered with the system) but other than that there's very little it can do wrong. As a general rule, actions that deal only with manipulating automator data (e.g. modifying references passed from one action to the next) won't break. You'll only see breakage with actions that need to access exterior frameworks that have changed significantly since the actions were created.
That's the best answer you're going to get: one can't prove a negative, so there's no way to demonstrate that FFI isn't broken. it's easy enough to check for a given task, though - just run the workflow you have on a test folder without the deleting action, check the results window, and compare it to the results you expect (which you can gather by eye in a Finder search window, through an applescript, through an app that will report the number of files of given types in a folder…).

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.

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

I have a simple automator sequence that suddenly stopped working for no apparent reason. Copy Finder Items has started returning an error "the file xxx couldn't be saved to the folder yyy" Happens for different files and folders. Can't see anythng that's changed. Any ideas?

I'm currently having the same issue, and have had it with mulitple automator scripts on multiple computers, but it's not fixing itseltf. Anyone know what this error could be?
I've noticed that I get the above error most often after getting and then correcting permissions errors in the same workflow. Any help would be most appreciated.
Thanks!

Automator Open Finder Items Won't Work in Plug-In

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.
As a test, I tried removing the Combine PDF Pages step from the workflow and saving it as a plug-in. My expectation is that this version would simply open the items selected in Finder. Unfortunately, that didn't work either.
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 - Filter Finder Items filtering contents of sub folders

I have an external hard drive and I want to keep my iTunes music library automatically backed up on it. I am using automator to copy my most recent files to the external (run the script once a week). I let iTunes manage all my audio files, etc so I figured the created, modified, opened dates would be the best way to filter the items I want to copy over. The workflow is as follows.
1) Get Specified Finder Items (iTunes Library Music folder)
2) Get Folder Contents (All artist directories (Repeat for each subfolder found is NOT checked)
3) Filter Finder Items (ANY of Date Last Modified, Date Created, Date last opened in the last week)
4) Copy finder items (to my external hard drive)
I am having two problems.
1) If I play a song from my second hard drive iTunes copies it into it's directory when it opens... iTunes Music > Artist > Album > Song.mp3. The mp3's modified date, created date, and last opened date is the same as the file that got copied. The new Artist and Album directories that were created by itunes have current created dates (makes sense). However, the filter is still not catching it. Only if the mp3 is current will the filter catch it. I DON'T have 'Repeat for each subfolder found'... shouldn't the filter check for the folder's modified, created and last opened dates?
2) If everything works the way I want it to I see this to be a problem in the future. If I add an album by an artist that I already have an album for, the filter will skip it. Any suggestions on how I could handle this problem?
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 - Filter Finder Items bug?

I've only started using Automator a few months ago, but now I ran into a problem, which I think is not my fault, but is a bug in Automator.
Here's the scenario:
What I have is a Folder Action on the Downloads folder, and the following list of actions in order:
Get Finder Items: how.i.met.your.mother.s04e05.srt (this is for testing purposes)
Filter Finder Items - if ANY of the following are true:
Name contains "big.bang.theory"
Name contains "how.i.met.your.mother"
Name contains "fringe"
etc
I managed to find out that the same kind of container (here: Name) could not be used multiple times, because it gives no result in case "Any" of them are true. There is no way to test if any of these strings are present in the file name. I thought I could use this action like a function with "OR"-separated boolean parameters, but apparently that only works if I change the container type, e.g. I use Kind instead of Name. Meaning, if there is only one Name container, then it outputs the correct result (the .srt file, if the statement is true).
So, did I do something wrong, or is this really a bug in Automator? If you have an alternate suggestion on how to solve this, please don't hold it back

I have the same problem.
I am trying to select ANY of the following extentions: JPG, PNG, TIFF and I get no output. While if I only select one extention I do get the right output for the extention selected.
ANY of the following are true
               File extention          is          JPG
               File extention          is          PNG
               File extention          is          TIFF
     ~~~no results produced~~~
ANY of the following are true
               File extention          is          JPG
     ~~~001.JPG, 002.JPG, etc..~~~

Is there a bug in Automator filter finder items?

I'm trying to do a batch processing script and there seems to be a bug with items created earlier in the script. For example, the 2brokegirls.jpg file was created earlier in the script and added to the main folder whose contents can be seen in the get folder contents action at the top. however, the filter finder items misses that item when filtering by the extension ".jpg" which as you can see obviously appears at the top. Is this a bug in Automator? My guess is that the filter is using some spotlight indexing and that index hasn't been updated since the file was just added. Does anyone know of a workaround?
Thanks.

I also have this problem. I am getting literally hundreds of emails each day althoug i have clicked all the radio buttons to not receive any emails in "my preferences... email notifications. THis is gumming up my Ipad, Iphone and email in box Help!!

Automator Print Finder Items always aborts

I have an automator script to print a document two-sided that worked in Tiger, but fails in Leopard. I recreated the script from scratch, but the Print Finder Items step works for a while and then aborts the script.
I've tried using Default Printer and a specific printer in the Print Finder Items step, but both have this problem.
Is this a known problem? Is there a known workaround?

Dale Boss wrote:
Thanks for your offer, and I'd love to take you up on it, but I can't figure out how to post the workflow. I don't see a way to attach, and using the clipboard doesn't work.
It's a duplexing script. It starts with Extract Odd&Even Pages (even) and then Print Finder Items (default printer). That second step fails. There's more to the script but that may be enough for you. If not, a hint on posting a workflow?
just write down the sequence of actions and options that you use. It shouldn't take too long. I don't know any other way of posting workflows.

Automator Rename Finder Items NOT working in Leopard

I used to be able to Replace Text in filenames, as you would expect with Automator, now my old or new Automator actions don't work for this, whether I run them as a Finder plugin or from the Automator Run button...
Anyone else have this problem, or better yet success?

The real problem here is, why does the Finder have to be so ********! Why all this trouble just to change filenames?!?! Why use automator to do something so simple?!?! I have to use but I hate it!
Please, despite all the Windows problems and faults (and I hate Windows and love Mac), they have a better file manager then we do, because the explorer is a good tool unlike the finder! Why can't we just choose the items and do some "rename" option, or just select all, press "enter" and write what we want (doing a sequential rename by default).
Come on, if windows explorer can do this, why can't we?!?!?
The automator should be used to more advanced stuff, not to just simply rename items...

Selecting Finder Items in Automator

I am a long-time MAC user but have never used applescript or automator. I work in a Prepress department and need to find a simple way to select certain folders quickly.
Here's the scenario:
I have a folder full of jobs. They would look something like this:
12345_AdvertisingAgency
12349_CarCompany
13245_WhoeverCompany
13568_AnyCompany
Typically this folder would contain 500-600 folders with the same naming convention.
I need to find a way to ignore the first six characters (all 5 numbers + the underscore) and select the folder by the first letter after the underscore so that I can put all the "A's" in one folder, all the "B's" in another folder, and so on through the alphabet.
Does anyone know of an automator action that can do this?
Thank for any help.

Your Prep:
1. Create the destination folders, A, B, C, etc.
Your workflow:
1. Find Finder Items - Where= +jobs parent folder+ | Whose=Name-Contains-_A
click on Options and select 'Show Action When Run'
2. Move Finder Items- To= +destination folder+ ( A )
click on Options and select 'Show Action When Run'
Running it:
Hit the Run button. The first time you run it, the options are already set to move all the A jobs so you should be able to just hit Return to move through.
On subsequent runs, just change the letter/folder in Whose and To

Filter finder Items... broken? (also request to help streamline script)

Let me begin by saying that I've done the SAME THING for a long time with this Automator script, and it's worked flawlessly. I recently added some now automator actions (and later deleted them) thinking they were the culprit of why my "filter finder items" was showing no results, but I'm not sure at all at this point.
Here's the script (that has been working fine until at least the 7th):
It's long, so bear with me (I use this script to install custom Sims2 content when I download it:
("Get Specified Folder" uses the "Get specified finder items" action, I just didn't want to type that every time).
New Folder: Recent (in my downloads folder)
Get Specified Folder: my downloads folder
Get folder contents (repeat for each subfolder found)
Filter finder items (name contains .package)
Copy Finder items (to Recent)
Get Specified Folder: my downloads folder
Get folder contents (repeat for each subfolder found)
Filter finder items (name contains Sims2Pack)
Move finder itmes (to my core download folder (they're generally in subfolders after downloading, as are the .package files)
Get Specified Folder: my downloads folder
Get folder contents (repeat for each subfolder found)
Filter finder items (name contains Sims2Pack)
Copy finder items (to Recent)
Get Specified Folder: Recent
Create Archive (on desktop named Sims2)
Rename (add date to end of file name)
Rename (add time to end of file name)
Get Specified Folder: Recent
Move to trash
Get Specified Folder: my downloads folder
Get folder contents (repeat for each subfolder found)
Filter finder items (name contains .package)
Move finder items (to Sims2 Downloads folder, which installs the custom content, replacing any repeats)
Get Specified Folder: my downloads folder
Get folder contents
Filter finder items (name contains Sims2Pack)
Move Finder items (Sims 2 Packs folder within the downloads folder... these items must be installed into the game by double-clicking on them.)
Get Specified folder: Desktop
Get folder contents
Filter finder items (name contains Sims2)
Move Finder items (To Backup)
Get Specified Folder: my downloads folder
Get folder contents (repeat for each subfolder found)
Filter finder items (name contains MTS (most of the containing download folders (after they've been expanded by another automator script, have this at the beginning of the folder name due to where I commonly download my custom content)
Move to trash
And that concludes the script. I know it could probably be streamlined (another reason I'm posting the whole thing) but it worked until very recently, and I don't know what could cause it to no longer report results after filtering within the subfolders while within the main folder works fine.
To clarify, it's recently been simply deleting the MTS folders and creating a "Recent" folder and archiving it but it's empty. So the script is not filtering for the Sims2Pack data nor the .package data as it used to.
I haven't modified the script, and I've deleted all actions that I downloaded recently (backed them up in case they're not the culprit). Also ran disk permission repair but nothing was repaired in regards to Automator.
Thanks.
iMac Intel Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Here is an update to the script, however filter continue to not work as it once did.
New Folder: Recent (in my downloads folder)
Get Specified Folder: my downloads folder
Get folder contents (repeat for each subfolder found)
Filter finder items (name contains .package)
Copy Finder items (to Recent)
Get Specified Folder: my downloads folder
Get folder contents (repeat for each subfolder found)
Filter finder items (name contains Sims2Pack)
Move finder itmes (to my core download folder (they're generally in subfolders after downloading, as are the .package files)
Get Specified Folder: my downloads folder
Get folder contents (repeat for each subfolder found)
Filter finder items (name contains Sims2Pack)
Copy finder items (to Recent)
Get Specified Folder: Recent
Create Archive (on in "to backup" named Sims2)
Rename (add date to end of file name)
Rename (add time to end of file name)
Get Specified Folder: Recent
Move to trash
Get Specified Folder: my downloads folder
Get folder contents (repeat for each subfolder found)
Filter finder items (name contains .package)
Move finder items (to Sims2 Downloads folder, which installs the custom content, replacing any repeats)
Get Specified Folder: my downloads folder
Get folder contents
Filter finder items (name contains Sims2Pack)
Move Finder items (Sims 2 Packs folder within the downloads folder... these items must be installed into the game by double-clicking on them.)
Get Specified Folder: my downloads folder
Get folder contents (repeat for each subfolder found)
Filter finder items (name contains MTS (most of the containing download folders (after they've been expanded by another automator script, have this at the beginning of the folder name due to where I commonly download my custom content)
Move to trash
I removed the step where it was saving it to the desktop. If the filters ever work again, this should therefore go faster than before.

Putting Variables in Action "Find Finder Items"

Hello! I'm using Automator to make a workflow. One of my action in my workflow is to find finder items. I'd like to tell Automator to find items that start with a specific string of text (the text is "016") stored in a variable. Since Automator does not allow me to insert a variable directly, I tried to add the variable by adding the variable's UUID. I followed the method outlined in this website:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20080213200213250
But even after I put my variable's UUID as "$(9051E0AA-257F-4F00-9A58-50677FB0C07E)", it seems that Automator does not understand, as the results of the action "Find Finder Items" returned no files at all. I tried to store my string as "Storage" and "Text" and used the same method, but it still didn't work. Thank you very much!

I'm not sure what the action is using to search, but a name extension does not include the period. Another approach would be to get the entire contents of the memory card, and filter the items from there.

Automator 2.2 "Copy Finder Items" Action Error

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.
1) I use the "find Finder items" action. I specify the top-level folder and set the kind to "document"
2) It returns 56 items
3) I use "copy Finder items" action and specify a new folder
4) The copy action fails stating that a given file "couldn't be saved in the folder". It does not always error-out on the same file. Changing or creating a new folder doesn't help.
I have tried this under two user accounts with the same result. I have tried deleting preferences. The same error results.
Any ideas?
I am running 10.7.1 on a 15" MacBook Pro, early 2011.

I was having the same issue.
I found another solution: instead of copying files, you could move files.
1) Duplicate your original folder (unless you want to move/extract your files entirely to the new folder) (right click the folder and select duplicate)
2) Create a new folder as the destiny folder
3) Open automator and use the following actions (in order) on the workflow
- Find Finder Itens (browse to your source folder; select "any"; select "extension"; select "end with"; type "pdf") (you can do the same thing with the actions "get specified finder items" combined with "filter finder items")
- Get Folder Contents (and mark repeat for each subfolder found) (use this action if you have subfolders)
- Move Finder Itens (browse to your destination folder, that you created previously)
Now you can delete the duplicated folder.

Automator (move finder items)

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