Automator Freezes when using Watch me Do it

I have the same problem here is reproduction step:
1) Fresh install Snow Leopard (after erasing the disk)
2) Launch Safari 4
3) Launch Automator
4) Click Watch me do
5) Go to any page site click on links + type in a name (e.g. www.yahoo.com)
6) Run Automator
Result computer is stuck only power cycle can take out of the stuck mode.

HI,

Try deleting this file.

com.apple.Automator.plist

~/Library/Preferences. Move that file to the Trash. Launch Automator.

Might be more help here.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=22228

Also, please take a moment and update your forum profile to reflect your 10.6 update. Just click My Settings on the right side of this window.







Carolyn 🙂

try it on a different account. see if it works there. but in general, using watch me do it should an absolutely last resort option if nothing else works. It's exteremely unreliable even when it does work. I would not be surprised if a long watch me do it option would crash no matter what. please describe what exactly you are trying to do.

Message was edited by: V.K.

Anthony Gong wrote:
When i was in Leopard, this never happened though. I've run Automator for hours and it was still stable afterwards. Only after i had upgraded to snow leopard has automator decided to crash on me.

I looked at the logs and i found out that it crashes on "watch me do it." It doesnt actually complete the task, it stops there

Is there a way to downgrade automator back to leopard

no.

or would i have to downgrade my entire OS in order to have the original automator back?

yes.
what exactly are you trying to do?

I experience the same thing in 10.6.2. For the record, I found 'watch me do' to be extremely reliable in Leopard almost without exception. I used it frequently to automate several different repetitive workflows that would run for several hours at a time and on multiple computers. I called Apple Support about this last month. They had me set up a new account and try it. They also had me try deleting a preferences file. Neither of these suggestions made any difference.

Watch me do was excellent with Leopard and is basically useless in Snow Leopard. I am much less productive than I was.

Problem is not fixed as far as I know.

I called Apple about this a couple of months ago. They had me try deleting a .plist file and also logging in on a different account as per earlier posts in this thread. Neither made any difference.

Any input or sharing of similar experiences would be appreciated. I would really like to see Apple address this as it seems to be a major bug. Several of my workflows are not nearly as productive as they used to be.

Unless I am completely missing something, "Watch me do" was excellent with Leopard and is entirely useless with Snow Leopard.

Still not fixed Apple!?
I used to use Watch Me Do all the time in Leopard without a problem too. Now it appears to be broken. It can work fine for a couple of times. Then I press run again and at some point it fails. Where it fails can be be different each time in the same workflow. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to it. I've been trying to get it to work for hours. It's an unstable POS. A few times It's frozen the macbook and caused the fan to spin at high speed (which I'm assuming means that it was maxing out the cpu), requiring a restart.

I'm having the same problem.
Although I only use this function for gaming purposes, I can't stop the script on the half of the running.

If I let it finish, nothing happens. But, If I have to interrupt it, only mouse moves and no functions!

Please apple, release an automator fix!!!!

Freezing Automator is quite frustating and happens at times here too.
Quite frustating.
But it remains here like a "don´t know what" question so long.
Did you fix it?