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User profile for user: Buffsters
Buffsters Author
User level: Level 1
59 points

Scheduling Automator to Run an App upon opening it

I am in a low bandwidth area and I have a business Dropbox account that uses a lot of data when left open. So I have it scheduled through Automator and Calendar to open at a particular time in the middle of the night (when data is cheaper) and then have it scheduled to close when the cheap data period ends. It opens Dropbox fine, but will not close at the specified time, perhaps because the app appears on the menu bar as a utility. So I tried doing a "Watch Me Do" process on Automator, which works perfectly when I run it. The problem is when it's scheduled on Calendar it opens the app in Automator, but doesn't run until I click the Play button, which is not helpful. How do I get the app to RUN when it's opened rather than just open and wait for "user action"?


Thank you...

iMac 21.5", macOS 10.14

Posted on Oct 19, 2019 9:13 AM

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User profile for user: Buffsters
Buffsters Author
User level: Level 1
59 points

Posted on Oct 19, 2019 10:59 AM

Ok... I seemed to have solved this problem, which is related to the new DropBox for business application, which appears as a menu bar utility when you open the app, so the "Quit App" command in Automator does not work, because it's not an app that needs to be closed. I created a new Application in Automator, dragged over a "Watch Me Do" process. Recorded my process of using the mouse to close the utility. Then saved it. At first I received an "action cannot be completed" error -50, which I solved by increasing the "Time-Out Seconds" to 10, and by removing an extra step that had been added during the recording by the computer not responding to a first click. It now is scheduled through Calendar... and we'll see to tomorrow, but seems to be running perfectly.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: Buffsters
Buffsters Author
User level: Level 1
59 points

Oct 19, 2019 10:59 AM in response to Buffsters

Ok... I seemed to have solved this problem, which is related to the new DropBox for business application, which appears as a menu bar utility when you open the app, so the "Quit App" command in Automator does not work, because it's not an app that needs to be closed. I created a new Application in Automator, dragged over a "Watch Me Do" process. Recorded my process of using the mouse to close the utility. Then saved it. At first I received an "action cannot be completed" error -50, which I solved by increasing the "Time-Out Seconds" to 10, and by removing an extra step that had been added during the recording by the computer not responding to a first click. It now is scheduled through Calendar... and we'll see to tomorrow, but seems to be running perfectly.

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Scheduling Automator to Run an App upon opening it

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