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For some reason Automator is replicating my photos. I tried to set up a process that would create a thumbnail. For some reason it created close to 500,000 duplicates of the one photo. I spent hours deleting the duplicates and thought this fixed it. It is now duplicating other photos causing my computer to seize up. I need to stop Automator from doing whatever its doing.
MacBook Air
Thanks for your quick reply. I believe I found the workflow folder and put it in the trashcan. Moved some photos to my picture folder and no replications. I sure hope I've fixed it. Wow, what a relief. I'm too old for this stress. Thank you for your help!!
Thanks for your quick reply. I believe I found the workflow folder and put it in the trashcan. Moved some photos to my picture folder and no replications. I sure hope I've fixed it. Wow, what a relief. I'm too old for this stress. Thank you for your help!!
Without seeing your workflow it's really hard to predict what you've done, or how to stop it.
Normally Automator workflows are invoked manually, execute, and are done. Quitting the script or restarting the machine kills any flow in process.
The exceptions to this are most commonly Folder Action scripts that react when specific folders on disk are changed in some way (e.g. a new file is added)..
If you created a Folder Action script that duplicates a file dropped into a folder then you could, conceivably, have this problem -
If this is the case you need to disable your Folder Actions until you can fix the script. Use Folder Actions Setup.app to disable the script.
If this hypothesis is incorrect you need to provide more details as to what your script is doing.
Thank you kindly for taking the time to respond. I believe the folder action script that you mentioned is at the heart of the issue. I completely emptied out my pictures folder and then moved one photo back into it and the horror movie ensued with thousands of replicated photo files. I am not versed in Automator and don't know how to implement what you are asking. I was hoping someone from Apple could screen share and remove whatever needs to be removed but they are unable to help as there is no one versed in Automator. This is a picture of the Automator screen with the folder that I can't seem to remove and this is picture of the photo (right clicked), that shows what I believe is called the script (PXL pn pn pn infinity). Is there just a way to delete the folder "pictures" or is it fixed in the operating system. Tried to delete the program Automator and no dice.
If it is a Folder Action, then I already told you how to address the issue, stop the script and prevent more duplicate.
Use the app Folder Action Setup.app (find it in spotlight)
This will show you a list of folders that have Folder Actions assigned to them, and a list of folder actions. Turn off the one(s) you don't want. Then you can move on to debugging the script to find out why it went rampant, and how to fix it.
I have not been able to resolve according to your instructions. Is there a way to totally disable Automator or is it possible to delete everything off my computer and reset to factory settings? Will this solve it...
From previous discussions, the problem is not with Automator.
Automator is just a way of building scripts/workflows.
The problem you are experiencing is with Folder Actions.
Sure, Automator can build a Folder Action workflow, but so can AppleScript (which is actually the original way they were done).
You can delete the Automator.app application itself and it won't have any effect on existing workflows - it will just prohibit your ability to edit current scripts or create new ones.
Did you check Folder Actions Setup.app? Did it have your folder/scripts listed? Did you disable them there and you're still experiencing problems? if so something else is amiss.
Sure, you can reinstall your entire OS, but that's kind of like a sledgehammer approach to what should be a simple fix.
can someone help me on automator
