Folder Actions will not work - tried everything

Question

Level 3

550 points

Folder Actions will not work - tried everything

Recently Folder Actions simply stopped working on 10.6.4. They worked fine before then recently just stopped working.

I've tried everything I can think of, including:

1. completely removing enabling & disabling & enabling folder actions through the setup app.
2. trashing folder actions plist files in user domain and relaunching
3. disabling related launchd processes with lingon
4. trashing launch agents in user domain and also trying to unload them in terminal
5. trying to kill the folder actions dispatcher process in activity monitor (just relaunches, as it should)
6. emptying system caches including dyld shared cache using cocktail
7. doing most of the above and restarting

It's driving me nuts. Any other ideas?

here's some entries from syslog:


8/2/10 9:31:37 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 6 seconds
8/2/10 9:37:29 AM Folder Actions Setup[4403] * WARNING: Method selectedRowEnumerator in class NSTableView is deprecated. It will be removed in a future release and should no longer be used.
8/2/10 9:43:37 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.enabled[309]) Exited: Killed
8/2/10 9:46:23 AM [0x0-0x3a03a].com.apple.systemevents[360] com.apple.FolderActions.enabled: Already loaded
8/2/10 9:52:07 AM Folder Actions Setup[1083] * WARNING: Method selectedRowEnumerator in class NSTableView is deprecated. It will be removed in a future release and should no longer be used.
8/2/10 9:52:16 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 7 seconds
8/2/10 9:53:02 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 1 seconds
8/2/10 9:56:18 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
8/2/10 10:00:58 AM Folder Actions Setup[2190] * WARNING: Method selectedRowEnumerator in class NSTableView is deprecated. It will be removed in a future release and should no longer be used.
8/2/10 10:01:01 AM com.apple.FolderActions.enabled[2236] launchctl: Error unloading: com.apple.FolderActions.folders
8/2/10 10:01:30 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
8/2/10 10:01:42 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 9 seconds
8/2/10 10:05:03 AM sudo[2622] lryter : TTY=ttys000 ; PWD=/Users/lryter ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/launchctl unload -w /Users/lryter/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.enabled.plist
8/2/10 10:10:25 AM Folder Actions Setup[676] * WARNING: Method selectedRowEnumerator in class NSTableView is deprecated. It will be removed in a future release and should no longer be used.
8/2/10 10:10:27 AM com.apple.FolderActions.enabled[680] launchctl: Couldn't stat("/Users/lryter/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.folders.plist"): No such file or directory
8/2/10 10:10:27 AM com.apple.FolderActions.enabled[680] nothing found to unload
8/2/10 10:10:38 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[268] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 8 seconds
8/2/10 10:13:17 AM sudo[943] lryter : TTY=ttys000 ; PWD=/Users/lryter ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/launchctl unload -w /Users/lryter/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.enabled.plist
8/2/10 10:14:01 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[268] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 4 seconds
8/2/10 10:14:14 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[268] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 1 seconds

MacPro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Aug 2, 2010 7:20 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Loren Ryter Author

Level 3

550 points

Aug 17, 2010 8:10 AM in response to Loren Ryter

Still no solution here. Folder Actions simply are not called. Everything is enabled in the GUI. launchctrl apparently cannot unload the launch agent. I notice there are two instances of launchd, one running as root, one as my user.

I killed and disabled speed download, which I suspected as a possible conflict.

zfp below is a bash function to list processes (ps axcru...)

Anyone have any ideas?


MacPro:/ lryter$ zfp launchd
lryter 269 0.0 0.0 2511784 1580 ?? Ss Fri06PM 0:58.39 launchd
root 1 0.0 0.0 2511988 1516 ?? Ss Fri06PM 9:12.50 launchd
MacPro:/ lryter$ cd /Users/lryter/Library/LaunchAgents
MacPro:LaunchAgents lryter$ ls
com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist
com.adobe.ARM.930da3ce175de4e82bd3cdf1dd8571f74bd3b6a7236bc94bfc00f6e9.plist
com.apple.FolderActions.enabled.plist
com.apple.FolderActions.folders.plist
com.apple.MobileMeSyncClientAgent.plist
com.apple.SafariBookmarksSyncer.plist
com.google.keystone.agent.plist
ws.agile.1PasswordAgent.plist
MacPro:LaunchAgents lryter$ tail -100 /var/log/system.log | grep folder
Aug 17 10:48:07 MacPro com.apple.FolderActions.enabled[49568]: launchctl: Error unloading: com.apple.FolderActions.folders
Aug 17 11:02:03 MacPro com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
Aug 17 11:03:35 MacPro com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
Aug 17 11:04:09 MacPro com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
MacPro:LaunchAgents lryter$

Reply

Answer 2

vaddie

Level 1

0 points

Aug 20, 2010 2:01 PM in response to Loren Ryter

I have the similar problem. Folder Actions work well for me, but front (active) application window sometime blinks (becomes inactive for a second)
Strange messages in Console: (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 7 seconds
And I can't disable Folder Action at all, Console message appears:
8/20/10 11:47:24 PM com.apple.FolderActions.enabled[1596] launchctl: Error unloading: com.apple.FolderActions.folders

Reply

Answer 3

lsmall

Level 2

220 points

Aug 31, 2010 12:27 PM in response to vaddie

Same problem here. Any solution?

Reply

Answer 4

obeechi_

Level 1

10 points

Sep 19, 2010 5:58 PM in response to Loren Ryter

I finally go Folders Action to work, after being unable to use it even for a simple beep for years now.

Here is what I did:

1. Changed permissions to 755 for the following folder and two contained files (note that 775 didn't work for me)
~/Library/LaunchAgents/
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.enabled.plist
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.folders.plist

2. Changed the following lines within ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.enabled.plist (using TextWrangler)
from:
<key>OnDemand</key>
<false/>
to:
<key>OnDemand</key>
<true/>

Prior to the permissions changes within #1 above, the value of <true/> kept getting changed back to <false/> by something in the system... and though
there was improvement by the permissions changes, the following console message appeared until false was changed to true.

com.apple.FolderActions.enabled[4127] launchctl: Error unloading: com.apple.FolderActions.folders

At this point true is staying true, and not being changed by unknown forces to false, and the above message is not appearing.

3. The only other thing I did prior to #1 and #2 above, was to run the script (unsaved),

tell application "/System/Library/CoreServices/Folder Actions Dispatcher.app" to tick

This little tell line caused something to occur where my Folder Action surprised me and worked for the first time though it took about 30 seconds and was erratic,
sometimes performing, sometimes not, though if I would do move something into the folder to trigger the action that should occur, and did not occur, then at the point
running the above tell line or script would cause the action to occur.

4. At this point I don't fool with the tell line or script from #3, and it seems that systemevents has gotten involved, as well as launchd, and with my simple Folder Action script
I'm getting the folder action within 10 seconds compared to 30 to 45 if ever seconds.

5. This is still too early to tell if this is the wonder pill I've needed since Leopard, and now Snow Leopard (and maybe Tiger as well: I forget when I even tried Folder Actions).
There was a time when I moved things around, so that the items normally found in the former AppleScript folder, were placed elsewhere in subfolders, so I don't know if that lead to this...
because I could get Folder Actions to work on Macs in the Applestore, but not my own Mac. Watching the console messages was helpful. I don't think it's a big concern that
deprecated messages are found sometimes. That's a just a normal part of the constantly rebuilding of things that goes on. It's more like a reminder that we've got an upgraded
OEM part were going to start using, and the older part won't be available after such and such date, so program accordingly, and in the meantime drive.

Reply

Answer 5

obeechi_

Level 1

10 points

Sep 20, 2010 1:03 PM in response to Loren Ryter

I have to add, that my above post is all true only for scripts within the folder ~/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/ in the home domain

For scripts within folder /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts in the root domain, the same problem occurs, where OnDemand becomes <false/>, though it was saved as <true/>

And, the console shows the seemingly corresponding error regarding launchctl: Error unloading: com.apple.FolderActions.folders which seems to be matched by a following message
that says com.apple.FolderActions.folders: Already loaded

Those scripts in the folder in the root domain still work, at least the one I tried did, but I'm wondering if all the folder action scripts I plan to use should be duplicated into the
folder Folder Actions Scripts in the Home Domain

Reply

Answer 6

Sep 23, 2010 7:11 AM in response to Loren Ryter

My Folder Actions didn't seem to work just after moving from my trusty old Mac mini (PPC) to a new Mac Pro. But after adding / deleting a couple of action they kicked into gear.

However... there is a strange delay when they are being triggered. This is what I see in the console:

23-09-10 15:29:23 com.apple.launchd.peruser.502[132] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
23-09-10 15:29:51 com.apple.launchd.peruser.502[132] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
23-09-10 15:30:22 com.apple.launchd.peruser.502[132] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
23-09-10 15:31:38 com.apple.launchd.peruser.502[132] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds

This is consistent with the delay that I experience. It may take a couple of seconds before anything happens. Sometimes half a minute.

Has anyone seen this? Is it related to the issue in this topic?

A.

Reply