Automator Crashes Computer

Question

Level 1

19 points

Automator Crashes Computer

I made a workflow that clicks every 15 seconds. But every time I leave it to click overnight, I would close the display. When I turn the display back on, the entire laptop would crash and restart. Here's the code blocks:

What is overloading the laptop and how do I fix it?

Technical specifications:

Device: MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017)

Processor: 1.8 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5

Memory: 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Device Software: macOS Monterey Version 12.0.1

Automator Software: Version 2.10

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Nov 23, 2021 8:45 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Eisig_Liang Author

Level 1

19 points

Dec 5, 2021 10:31 AM in response to Eisig_Liang

It's been a while, but I've finally got around to testing all of your solutions, James. None of them worked. But, I have found that if I extended the pause to 5 minutes, it works a lot better. For anyone else who gets this problem, just extend the pause to as long as possible.

Dunno why this works. Maybe it's because the log in Automator gets too filled up?

Reply

Answer 2

Nov 26, 2021 12:57 PM in response to Eisig_Liang

In answer to your question, I will first ask another question. Why are you automating the clicking of the mouse every 15 seconds? Are you trying to keep the computer from sleeping?

There are better alternatives to using Automator to click every 15 seconds that will accomplish this goal. You could have a bash script execute the command line "caffeinate" command. See "man caffeinate" in the Terminal. Or even better you can install the Amphetamine App which will give you a nice GUI.

Amphetamine on the Mac App Store

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/amphetamine/id937984704?mt=12

Amphetamine featured story on the Mac App Store

https://apps.apple.com/us/story/id1470456860

Reply

Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

210,437 points

Nov 28, 2021 11:50 AM in response to Eisig_Liang

Which app is it? Is there anything in its preferences that can extend the time or turn it off entirely?

Don't think it's Automator that causing the crashes as there are a lot of reports of portable Macs crashing when waking from sleep. A workaround for that is not to sleep the computer but just put the screen to sleep:

Reply

Answer 4

Dec 5, 2021 10:44 AM in response to Eisig_Liang

You elaborated in a later post that your problem was not the Mac sleeping but a specific App you were attempting to keep from logging off. Therefore you were attempting to send keystrokes to the App to keep it alive. Sending many clicks too rapidly apparently overflows something in the API's that caused the crash, possibly due to bug as developers didn't expect that behavior.

Glad to hear you were able to resolve your issue.

Reply