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How to get new Automator action, that executes an Apple Script, to show as an option in Apple Photos "Services" Menu?

As answered here: Photos not able to sort by title - Apple Community

And using the script linked from there, this one: Script: Batch Changing the Titles to the … - Apple Community


...And having never used Automator much at all before now...


I am finding the instructions quite tough to follow — the wording of instructions does not seem to match actual screen options, and when I am done my result does not match the script creator's screen shots, namely in that while his script shows, at the top, under "service receives ... in", a selection of "Photos.app", mine shows no such option, and I have no idea how to get that to show, and when he/she clicks, in Photos app, "Photos > Services" their named script shows, but mine does not. See below.


Script creator's screen shot:


Mine:


Can anyone tell what I'm missing? Thanks in advance.

Posted on Sep 29, 2022 1:03 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 29, 2022 1:19 PM

Update: I may have found success.


The closest I can get so far is, upon clicking "File > New" in Automator, to choose "Quick Action" which brings up some choice that looks similar to, though not exactly like, the script creator's screen shot. And this seems to at least finally get my script to show under "Photos > Services" from within the Photos app. See screen shots below.


... I have selected photos and clicked to run the script, and as I was, at the time, selecting photos inside a slideshow, and could not tell if anything was happening, I went out to the main view, selected ALL photos, and ran the script again, and this time I noticed (1) my file names seem to show as titles, (2) there is a spinning "gear cog" icon in my top Macbook menu bar. I think this means the script is churning through my entire collection of images, perhaps twice! I chose to select them all because the "unnamed" (as in untitled) images in the slideshow were from various years and I had no idea where in my collection of photos they might be spread or showing.

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2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 29, 2022 1:19 PM in response to DougGJoseph

Update: I may have found success.


The closest I can get so far is, upon clicking "File > New" in Automator, to choose "Quick Action" which brings up some choice that looks similar to, though not exactly like, the script creator's screen shot. And this seems to at least finally get my script to show under "Photos > Services" from within the Photos app. See screen shots below.


... I have selected photos and clicked to run the script, and as I was, at the time, selecting photos inside a slideshow, and could not tell if anything was happening, I went out to the main view, selected ALL photos, and ran the script again, and this time I noticed (1) my file names seem to show as titles, (2) there is a spinning "gear cog" icon in my top Macbook menu bar. I think this means the script is churning through my entire collection of images, perhaps twice! I chose to select them all because the "unnamed" (as in untitled) images in the slideshow were from various years and I had no idea where in my collection of photos they might be spread or showing.

Sep 29, 2022 1:09 PM in response to DougGJoseph

The instructions say, in the main part,

Create an Automator action, that executes an Apple Script to change the titles to the filename, if the title is empty:
Launch Automator, create a new service, and drag a "Run Apple Script" action into the workflow.
• Copy and paste the text below into the "Run Apple Script" action to replace the default text in the action.


While I'm in Automator, whenever I click "File > New" there is no choice to create a new "Service" — and the closest I can find to match the directions is the choice of "Workflow" which is at least mentioned in the directions. Below is what I see on "File > New"

How to get new Automator action, that executes an Apple Script, to show as an option in Apple Photos "Services" Menu?

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