Shortcuts - Send email when I add a file to folder

Maybe it doesn't recognize that video file as a "Movie."

Drag in a Get Specified Finder items above Filter Finder Items. Add that same file.

Click on Results for the Filter Finder Items, and Step through the actions until the Filter Finder Items finishes. See if that file shows up in the Results. If it doesn't, we might have to fiddle with the Filter criteria so it finds your video files. For instance, you can use File Extension instead of Kind. You can also change All of the Following to Any of the following and add multiple file extensions if needed.

Once you figure out the filter criteria necessary, you can remove the Get Specified Finder Items.

Open Automator and create a new Folder Action. Choose the folder for it to work from in the top of the workflow pane.

From the Files and Folders category, drag a Filter Finder Items to the workflow pane. Set the criteria (kind is Movie).

From the Utilities category, drag in a Run AppleScript action. Replace all of the script with:

on run {input, parameters}
	set filenames to {}
	tell application "Finder"
		repeat with aFile in input
			copy name of aFile to end of filenames
		end repeat
	end tell
	set text item delimiters to ", "
	return filenames as text
end run

From the Mail Category, drag in a New Mail Message action. Set it up the recipients, Subject, and account.

Drag in a Send Outgoing Messages action.

Save it.

In those screenshots, you don’t have a get specified finder items passing a movie file into the workflow. If you’re running it from Automator, you have to have that in order to test.

Place I get specified finder items, action at the top of the workflow, add a movie file to it, and then run it.

if the movie file doesn’t keep getting passed through each action, then we can tell where it gets caught up. Once we determined that we may be able to fix it, so it works when you drop a file into the folder.

I'm getting the same thing. I added a Reveal Finder Items after the Filter Finder Items.

It selects the files you dropped, but it does then add the name to the email.

The Filter Action has had problems in the past where it doesn't seem to work. This may be some manifestation of that age-old problem. It's odd that it worked from a Get Specified Finder Items.

Revealing the items is somewhat annoying as you'll get the window opening and the items selected, but it seems to do what you need. I'll see if I can find a less obtrusive way.

You can probably do it with an Automator folder action, not sure about Shortcuts.

You might be able to find a good example online, but I can throw something together later today.

The error says the Filter Finder Items didn’t get any files from the Folder Action. Did you drop a file in, or did you run it from Automator. If you run from inside Automator, it won’t get any files.

Movies worked for me with .m4v. I wonder if the original problem wasn’t with the filter but the input.

If you go in and edit the folder action, look in the Files & Folders category, and drag in the Reveal Finder Items in between the Filter Finder Items and Run AppleScript.

That worked for me, but it will also highlight the file in the Finder. Probably not a big deal, but so you know what is happening.

Is the correct folder is set at the top of the workflow?

You can’t run it as is from Automator because it won’t receive any files. You can add the “Get Specified Files” action while testing, but it should run when you add a movie file to the folder.

Hi - yes, it's the correct folder set-up. I don't think I have “Get Specified Files” set up, so that's ok?

No, you just need it for testing/troubleshooting. You can add it with a Movie file specified, then run it in Automator to see if it creates the email correctly. If that works, we can try to figure out why the folder action doesn't pick up the added file.

So it's still not adding the file name to the body of the email - why would that be?

I don't know. Can you take a screenshot that includes all of the actions. You a collapse the New Mail Message action by clicking on the carat at the top, left of the action. I don't need to see what is in that.

I wanted to see the top, but everything else looks correct.

I don't need to see the empty results windows, either, but they would be helpful if you test the workflow.

Did you test to see if the workflow worked by adding Get Specified Files and adding a movie file?

when you tried that before, in Automator, did it work or not? I initially thought it was the filter, but now I don’t. If you added a get specified Finder Items at the top of the workflow, and used the add button to get a movie file, and it doesn’t put the file names in the email, I cannot explain why.