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Level 1

8 points

Automator "Send Outgoing Messages" broke with Lion

I have a ScanSnap S1500M attached to a 2010 iMac. The ScanSnap scans documents into PDFs and saves them into a designated folder.

Last summer I created an Automator folder action for this folder. When any new document came into the folder, Automator got the folder contents, opened Apple Mail, attached the PDF, and sent the mail. This was a very efficient way of capturing and moving staff timesheets as well as handwritten notes.

Here are the steps in the folder action:

Step 1: Get Folder Contents

Step 2: New Mail Message

Step 3: Add Attachments to Front Message

Step 4: Send Outgoing Messages

Once I upgraded to Lion, the the Send Outgoing Messages action stopped. The first three steps seem to work fine. I am left with an open email, correctly addressed, with the pdf attached, but the email never sends.

If I click the send icon in Mail, I get an error message:

Warning "" does not appear to be a valid email address. Verify the address and try again.

I can see at this point that the email address is correct.

If I click Send Anyway, the message sends with no problem, along with the attachment.

Has anyone else experienced a probblem with Send Outgoing Messages or Mail-related actions in Automator?

Can anyone suggest a fix?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7), 2.4 ghz Core 2 Duo, 5gb RAM

Posted on Aug 6, 2011 6:35 PM

22 replies

Sep 16, 2011 6:41 AM in response to red_menace

Your solution worked for me. It didn't suffice to just populate the cc field, I had to enter an e-mail address into the BCC field also. Thanks! And let's hope Apple fixes this soon.

Sep 20, 2011 7:31 AM in response to Gryphon

I just upgraded to Lion and am having the exact same problem and get the error message

Warning "" does not appear to be a valid email address. Verify the address and try again.

Will try the clunky workaround of putting something bogus into the cc and bcc fields. Still, Apple needs to address this.

coruscate Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 22, 2011 10:15 AM in response to coruscate

The suggested fix (putting addresses in the cc and bcc fields) worked for one day for me back in August. The folder action stopped working the next day. I can get the fix to work once each time I re-boot the iMac, then it stops.

I called back to Apple Support, who gave me a new case number, 238 360 334, and assigned it again to Faith Palmer. Faith asked me to run System Profile and send the file to her, which I did.

Faith just called me today to say that Apple's engineering group had been able to re-create the issue and had determined that it is, in fact, a system problem. She said that they would try to address it in an upcoming System Update.

I think this goes to show the importance of flagging problems in the support forum and getting confirmation from other users. When I first raised this issue, Apple was unaware of the problem and had no plans to fiix it. Until other user signed on, it could equally have been a system issue or a problem in how the Automator script was constructed.

Oct 7, 2011 8:40 AM in response to coruscate

@coruscate - thanks for following up with Apple. I'm having the same difficulty!

hokonui

Level 1

0 points

Oct 5, 2013 5:20 PM in response to coruscate

I am amazed that this issue lingers on still in late 2013. The action of "send outgoing messages" simply does not work even thought lots of web instructions say that it is so easy... Maybe it works for others, but not for me.

I did find another person's solution via a simple applescript:

Create a new calender item.

Then,

1. create a "new mail message",

2. add "get specified finder items",

3. insert "add attachments to front message",

4. add a "pause" of a few seconds, and then

5. add "run applescript",

6. enter the following as the applescript:

tell application "Mail" to activate

tell application "System Events"

click menu item "Send" of menu "Message" of menu bar item "Message" of menu bar 1 of application process "Mail" of application "System Events"

end tell

Save it and schedule it.

Then, you have to make sure that "accessability" inside "system prefences" is set to "Enable access for assistive devices".

Finally, mail actually sends the item!

Here is the link with instructions:

http://www.macworld.com/article/2018856/automator-workflow-of-the-month-sending- holiday-greetings.html

coruscate Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 5, 2013 9:50 PM in response to hokonui

It IS remarkable that this has not been fixed.

Thanks for the suggestion. It's terrible to have to do such a cumbersome workaround. Even if it works, it's not clear why it works or what broken part of Automator it fixes.

The purpose of my original script was to email items to me, via a Folder Action, when they got scanned into a folder.

My personal workaround was to open up an account on Dropbox and have the items scanned to a folder there.. Dropbox sends me a notification when a new item appears.

May 12, 2015 6:29 PM in response to coruscate

Don't know if this is still an issue for you, however I just started using this function in Yosemite and ran into the same problem. I didn't find that filling out the CC and BCC fields helped, however I clicked options and then ticked 'Ignore this action's input'. That fixed it immediately for me.

Automator "Send Outgoing Messages" broke with Lion