Can I make Automator wait until files have stopped being added?

Hi there, no Automator expert,but what OSX version is this, Automator's capabilities vary with OS version! 🙂

Have it run an AppleScript that uses the Delay command I think...

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20040212081337914

Hmmm, where is this wait put?

It seems that if it was at the beginning it would Delay 5 minutes before starting!???

Of course that example wasn't 5 minutes...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1759719?start=0&tstart=0

Let me know how you get on with this! I'm also looking for a way to monitor the dropbox camera uploads folder and auto-import them to an iPhoto folder called 'Mobile Uploads' or similar. Would be good to delete the original files once imported to iPhoto as well?

There are two Automator actions which you should try out:

Let me know if that works.

Phil

AppleIIme wrote:

Hi, I have created a simple Automator action which says 'when files are added to folder Dropbox>Camera Uploads, import them to iPhoto'.

The problem is that as the files are added to Dropbox one at a time (by the Dropbox servers, after they are taken on my Android phone and the Dropbox app auto-uploads them), this means there is a gap of 30-60 secs between photos, and more for a video. The end result therefore is iPhoto has each photo imported as a separate 'Event', rather than all the photos imported as one event.

What I'd like to say is 'wait for 5 minutes after the most recent photo/video was added, before importing all the photos/videos just added in that batch'. That way instead of iPhoto receiving each file one at a time and importing them separately, Automater will wait until the folder falls silent, indicating the import from the phone has finished, and only then will it import all the photos taken as one event.

Is this possible?

Yes this is possible.

Here is the exact 3rd party action you need to get: