Automator wont do more than one sequential file rename

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Level 1

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Automator wont do more than one sequential file rename

I am very new to automator, but relatively savvy with macs and such. Having a strange problem where an Automator file action to rename a file with a sequential number is only working one time. The second time a new file drops into the folder, nothing happens. If I edit the Automator File Action, change the number to a new higher number, it will work one more time, and then not again.

The basic task is to rename a file with a new text and sequential number each time a file is dropped or saved to a folder. I am using a slide scanner, and the default image file that is saved is called 'untitled' each time. Having this work would let me automate the entire scanning process to one click...

Here is what my action looks like

Any help would be very greatly apprecaited - I am impressed and excited with a lot of Automator stuff, but this has been frustraiting!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 3.06 Intel Core 2 Duo

Posted on Jun 18, 2012 7:54 PM

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Answer 1

red_menace

Level 6

17,030 points

Jun 18, 2012 8:42 PM in response to dkh

Your Folder Action workflow will only rename the items that were added to the folder (and therefore passed to the workflow) - it doesn't check what is already in the folder to adjust the sequence number. Since the workflow starts with the same name each time, the rename is most likely failing because there is already an item in the folder with that name.

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Answer 2

dkh Author

Level 1

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Jun 19, 2012 4:49 AM in response to red_menace

I see what you are saying I think - but there is only one file at a time called 'untitled', it is then renamed, to the next sequential number (starting at 1 or whatever number I assign), then a few minutes later, the next 'untitled' file drops to the folder (which contains no like-named files) and is does nothing. I also tried dropping a series of uniqe file names, starting at 0 and not defining a starting number, adding sequential number only, etc and it will still only rename one file. I'd assume I was missing something if it didnt work at all, but the fact that its working the one time is the killer. Maybe I need to find the definition of 'sequential'..

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Answer 3

Jun 11, 2013 3:44 PM in response to dkh

I'm looking for the same functionality in Automator, did you ever figure it out?

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