The following service worked through 10.8.2:
After upgrading to 10.8.3, this service no longer works as a service. However, if I select a folder on my desktop and run this service in Automator, it works. in other words, this service runs inside Automator but no longer works outside Automator as a service on the contextual menu of a folder.
Anyone know how to get this service working as a service?
You may need to enable the service in System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services.
It's enabled. I've tried turning it off and back on, rebooting, to no avail.
What does not working as a service mean? What are the details?
You do not need Get Selected Finder Items. The service already gets the selected folders ("Service receives selected folders in Finder") and uses them as the starting point of the service.
Are you trying to move just the contents or the whole folder to the Trash?
The service is in the contextual menu, but nothing happens when I click on it. The details are: nothing happens. The contents are not sent to the trash.
Same problem (i.e. nothing happens) with and without Get Selected Finder Items. It runs without problem in Automator with that action there.
Just the contents, not the folder itself.
Did you quit Automator, and then restart it?
You can check the Console.app logs to see if there are any entries when trying to run the Service. Sometimes various actions in a new OS version get updated, and although it shouldn't cause a problem, Automator is quirky enough that you might also try rebuilding the workflow.
Opened, closed, reopened, shutdown, rebooted, checked and unchecked and rechecked, etc., etc., etc.
IAE, a service does not need Automator to be running.
red_menace wrote:
Automator is quirky enough that you might also try rebuilding the workflow.
Did that several times. No go.
The service fails quietly, with nothing in the console.
Do you have any "Options" selected in the workflow?
I've built a new workflow identical to the one you posted and it works just fine on my 10.8.3 system. The only other thing I can think of is a third party or preferences/setting issue in your account, so try your workflow from a new user account (or maybe even safe mode) to see if it does the same thing there.
pjdube wrote:
any "Options" selected in the workflow?
I've tried with and without, in every combination I could think of, to no avail. When it was working before going to 10.8.3, I had no options selected. When it stopped working, I still had no options selected.
red_menace wrote:
so try your workflow from a new user account (or maybe even safe mode) to see if it does the same thing there.
Now that's interesting! Once I remove the first action, the service works properly in a separate account. The actions have the same version numbers in both accounts. Any idea why the service would work in one account but not in another? How would I even begin to troubleshoot that?
Well, usually it involves a bit of voodoo, so it depends on how much magic you have 😉
Usually the procedure is to remove (just temporarily move them to the desktop) preference items from your user's ~/Library/Preferences folder, so that the next time the application is launched it will rebuild a default preferences file. From there, you go through the preferences from the various applications that may be causing an issue, until you find the one that is the problem - if you want to restore the preferences just move the file back from the desktop. I would start with an obvious one such as Automator, and if you have some third party plug-ins installed, those would be next.
Good Luck!
/me runs
red_menace wrote:
start with an obvious one such as Automator, and if you have some third party plug-ins installed, those would be next.
The service worked with 10.8.2 and stopped working after the upgrade to 10.8.3, so I am doubtful of this approach. In any event, I tried it with all the Automator and Finder Services plists, to no avail. It appears that Apple broke something in 10.8.3, and that Apple will need to fix it.
I solved the problem and, pardon my French, it was just too bloody easy.
As a result of someone somewhere mentioning that he saw the Automator Launcher in the Activity Monitor, I fired up both atMonitor and the Activity Monitor. Sure enough, the Launcher was running but inactive. To see what would happen, I tried running the service from the contextual menu, and the Launcher showed no surge of activity whatsoever in either monitor application. I decided to kill the Launcher process, whereupon, it seems, every pent up and unexecuted automator process hung up on the Launcher ran, with all kinds of messages popping up on my screen. (God knows what I did to my computer!) Anyways, all my services seem to be working again.
In short, if you have services that run okay in Automator but do not run on their own outside Automator, you might want to check your processes for Automator Launcher and kill the Launcher process if it shows no activity when you try to run a service outside Automator. It worked for me after trying every other suggestion I could find.
Service runs in, but not outside, Automator
