Automator will not save service in Mavericks

I only have Leopard so cannot test Services but I followed your steps as best I could and saved as an application. The application works as expected in that I can paste the path to a document as expected.

In Leopard I can see the path of open Finder documents in the Path Bar at the bottom of the document.

What you wrote should work but just to test i followed your steps.

As you thought after the save the title of the window changed to

And when I selected a file in Finder and right clicked this was in the Service menu and the path was copied to the clipboard.

I suggest you start from scratch (quit Automator) and try again. It should work

If it still fails try in a new user account (or the guest account) and see if ti works there.

Following your steps (as written) I can make this service on 10.9.1. The fact that your titlebar reads "Copy Path.workflow (Service)" rather than "Copy Path (Service)" makes me think you're doing something funky when you create he new workflow: either there's already a workflow of that name that you'd need to convert to a service or... eh, who knows?

Try using a different name for the service; see if that works.

Hi Rob, I can CONFIRM the same behaviour as you areexperiencing.I will post a workaround or change of procedure to get mine to work. I too am in MACOSX 10.9.1. Some clues:

• unable to change the ".workflow". I already have some contextual services and they have a ".workflow" suffix thus posts that suggest that this is a probable error perhaps should be ignored.
• in ~/library/services I also have some older and functioning services in that have BOTH a ".workflow' and ".service"
• I CANNOT save (redirect a save" anywhere. The dialogue only permits "icloud"

I will post any resolution.

Warwick

Hong Kong

Hi Rob.. ok try this... it works ok.

Background:

• it looks like some subtlety and helpfulness in Mavericks 10.9.1 Mavericks regarding iCloud and Services.
• by default, new automator.app contextual SERVICES are made available to iCloud and..
• these don't appear in the users ~/library/services as they may have previously (10.8 etc)

  these are ofcourse editable in Automator.app in 10.9.1 and with a simple maneuver can be lodged (installed) in your own MAC home services in ~/library/services

Try this (pictures included to help others:

1. Close all Automator.app panes (save or no save) and QUIT automator.app
2. Launch Automator.app and create your service and name as appropriate
   • NOTE that the object type is ".workflow" and cannot be changed it seems and
   • the object is defined as a SERVICE "(Service)"
   • can only be saved in iCLOUD (to be finally confirmed however it seems consistent)
   • 
3. Close the pane and then QUIT Automator.app
4. Launch Automator.app again and
   • GEAR DOWN on File / Open Recent
   • Select your latest Automator.app services that you just created in Step 2. above
   • 
5. The "Install" / "Open in Automator.app" dialogue appears
   • click 'Install"
   • this merely copies the service into ~/library/services and activates it in the System Preferences/ Keyboard/Services
   • 
6. Click on the "Done" (incorrect English for Completed) 😠

   

7. Verify the location of the service is now in ~/library/services (your home directory)
   • use +gear-down (click) over the service name in the pane title.
   • 
8. Note that the new service is now in the System Preferences/ Keyboard/Services
   • the shortcut or service segment will depend on the specification of your service. This example was a default type 'Text"
   • 
9. New service available in "Services" menu
   • This is an example only.
   • 
   • this service is ALSO available in the selection CONTEXTUAL MENU (use right/gear down/click)
   • 

Summary:

• there's probably a simpler way to do this.
• this is a procedural workaround....

If so, please mark this as solved or helpful so it can be found by others.

Post your results for others to see.

Warwick

Hong Kong

Thanks. I found this helpful. I can't seem to pin down why Autmator saves services the easy way sometimes and not others I made a simple service to have AppleScript speak the name of the currently playing iTunes track. It took longer to get it properly saved than it did to build it.

I started with same problem and having read most of the replies I did the obvious / perhaps stupid thing by going to File menu and selecting "Save". New dialogue box gave me option to name file and it was saved to the file to right location: "Services". It seems trying to save using window title / name is wrong action, (something we all did).

Finally this is a common problem with OS X lacking "save as"

I am working in Mavericks 10.9.4 and having the same problem as the Original Poster: Although I start the workflow as a Service from the beginning, saving it [File > Save] gets me a .workflow that I can run with Automator open, but not a .service that shows up in the Services menu. The files are in my ~/Library/Services folder, but as .workflow files. [There is an additional step to get it to run in Automator as a workflow, but I have not been including that when I try to save the .service, so it should not be relevant to the problem under discussion.]

I tried the solution above from Warwick Teale, trying File > Open Recent, but that process fails at his step 5, in that the workflow just opens, without first giving me a dialog to Install / Open In Automator , so there is no Install option, and I can’t find one any other way either. [I’m using Automator version 2.4 (381).]

The only way I see to save the workflow/service once it is created is essentially the solution above from nejad, using File > Save and giving it a name, so this solution doesn’t work for me either. Is there any other way to accomplish the first Save that I don’t know about? As someone mentioned above, there’s no Save As... option.

I’ve also tried File > Convert to convert the .workflow to a .service but it remains a .workflow.

I’ve tried to File > Duplicate and rename it but it is still a .workflow, unavailable from any Services menu. I even tried Duplicate and changed the .workflow to .service in the name, but that still results in a .workflow file which happens to have .service a part of its name [Create Text File From Directory.service.workflow, and it still doesn’t show up in the Services menu.]

I talked with a senior support tech at Apple who said that neither Automator nor AppleScript are supported through AppleCare, and that these were engineer-level applications that I might get support for from outside consultants. Nevertheless, the tech did do some research and went through the workflow creation with me a few times, so he at least tried. I was able to create the workflow under a newly-created Test User, and it was saved as a .service, but it still did not show up in the Services menu, either from Finder > Services or from Right Click > Services.

For now I’m making do running this from within Automator. But if anyone else wants to keep messing with this problem, I’m following the thread.

Thanks, dw4comp.

Solved my own problem! Figured out that I had the wrong choices at the beginning of the workflow. Don't know the name for the section, as I am new to Automator, but call it the header. It has to be thusly:

although it could also be, Service receives selected "files or folders".

Not going to embarrass myself by showing what I had. Result: file still titled Create Text From Directory.workflow (Service), with (Service) being gray vs the rest of the title being black, but now it shows up in the Services menu when I'm in Finder with a folder selected.

With different items chosen in the two drop-downs, I guess you could say I was not in the proper context for the Service when I was in Finder with a Folder selected. Live & learn.

Editing my first reply: My problem was not exactly that of the OP in that he couldn't get the workflow changed from Untitled to Copy Path; I was getting my title ok but it showed ".workflow (Service)" after my title, and I thought I had a Workflow rather than a Service, and that was why it didn't show up in the Services menu. But as my 2nd reply indicates, mine didn't show up in the Services menu because the context for running the workflow was not met until I fixed the header.

So apparently the current version of Automator saves its files as "filename.workflow (Service)" when it is a Service to be run from the Services menu.

Or maybe there's still more to it than that, but at least I got it working for me.

dw4comp

I was also frustrated in my original attempts to create an Automator workflow that I could make available through the Finder contextual menu in OS 10.9, Mavericks.

I noticed a very small interface item in Automator which once I changed has made this possible.

When you create a new Service in Automator, notice that in the upper right the pulldown menu for "Service receives input from" has the default "any application".

The Service I created with this default would not show up in the Keyboard / Shortcuts / Services menu nor in the Finder contextual menu when I right-clicked a file.

Changing this menu option to "Finder" cured this for me.

After saving the Service after making this change the Service shows up in Keyboard / Shortcuts / Services

Both of the Services are in my ~/Library/Services folder

I did not have to do anything else to make the Service available in the Finder other than making this change.

Hope this helps.

Long live Automator! Jack