Automator Lag

Question

Level 1

4 points

Automator Lag

So I have recently been using Automator to run a Watch Me Do loop to click places repeatedly for tedious tasks . I have a loop that works perfectly however my issue is the longer the loop runs for over time the mouse movement and clicks get slower and slower, until eventually I have come back to my machine to a VERY slow beach ball moving across the screen and my computer basically locked up until the cycle finishes the amount of times or time period I have it set for.

The odd thing is if I just simply relaunch Automator the slowdown goes away immediately, and then gradually slows down again over time.. would anyone here know what would cause this or how to fix it?

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), Early 2009

Posted on Dec 10, 2016 1:13 PM

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Answer 1

BobHarris

Level 9

57,553 points

Dec 10, 2016 4:25 PM in response to archangel890

Hold off, as I just tried it and it did not work.

Automator -> Launch Application.

You would save your Automator app so it exists and has a name, then modify the Automator app to launch the saved copy of the App (the Launch Application action has a pop-up menu where you can select which app to launch; you may need to scroll do the bottom and select "Other" and navigate to where you saved the app. Save it again, and you should be in business.

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Answer 2

BobHarris

Level 9

57,553 points

Dec 10, 2016 3:27 PM in response to archangel890

Sounds like the app has a memory leak and and eventually consumes so much memory it causes the system to grind to a halt.

You can monitor the memory usage via Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor -> Memory

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Answer 3

BobHarris

Level 9

57,553 points

Dec 10, 2016 3:29 PM in response to archangel890

You might try having your Automator app, do its thing, sleep however long, then as the last thing it does, launch a new copy of itself and quit. That way there is always a new copy running, and the prior copy quits, giving up its memory.

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Answer 4

archangel890 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 10, 2016 4:15 PM in response to BobHarris

How would I go about doing that as far as launching a new one and such? I have limited knowledge of the application and wouldn't know how to get it to open a copy of itself and restart the Watch Me Do on the new copy?

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Answer 5

archangel890 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 10, 2016 4:25 PM in response to BobHarris

So make a second copy of the app itself? Since I set it up to Launch application and selected it and it didn't launch a second copy, and just quit when it got to the quit step, and would I need to set up the second copy of automator with the same script and just change the step to select the previous copy of automator?

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Answer 6

archangel890 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 10, 2016 4:37 PM in response to archangel890

Yeah tried duplicating the App and any time I make a change in one copy it changes both copies work flows and I can't seem to modify them independently.

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Answer 7

BobHarris

Level 9

57,553 points

Dec 10, 2016 4:38 PM in response to BobHarris

Sorry, my idea does not work. And my attempts at finding another way do not seem to work either.

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Answer 8

archangel890 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 10, 2016 4:42 PM in response to BobHarris

Yeah I am doing some digging myself, no luck yet. I will try and monitor the memory leak like you suggested.. If I could figure out how to fix the leak itself it would be a non issue.

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