MacOS – Why aren’t any of the Folder Actions triggering

folder-actionmacos

I'm running Mountain Lion (10.8.3). I have three or four folder actions set up which stopped working some time ago, and I can't figure out why.

Thinking it could be a problem with the scripts, I created a new folder named "Test" on my desktop, and attached the "add – new item alert.scpt" sample script. When I created a new text file in the folder, nothing happened. I checked the system log to see if there were any error messages being output, but I couldn't find any. (In fact, searching the system log using Console.app for "folder" didn't produce any results at all)

How do I figure out why none of my folder actions are working?

Best Answer

Folder Actions seem to have been buggy for a lot of people in Mountain Lion (myself included). There’s discussion elsewhere on Ask Different about the unreliability of Folder Actions in general, and there are quite a few threads on Apple’s support forums about the issue.

Reinstalling 10.8.4 seemed to fix the problem for the OP, but I’ll note here what seems to be a common fix. The following practice, quoted from Jehan Alvani’s blog, has been cited in quite a few places:

  1. Create ~/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/ and drop the folder action script you want to add in there.
  2. Strangely, open System Preferences → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts, and click the Reset to Defaults button.
  3. Scroll up to the Files & Folders section, and make sure that the Folder Actions Setup… listing is checked.

I think you want to go to the Services panel within the Keyboard preferences pane, but I’m not certain. I’m not willing to try it since I don’t want to reconfigure my keyboard shortcuts if I screw it up, and I don’t use Folder Actions anyway.

I know the OP’s problem has been fixed, but this may be of use to other people facing similar difficulties.

Related Question