By date added confusion

All right, I must be missing something very basic, and I will feel dumb when I see it, but...

So my intention is to move a downloaded file into a folder for use, and then have it delete after I'm done working with/converting it.

I set up a rule to watch the download folder and move any appropriate files to the folder I want to use as a working folder. This works. No problem at all. But then, no matter what, the file is *immediately* deleted, and I can't figure out why.

Seriously, the *only* rule on this folder is, if the date added is not in the last 3 days, then move to trash. That's it. Hazel, however, seems to ignore the time limitations of the rule, and I'm at a loss. I've tried different time frames. Nothing works. The files placed in that folder vanish as soon as they're put there. Perhaps Date Added isn't the right rule... but none of the others seem to fit as well.

Any thoughts on this before I go nuts dragging Hazel-deleted files out of the trash to yet another folder to work with?

Thanks to everyone for reading...

m.

Change the rule to color the file instead. Then, add a file and then use Hazel's preview function (the "eye" button). Click the "i" button for that file and see what it thinks the Date added is.

Also, is there anything else about this folder of interest? Is it Mac formatted or something else (NTFS)? Or is it a network drive?

Thank you for your response and help!

There's nothing unusual about the folder... it's sitting on my main hard disk.

I tried what you said, and it seemed to work with a smaller file. It was not working, however, with the large video file that I was using the other day. The funny thing is, I didn't change anything except the result (i.e. instead of move to trash, simply label).

I'll have another proper go at it again in the morning, and if I still encounter problems I'll let you know. SOMEthing's funny.

Thanks again,
m.

Still having issues. I have a question: If I have a "By file type" rule, and the file is large. For instance, if I'm downloading a disk image, say I want it to match on .dmg -- if the download starts, and there's then a file with an dmg extension in the folder, Hazel opts to move it before the file finishes downloading, thereby messing up the download. The quick answer is that I should add a "By date added" rule to the set, thereby giving it time to finish, but this doesn't seem to work. I feel lost with this. Hazel is crazy powerful, and I feel like I shouldn't use it because it's so easy to mess things up.

What program is doing the downloading? Hazel usually can detect if a file is busy but the program needs to implement the basic file locking so that other apps can see it. Instead of date added, you might want to add "Date last modified is not in the last X minutes" to delay processing in this case.

I'll try that and let you know. Thanks for the help...