Keeping The Contents of Folders and Sub-Folders Synced

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I've been converting some of the DVDs I own of television series to watch on my iPod and would like to use Hazel to automatically create an archive copy in case anything happens to my hard drive.

My setup is this: I've got a Mac mini with an external drive where I store my iTunes library and an AirDisk connected to my Airport Extreme that I use for backup. My videos are organized by folder according to the show.

For Example, the file path looks something like this:

TV Shows
.....Seinfeld
..........The Soup Nazi
..........The Rye
..........The Contest
.....The Wire
..........The Cost
..........Sentencing
..........Ebb Tide
.....Arrested Development
..........Justice is Blind
..........The Right Man for the Gob
..........Afternoon Delight

Right now, the file structure is mirrored on my AirDisk, and I'd like to use Hazel to keep all the folders in sync by copying only new files to their correct sub-folder.

Thanks.
Ratboy
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:30 pm

Do you only want files copied over when added, or when modified as well? Also, it's a bit difficult to replicate a folder tree in that way. If that set of folders is fixed, you can monitor each one and have a rule like:

If Date Added is after Date Last Matched, Copy file to (somewhere else)/Seinfeld

You'd need to do this for each show. Currently, there is no way to automatically mirror the folder structure the file is in so this could get burdensome if you have a lot of shows.

I guess I could add a token like "parent folders" which would substitute in the parent folder path from the top level folder Hazel is monitoring but I'd have to think about it.
Mr_Noodle
Site Admin
 
Posts: 11195
Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2006 1:30 am
Location: New York City

Mr_Noodle wrote: Currently, there is no way to automatically mirror the folder structure the file is in so this could get burdensome if you have a lot of shows.
I guess I could add a token like "parent folders" which would substitute in the parent folder path from the top level folder Hazel is monitoring but I'd have to think about it.

Any news about this "must have feature"?
Would make life much easier.
JFI
 
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed May 28, 2008 6:58 am

Thanks for bringing this up as it's been something I've been a little stuck on and I'm still trying to decide whether to include it in 2.3.5 or wait until 3.0. It's a bit weird now in that it's inconsistent with the other attributes. I see the common case like the following:

1. Move to folder: (blah)
2. Sort into subfolder: (parent folder)

This would be the basic case of moving the file to it's new location and then sorting into the same subfolder it was in at the source.

The problem here is when action #2 executes, the parent folder is now (blah), which is not what you want. I could make (parent folder) mean the original parent folder when the rule started. This would mean that any actions that would change the file's location would not affect this. While normally good (as in the case I illustrated above), there might be cases where it will confuse people since the other attributes don't behave this way (they reflect the state of the file/folder at the time you ask for it).

Maybe a change in terminology would help. Instead of (parent folder), I use something like (source folder). That has the additional advantage of reinforcing that it means the original folder it came from, regardless of where you moved it in your rule. Thoughts?
Mr_Noodle
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Location: New York City

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Mr_Noodle
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Posts: 11195
Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2006 1:30 am
Location: New York City


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