Hazel in Sierra

macOS Sierra saves space in the hard disk by moving unused files to iCloud and leaves some kind of symbolic link behind for users to find those files later.

I suppose Hazel will not be able to act upon those files. Or will it?

I like to keep my hard disk tidy and clean. In my workflow, Chronosync makes a daily copy of files to a remote share. Hazel deletes files and folders that have not been opened/modified in more than 2 months. This is how I have kept my files neat and tidy.

If Hazel does not act upon the files moved to iCloud, I suppose many workflows will be broken soon.

Admittedly, I haven't tested this specific scenario. Do you happen to have any of these special files currently?

Mr_Noodle wrote:Admittedly, I haven't tested this specific scenario. Do you happen to have any of these special files currently?

yes, and I can confirm hazel does not act on them.

the file is not really present in the folder. I suppose Sierra creates some kind of symbolic link to the cloud. yet, my workflow to keep my desktop clear of clutter is broken.

Once the file moves to the cloud (and i haven't figured what triggers the move) Hazel won't be able to do anything about it.

It might be the case where Finder is showing you the files but from Hazel's POV, there's no reference to them.

If you are comfortable with the commandline, you can try doing an "ls" on the directory. I'd be interested in seeing what that shows so if you feel like it, you can email it in to support.

Mr_Noodle wrote:It might be the case where Finder is showing you the files but from Hazel's POV, there's no reference to them.

If you are comfortable with the commandline, you can try doing an "ls" on the directory. I'd be interested in seeing what that shows so if you feel like it, you can email it in to support.

Hi, I think you are right. Finder shows the file, but it is not there!

Sorry I am not familiar with the command line. But I checked with the Chronosync people, since I use their product in combination with Hazel, and they confirmed Sierra leaves a symbolic link in the folder when something gets moved to iCloud.

Problem is Hazel does not follow the symbolic link or recognize the file behind it. Therefore it will not act upon the "file".

It might become a problem if this file link to iCloud moves more files.

BTW. This is what the chrnosync people told me:

The feature commonly known as "Documents in the Cloud" synchronizes your ~/Documents and ~/Desktop folder with iCloud storage. The files in those folders do not go anywhere. They are still accessible at ~/Documents/Path/To/My/Data and ~/Desktop/Path/To/My/Data.

Applications that support iCloud Document Storage each have their own private folder hidden in ~/Library (within their app container hierarchy). The contents of these folders get synchronized with iCloud storage.

The feature commonly know as "iCloud Drive" creates a hidden folder in ~/Library. The contents of this folder get synchronized with iCloud storage.

The "iCloud Drive" folder contains a symbolic link to your "Documents" folder (if "Documents in the Cloud" is enabled) and to the private storage area of each of your applications that support iCloud Document Storage.

The Finder makes things look a little different but behind the scenes, everything is structured like mentioned above.

If you use Hazel's status ui (the "eye" button), do you see the links there? I suspect they won't be visible at all.

Mr_Noodle wrote:If you use Hazel's status ui (the "eye" button), do you see the links there? I suspect they won't be visible at all.

not visible!

In that case, Hazel can't see any references to the files at all. So, you'll have to account for that fact.

Mr_Noodle wrote:In that case, Hazel can't see any references to the files at all. So, you'll have to account for that fact.

yeah! It's a bummer!

But thank you for your support! I love Hazel!