Repeated errors

Basically any file I download to my Downloads will trigger an error in relation to one specific rule. This rule requires three criteria to all be met before running. One of those is that the file is a PDF, yet the rule is constantly trying to evaluate itself against basically any filetype.

Basically it's this error occurring on every file in my Downloads folder

Code: Select all: 2026-01-21 12:56:58.416 hazelworker[75845] [Error] Error during rule evaluation: Received error while trying to evaluate rule File Water Bills on file IMG_8970.heic 2026-01-21 12:56:58.416 hazelworker[75845] Error while matching rule File Water Bills against file /Users/jon/Downloads/IMG_8970.heic: Could not retrieve metadata for file: /Users/jon/Downloads/IMG_8970.heic

As you can imagine, it is highly annoying and I cannot see why it is happening.

The error indicates the files are not indexed by Spotlight. You'll need to diagnose your Spotlight index to see why that is the case. Here's a starting point: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102321

Mr_Noodle wrote:The error indicates the files are not indexed by Spotlight. You'll need to diagnose your Spotlight index to see why that is the case. Here's a starting point: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102321

And yet all other rules work fine? Seems to suggest spotlight has indexed those files

You need to show me that. Not all rules require metadata and some files may get indexed but not others.

Mr_Noodle wrote:You need to show me that. Not all rules require metadata and some files may get indexed but not others.

How?

It's built pretty similar to a whole lot of my rules. The content matches that I have blacked out are typically account numbers

Doesn't work

and

both work fine

Can you take a step back here and go through the troubleshooting guide here? https://www.noodlesoft.com/kb/hazel-tro ... ing-guide/

Make sure the files are matching the rules you are expecting.

Mr_Noodle wrote:Make sure the files are matching the rules you are expecting.

I honestly don't understand the sentence above. My rules, including the one that files my water bills, are all working correctly, and as designed and expected. So I'm not sure what you want me to "troubleshoot".

But in case you misunderstood my first post, the File Water Bills rule is triggering an error, as displayed above, for every file that lands in my downloads folder. It becomes very tiresome. Do you know why it is doing this?

Unless things have changed, your logs show the files are not indexed by Spotlight. It does not matter what you think they should be or not or that other files are indexed. The error is clear.

One thing to try is adding a condition like Date Added is not in the last 5 minutes. This will delay matching until 5 minutes after the file is added. If it works after that, that indicates your machine is slow to index files. If it still doesn't work, that indicates a deeper problem with Spotlight which you will need to investigate.