Noodlesoft Forums

Could it be that the "date added" "is after" "date last matched" does not work on intelligent folders?
I have a huge intelligent folder with 8600 PDFs. And I have many Tag rules to be processed on the files. But I just want to process every PDF once until the PDF is changed again.
But right now if I check a just processed file with the preview option the rule "date added..." is marked green – so Hazel thinks the PDF was not yet processed...
Is there a possibility to avoid that or do I get something wrong?

I assume you mean "Smart Folders" (I'm guessing you are using a non-English system)?

If you want to process when a file changes, you want to use "Date last modified", not "Date added". Date added is the time when the file was added to the regular (non-Smart) folder it resides in.

Ah yes – I use the german version. Sorry! Indeed – I mean "Smart Folders". Thank you for the answer!

I have two follow up questions:
1. Is the file considered as newly modified when Hazel tags the file. So if I have a rule with "date last modified is after date last matched" and then tag the file, the file will be processed again?
2. Does the rule "date last modified is after date last matched" include those files which have been "processed" by Hazel but did not "match" the file? So if I have 18000 PDF and a rule only matches 2 of these files the rest is processed again and again and again even though I have the "date-last-modified-is-after-date-last-matched"-rule in place?

1. I don't think the date modified is changed. If you want to detect that particular case, you can try "Tags did change".

2. The file does indeed need to successfully match a rule for the date to be set.

Do you really need to keep scanning the same folder? That's a lot of files to keep scanning. If possible, you might want to keep a separate Smart Folder that trims down which files are processed.

Until recently I had a whole system of folders where the files went through to check certain things. The problem with that is, that sometimes I have time to sort the files right away at a destination where I want to keep them. And I have a lot of files already in that location, which did not yet went through the folder system.
As I mainly look for possible Tagging, OCR and if the files are Landscape or not, I thought a smart folder with all PDFs would be perfect because no matter where the files are on my hard drive, it will Tag and Check if they are OCRed.

Another possibility would be to take the parent folder of the smart folder and tell hazel to go into that smart folder only at a certain time every day. Would that be possible?
The smart folder does not match the rule when I use "kind" is "folder". I need to go just by the name – then the rule applies. Nevertheless I cannot check the content of the smart folder with the preview tool, so I think the smart folder in a directory does not behave like a normal folder for hazel, where you could dive into, does it?

You could adjust the Smart Folder to not include files with the tag you add, for instance.

If you want to schedule rules, you can use the "Current time" attribute.

And yes, Smart Folders are technically not real folders.

The smart folder does not match the rule when I use "kind" is "folder".

I found it will match "kind" is "Saved Search Query" when choosing "Other..." in the dropdown.

Hope that helps a little.

Thanks craigdpenn ! I just saw you post.
The problem for me is, that I would need a "go into search query" option to check the contend of a search query at certain times.
But I found a solution that fits me needs: here.