Page 1 of 1

Rules don't seem to automatically run, what am I doing wrong

PostPosted: Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:35 am
by catalinamarr
I am trying to create a system using tags and dropbox, but am running into issues with the rules auto running. They work sometimes, then stop.

Here's the basics of the system:
I am syncing local with dropbox folders that are shared with a team. I am watching team members folders, and when they tag a file of theirs, I want it to copy to a folder on my computer locally. From there, those tags are sorted by name into a folder on dropbox. When I run the rules manually, almost everything works fine. I have tried setting up a time based trigger, but that doesn't seem to work either. Here are my rules:

Image

Just the usual run on subfolders, which it seemed like I need to have the rule twice bc my logs showed it would stop matching.
Image

Filter file type, which doesn't seem to always work:
Image


Find labels and copy:
Image

The date everything last matched is 9/4. Help here?

Re: Rules don't seem to automatically run, what am I doing w

PostPosted: Thu Sep 19, 2019 10:30 am
by Mr_Noodle
There are several problems here. Both of the rules with "Continue" as the only action do nothing. You can remove those.

Your rule to copy based on color will only fire once. You have no conditions to tell it to fire again if anything changes. Something like "Date last modified is after Date last matched" or "Color label did change" should work.

Re: Rules don't seem to automatically run, what am I doing w

PostPosted: Thu Sep 19, 2019 7:31 pm
by catalinamarr
Mr_Noodle wrote:There are several problems here. Both of the rules with "Continue" as the only action do nothing. You can remove those.

Your rule to copy based on color will only fire once. You have no conditions to tell it to fire again if anything changes. Something like "Date last modified is after Date last matched" or "Color label did change" should work.


Ah, thank you! I added "tags changed" and that's working much better! I guess I struggle with some of the logic rules for hazel. I'm not sure how to filter for PSD files only, and also if I wanted this to trigger and look for new tags once a day, would I use the "time is" rule? And do I include that with the rule that looks for tags or its own rule?

Thank you for your help!

Re: Rules don't seem to automatically run, what am I doing w

PostPosted: Fri Sep 20, 2019 9:41 am
by Mr_Noodle
You can use "Extension" to match psd files. If you only want to match at a certain time of day, you can use the "Current time" attribute.

Re: Rules don't seem to automatically run, what am I doing w

PostPosted: Fri Sep 20, 2019 10:14 am
by catalinamarr
Mr_Noodle wrote:You can use "Extension" to match psd files. If you only want to match at a certain time of day, you can use the "Current time" attribute.


Extension doesn't seem to work for me currently. I did it have in its own rule, set up as:

If all conditions are met:
Extension is psd
Run rules on folder contents

But this doesnt seem to work for me.

So I added to the labels rule, but with that one I want it to catch 1 of 4 color labels so i have any conditions met selected. A screenshot is easier for this one:
Image

And I spoke too soon! I added the "Tags changed" rule but now it doesn't seem to want to stop running heh. I'm hoping the time will help, and I'm guessing adding a date last matched rule would help with that, but I think I still need help with the all/any conditions and rules.

Thank you again for your help!

Re: Rules don't seem to automatically run, what am I doing w

PostPosted: Mon Sep 23, 2019 9:58 am
by Mr_Noodle
You need to use nested conditions (search for them in the manual) so you can mix "any" and "all" here.