Noodlesoft Forums

Hi there,
I have a Hazel rule, that picks up every PDF in a Finder-Folder within Documents, adds a Tag, and moves the file to the Devonthink Inbox-Folder.
This rule was running over a long time, without any problems.
Recently I had to do a new set up for my iMac, as my FusionDrive died.
The rule was working also after the new setup.
Yesterday I activated the iCloud Option "Desktop and Documents" (or vice versa?).
Today I figured out, that the rule (who normally delivers the PDF almost immediately after the scan into DT3) did not work anymore.
I tried the usual stuff (restart, stopping and starting, forcing a run of the rules, checking for a match) and nothing helped, but the Checks all said that there were no problem in recogning the files by Hazel.
I moved the folder now out of iCloud again, and after the annoying part of creating new folders to watch in Hazel (why can't I just relocate the folder, or the folder is even automatically relocated after a move in Finder?), the rules run almost immediately again.
Within the MacPowerUser Forum, there is also somebody https://talk.macpowerusers.com/t/hazel-ocr-pdfpen-pro-stopped-working-properly/30114, who seems to have some issues with running Hazel on an iCloud folder.

I would recommend against having it sync against iCloud. The files need to be local for Hazel to work properly and it's a bit of a toss-up with iCloud whether that is the case. I suggest using a different folder and copying/moving files to an iCloud folder as needed.

Mr_Noodle wrote:I would recommend against having it sync against iCloud. The files need to be local for Hazel to work properly and it's a bit of a toss-up with iCloud whether that is the case. I suggest using a different folder and copying/moving files to an iCloud folder as needed.

If you don’t have optimize turned on I was under the impression that the os saw them as local.

All my files including downloads are synced to iCloud

Can you try it against a non-iCloud folder and see if you get similar issues?

Mr_Noodle wrote:I would recommend against having it sync against iCloud. The files need to be local for Hazel to work properly and it's a bit of a toss-up with iCloud whether that is the case. I suggest using a different folder and copying/moving files to an iCloud folder as needed.

Can you clarify or point me to documentation on using Hazel with iCloud. I too am using iCloud Drive and I have Optimize storage on. However, unlike the OP I am only using Hazel to move file from the local Downloads folder to the appropriate destination based on contents (a folder optimized by iCloud). Once the files are moved Hazel is out of the picture.

Is this an acceptable use case with Hazel?

The additional problem I'm facing is I had to temporarily turn off iCloud to fix an unrelated problem, which caused a local "iCloud Drive (Archive) folder to be created with a local copy of files. Somehow all my rules were changed to point to this "iCloud Drive (Archive)" folder. The Relocate function of Hazel doesn't work to fix this issue as the destinations are all several levels deeper, and I can't find any other methods available to open all the rules and search/replace to fix this problem.

Seems the "Relocate" feature is inadequate to fix a lot of problems Hazel users face. Hoping we can get access to the rules in XML or some other format so we can fix these kinds of issues that come up.

Appreciate any help you can offer.

You'd have to give me more specifics on your rules. While in theory you can use an "optimized" iCloud folder as a destination, it depends on what else you are doing. In general, though, if you want things to work properly, I would turn that feature off.

I'm not sure what you did to your folders, but have you tried changing the folder back (in Finder, not Hazel)?