Downloads Folder clean-up.

I am trying to create a rule for my Downloads folder, which already uses some of the standard Hazel rules like "pictures","music", etc. I would like to be able to move any disk image files and/or archive files that are older than a certain date to the trash.

Unfortunately, when I preview the rule I can see that all sorts of other files and folders get unintentionally included in the rule for being moved to the trash as well.

When I create a clean up rule I either say extension contains for example .dmg this will then only select dmg files with the certain date criteria.

Or if there are folders that you want to always exclude use the name is not option.

What I do in my download folder is create a new folder for each day something is downloaded. I then delete the older folders.

For example I have a rule to clear my download folder setup as follows.

If all of following conditions are met
Date create is not in the last 3 days
kind is folder
name is not movies

Move to trash.

globetrotterdk:
Could you post the actual rule you are using?

Also, one thing to keep in mind is that OS X considers disk images to be archives as well. If you want to differentiate between the two, the rule to match disk images should come first.

OK, here is the rule as I have set it up:

http://www.durant.dk/Hazel.jpg

I won't need a seperate image file action if OS X considers image files to be archives.

Cheers

Thanks for posting that. The rule itself looks fine. What kinds of files are you seeing being matched against this rule that shouldn't be?

Mr_Noodle wrote:Thanks for posting that. The rule itself looks fine. What kinds of files are you seeing being matched against this rule that shouldn't be?

It seems to be all files, including things like Excel and NeoOffice files. Here are two screenshots:

http://www.durant.dk/Hazel2.jpg

http://www.durant.dk/Hazel3.jpg

Or is it that none of the files match????

Cheers

Yeah, it appears none of the files are matching. Are any of those disk images or archives older than 10 days?

Also, you can do "Get Info" on the file to make sure the "Kind" is what you think it is (if you don't have Spotlight enabled on that folder, then Kind won't be set).

Yes, many of the files were in the Downloads folder when I installed Hazel. The "kind" is correct. I assume that Spotlight is enabled on all of my folders as "folders" is checked in the spotlight pane of the system prefs.

Ah, the problem is that you just recently installed Hazel.

Check the FAQ question here: http://www.noodlesoft.com/faq.php#U5

Basically, "Date Added" is only recorded by Hazel so it can't know what the date added was for files before Hazel came on the scene. So, it'll be a bit off when you first use it. For any files added since Hazel started watching the folder should be accurate.