Hazel, Dropbox Camera Upload Mess I made for myself

I am in a Hazel quagmire and in dire need of help.

I was trying to organize my Dropbox Camera Uploads folder and found an example that I thought would work for me.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s3/sh/9e ... 4676a89479

What it did was to rename each image as I wanted, but it put them all in a ton of various subfolders. What I had wanted was a subfolder that contained all the photos by year and month (2013_1_#extension) so that all the 2013 photos would be in one subfolder, 2012 in another subfolder, etc. So, I edited the above Hazel rule to rename it with (Date Created_#extension) I forget my exact rule) and it was renamed as I wanted, but it created a bunch of new subfolders. Anyway I have tried various different rules and I am getting deeper in the mire. All of my Photos are now out of Camera Uploads and in a new folder called Photo Sort.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s3/sh/e4 ... 44981932eb

What I need is a rule to get my photos moved back into Camera Uploads, renamed (Date Created_#Extension), moved into subfolders by Year, so all 2013 photos are in a 2013 subfolder, 2012 are in a 2012 subfolder, etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Peter

Do you also have a rule to go into subfolders? If so, I think you just ended up creating an infinite loop where Hazel goes into the subfolder, sees the files you sorted before, and re-sorts them. In such a case, you need to add conditions to the subfolder rule to not go into these folders.

Initially yes, it did create infinite loops. I changed the rule so it no longer had the infinite loop, but I still can't get it to do what i need.

What is it doing now that you got rid of the loop? Can you post the full ruleset?

When it rains, it pours... unfortunately now my computer has crashed and I am unable to restart it. I am still running tests on it, so i am unable to see my Hazel Rules.

I tried a bunch of different rules and they kept renaming them and adding them to subfolders it created like 2014-01-15 with a few photos in some and a lot in others and even none in some. I finally tried to set a rule that took the photos out of Camera Rules and into a new folder called Photo Sort. I didn't ask it to put them in subfolders but it did nonetheless. Finally I stopped and asked for help because I was just making things worse.

Is there a rule that will select jpg images from a folder and all its subfolders (that they are in now) and then move just the images back to Camera Uploads renamed Creation Date_#Extension and put into subfolders by year?

I will let you know when I am able to get back into my computer.

Thanks again for your help,
Peter

You can do what you described. You have to be careful going into subfolders though which I think is the source of the problems here.

I have my computer back up, but I lost all my settings in the crash, so I no longer have any of my Hazel Rules.

My Camera Upload photos have all been moved to "Photo Sort" in multiple subfolders and I need them back into "Camera Uploads" named: Date Created_#Extension and sorted into yearly subfolders.

All I need to know is, can you give me a Hazel Rule that will resort all my Dropbox photos from screenshot #1 to screenshot #2.

1) Existing Camera Uploads in new folder "Photo Sort":
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s3/sh/0b ... 957feb0476

2) This is what I want:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s3/sh/ee ... 7936d26c5b

I see a contradiction between the dates on the original folders and those in the file names. Assuming you want to use the date in the filenames, create a rule to match the file name. Search the help for "match patterns". You can do it two ways but the best way is to use a date token to match the date. Once you have that date token, you can use it in a "Sort into subfolder" action to do the sort into subfolders (after you've moved it to the top of that folder tree).

Now, this rule will only work for files at the top level. From there, you use the rule in the subfolder article previously cited. MAKE SURE IT IS A SEPARATE RULE.

That should do it.

I finally figured it out. I was making it way more complicated than it needed to be. Thanks for your help!

Peter