Need help using a Photoshop Action droplet w/multiple files

I am trying to wrap my head around how to do this properly, thought I would ask for some help as I can't seem to figure it out. Here's what I want to do:

Hazel watches some folders. Anytime a .jpg file appears, run a Photoshop Action Droplet (a way to automate Photoshop actions like converting, tweaking, etc.). After the file has been converted, sort the .jpg into a subfolder name "_jpg".

I have the Hazel rules working fine, however while Photoshop is working on the first file, Hazel recognizes the rest of the .jpg files in the folder and just moves them on the subfolder, and they never get processed by the Photoshop droplet. I need somehow to create an in-between step so Hazel doesn't do this.

I thought maybe a "Date Last Matched" rule, or moving the file, or using color labels might work, but realized that when it runs the rules again, it will do the same thing.

I know there's a way to do this, just can't wrap my head around it. I browsed the forums and couldn't find any inspiration, so I thought I would post for some suggestions. Thanks in advance!

Is there a way to either get the droplet to move the file somewhere else when done or to somehow mark the file (either the color or set a comment)? Or, is there is some metadata property of the jpeg that is different after the conversion that you could look for? If I understand the situation correctly, there's no way for Hazel to know that the droplet has done its work. Even having the droplet rename the file slightly (add some prefix or suffix to note that it's been processed) would work. You could even have Hazel strip that part off afterwards.

When I save the files, they are saved as .psd files (Photoshop files). So I am only opening the .jpg files, converting them and saving as .psd, then having Hazel move the original (unaltered) .jpg files to an archive folder (the _jpg folder I mentioned). I guess I wasn't clear on the PSD conversion via the droplet.

What happens is while Photoshop is working on the first file, Hazel will process the rest of the JPG files (process them through the remaining Hazel rules) even thought they have not yet been converted to PSD files by being opened by the droplet. Hazel then moves the JPG files (the color label & .jpg extension actions in the Hazel rule tell Hazel to move the files). Since Hazel moves them, they never get opened/processed by the Photoshop droplet.

It may have something to do with the way the droplet works — it seems to run briefly and then quit, only running long enough to get the files going in Photoshop. If I drag multiple files manually to the droplet, they all get processed. I need to do some manual tweaking while the Photoshop action runs.

It's when Hazel processes them automatically that files get skipped.

Adding a color label already doesn't work, which leads me to believe a date last matched rule wouldn't either, since it seems Hazel is indeed matching all these files, but not allowing the processing of them via the PSD droplet before it applies the remaining rules.

If you can't stick some indicator on the jpeg files then maybe an alternate workflow would be to save the files to the _jpg folder, have Photoshop process those and then have Hazel move the resulting psd file. The question is whether PS sticks in the right indicators to show that the file is busy so that Hazel doesn't move it prematurely. I say try it on some test files first.

I don't think Date Last Matched is what you want here unless the droplet modifies the date last opened. If it does, you could try "Date last opened is after Date last matched" though keep in mind it would also trigger if you opened it yourself. Also, it may move it before Photoshop is done with it.

Also, is the color label set by the droplet? Could you provide more specifics on the rules? You can email to me if you want.

Even if I move the JPG files to a new folder, they will be all added at once when they match the "jpg" rule, and then the PS droplet will end up doing the same thing (attempt to process all of them, but only processing the first one). I just set up a new Hazel folder to test this.

The color label is not set by the droplet; the droplet open the images in Photoshop, converts them to CMYK/300dpi then opens the Levels dialog box for tweaks, then when I hit the Levels OK button, PS prompts me to save the file as a .psd document. If I drag/drop a batch of JPG files on the droplet, they all get run through the droplet in order. When Hazel runs, it only processes the first image, then runs the remaining rules.

My guess is that the Droplet only passes on the files to Photoshop, so in effect Hazel thinks that part of the process is done, even though Photoshop itself has to do some things to the file.

Here are my rules:

and my rules order (the last rule is turned off temporarily since it isn't working properly):

Yeah, I think you're right on the droplet just queuing up the file and returning. The only thing I can see doing is having some way for the droplet to color, tag or rename the jpg file. Or you can add a delay on moving the jpeg files by adding a condition like "Date added is not in the last X minutes/hours/days".

Here's a thought:

I just assume that Hazel would try to re-process these files over and over if I left them in the same folder (the JPG files). Is this correct? Otherwise I could just leave them in the folder and then move them after 5 minutes or so.

The PS droplet doesn't allow for modifying the original files in any way unfortunately, it oly allows you to assign actions you can do within Photoshop (Photoshop actions/droplets are kind of like an Automator/Hzel thing inside of Photoshop).

I'm not sure if the delay would work since I would be downloading these via FTP, so all would have very close Date Added times. Thoughts?

If you don't want to have the jpegs cluttering up the folder then maybe have Hazel move the psd files to your actual work area treating the original download area as the scratch area. You can then have Hazel clear out the jpegs in that folder on a more leisurely schedule (like "Date added not in the last 6 hours").

You can also see if the "date last opened" is modified by PS. If it modifies it when queuing it up then we're back at square one but if it does it only when it actually processes the file, you might be able to work out something with that. You can see the date last opened if you do a "Get Info" in Finder on the file.

When using the Photoshop droplet, it indeed changes the "Date last opened" for the file.

Seems the only way for this to work is if Hazel ran each file separately, which it seems it doesn't do. I can't wrap my head around any way to accomplish this with Hazel.

Thanks for the help though, I thought maybe we could solve this one!

Does Photoshop offer any Automator support? That might be an alternate angle to check out.

Good call, will have to look into that.