Backup action if rule fails OR skip file on next pass

Occasionally a file "rename with timestamp" rule I have comes across files that are too long to add the timestamp to, and the Hazel rule fails because of this. That would be ok if I received a single error message and Hazel did not try to process the file again, but it continuously tries to process that problem file and generates an endless number of error messages in my notification center.

Is it possible to configure hazel with some logic that says "it this rule fails, then do this ( something else )" with the file? Failing that, can it be configured to not process files it has already tried to process?

There's no way to do that short of a script. That said, Hazel should not put out notifications for the same error that frequently. It will normally throttle notifications so that for a particular error with a particular file, it will only do it once a day. The exception to this is if you keep running rules manually, which is not really how you are supposed to use the program.

Mr_Noodle wrote:There's no way to do that short of a script. That said, Hazel should not put out notifications for the same error that frequently. It will normally throttle notifications so that for a particular error with a particular file, it will only do it once a day. The exception to this is if you keep running rules manually, which is not really how you are supposed to use the program.

It puts one failure notification out every 20 seconds. The remedy was to disable Hazel and process the file manually. Then I re-enabled Hazel and all was well.

However, I'd rather not have the next error cause an Onslaught of notifications.

Was it for different files or the same error for the same file?

Mr_Noodle wrote:Was it for different files or the same error for the same file?

Same file. The file name was too long to add the datetime stamp to, which is why it kept failing. I have Hazel notifcations enable in my OS X side bar, and they were very distracting at once every 20 seconds.

I'll have to look into it but usually if it's the same error on the same file, you shouldn't see it that often. If there was a slight difference in the error message, though, in that case it would be seen as a new error message.