Automator action

Hi all, I have a Automator folder action to resizes images, when I drag photos into the folder it puts the resized images onto the desktop (what I want) but it also keeps the images in the folder and also puts copies into the parent folder. How can I make it spit out the resized images to the desktop and that’s all?

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Hi Jason,

Based on your desired result, here’s a thought: rather than a Folder Action, how about saving the same workflow as an Automator app onto which you drag the images you want to resize? Much like dragging onto your folder now, but with possibly more granularity.

If it’s something you do fairly often, you could even put the Automator app’s icon on a Finder window’s toolbar, by Command-dragging it there. This way it’s available whenever you’re grabbing images files in Finder.

Hope this suggestion helps,

J.F.

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Thanks for your reply J.F.

I’m very new to automator, I have changed it to an application and clicked the box replacing existing files. If I have the original image on the desktop I get the following error message:
"The action “Copy Finder Items” encountered an error: “The file “Test image.JPG” couldn’t be saved in the folder “Desktop”.”
Do you know of a way around this?

can you post the automator workflow? it looks like there’s one to many copy finder item actions going on

Hi there,

Please see the workflow below.

Isn’t it a scale followed by a move files action that’s required here; rather than scale and copy files?

I had the copy command first when testing, moving them around doesn’t make any difference.

I don’t know the answer but here’s something to try: the two actions in my workflow that are spitting output to a specified folder:

Scale Images, then:
Move Finder Items (to /Desktop – uncheck Replacing existing files) >
Reveal Finder Items

Thanks Bonnie, I’ll give that a try.

Thanks Bonnie,

That has done the trick, should have been move not copy