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This is probably something simple but its driving me crazy...

I was just able to build my first automator workflow, which is quite basic and uses the Subtitles application to download subtitles for movies in a specific folder.

The Actions are:

Get Folder Contents > Filter Finder Items (to only movie files) > Open finder item with the Subtitle app

It works fine when I execute the workflow from within Automator because it has a "Folder Action receives files and folders added to:" clause in the beginning which tells which folder to use.

However, I want to save that as an application so I can schedule that on iCal but, when I save as an app, the clause which tells the folder is no longer available and looks like I need to pass the folder name as a parameter/argument and I have no idea on how to do that.

So, what I need guidance is on how to have the app executed in iCal while telling it which folder to use.

Thanks in advance...

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  • Folder Actions trigger when a specified action happens to the folder in question. It sounds like this is not what you want, as you are trying to schedule it running in iCal?
    – tubedogg
    Commented Feb 23, 2015 at 2:17
  • Thanks tbedogg. I need that to run on a scheduled basis... That is why I was trying to have that as an alarm action on iCal... This was present on a lot of internet tutorials so that is why I thought it was the proper way... Would you suggest any other? tks
    – grosado
    Commented Feb 23, 2015 at 10:51

1 Answer 1

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Try searching for and adding a Get Specified Finder Items action before your Get Folder Contents actions. This allows you to select the folder of which you would like to get and sort the contents.

Hope this helps!

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    Thanks Micah. I had tried that but it did not help either. It runs perfectly inside Automator but when I save and execute by double clicking on the .app, strange things happen... get a "The action Open Finder Items encountered an error" message. The workflow seems to continue and the "Subtitles" app runs but it does not include subfolders (this option is set on the "Get Folder Contents" actions. I will try to post the workflow here later today as it should help troubleshooting. Thanks a lot!
    – grosado
    Commented Feb 23, 2015 at 11:06
  • That's odd! I'm wondering if there's an issues with the app compiler, because I have issues of my own when I compile AppleScript... something to look into. Sorry I couldn't help more!
    – Micah Yeager
    Commented Feb 23, 2015 at 14:16
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    Ok. Did some testing and it looks like the issue is actually related to the "Filter Finder Items" action. Whenever the results are more than 2 different types of files, i get the "The action Open Finder Items encountered an error" message. I was using 2 filter expressions on the filter action. Extension is mp4 or extension = mkv. This always resulted on the error. But when I use only one expression (filer only one file) it works fine. I now have one app to process mkv files and another to process mp4 files and this is working. But I would still like to use one single app for that... hints?
    – grosado
    Commented Feb 24, 2015 at 3:00

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