AppleScript “delay” command not working since switch to Yosemite

Question

Note: The issue with delay was fixed in OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

Ever since I upgraded to Yosemite, Applescripts that use delays have stopped working. How can I fix this?

Here's the world's simplest Applescript, for the sake of an easy example:

set volume output volume 0
delay 5
set volume output volume 20
delay 5
set volume output volume 0
delay 5
set volume output volume 20
delay 5
set volume output volume 0
delay 5
set volume output volume 20
delay 5
set volume output volume 0

That should take 30 seconds to complete. If I run it in Script Editor (formerly Applescript Editor) it takes 30 seconds to complete. But if I save this script as an app, when I launch the app, the delays are ignored and the app takes a fraction of a second to complete.

How can I force Applescript to delay for a specified amount of time before moving on to the next step? Is this a Yosemite glitch? Is there a reliable workaround?

Answer 1

Note: The issue with delay was fixed in OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

@2oh1, you have the right basic idea in your answer, but here's a complete and correct answer:

The only reasonable way to work around this is to invoke "delay" within a loop that ensures the desired duration elapses before continuing. The best way to do this is to override "delay" with a custom handler:

on delay duration
  set endTime to (current date) + duration
  repeat while (current date) is less than endTime
    tell AppleScript to delay endTime - (current date)
  end repeat
end delay

This enables you to leave the rest of your script unchanged and you can use "delay" normally, e.g.,

delay 5
display alert "I like cake!"

[NOTE: Normally, the custom handler would use "continue delay duration" to invoke the built-in "delay", but I found that, although this works within Script Editor, it returns an error when used within an applet (“Can’t continue delay. (-1708)”). I worked around that issue by directly telling AppleScript to handle the delay command instead of using "continue" to get there.]

The issue is that delay processes user input while pausing the script, so you can still click on menus or windows displayed by an applet, and there is a bug (fixed in 10.11) where user input causes delay to not wait the full duration before resuming script execution. If you don't interact with the applet, delay works correctly.

Answer 2

While battling this same problem I came across this answer to a not-so-related question and decided to try it and it seems to work for me.

Replace delay 5 with do shell script "/bin/sleep 5" and get the same result.

Answer 3

I'm not saying this is the best solution, but it seems to have solved my problem. Instead of using a simple delay, which is being ignored for reasons I do not understand, I've switched to getting the time and looping until a new time is reached (it still uses a delay, but it doesn't matter if it ignores the delay since the script doesn't continue until the time is reached).

# Pause for five minutes
set GetTheTime to current date
set NewTime to GetTheTime + (5 * minutes)
repeat while (current date) is less than NewTime
    delay 60
end repeat

I'm still dying to know why delay is being ignored (or dramatically sped up?!??), but this gets the job done, clumsy as it is.

Answer 4

I found a work-around in a German forum post. Add these lines to the top of your script:

use framework "Foundation"
use scripting additions
current application's NSThread's sleepForTimeInterval:1

Answer 5

carzyj had what I consider the best answer, but when combined with Chris Page's method, you get:

on delay duration
  do shell script "/bin/sleep " & duration
end delay

You can comment out "on delay" through "end delay" to revert to the original delay.

Answer 6

this is a modification to @chris-page solution

It seems to be a balance between responsiveness and accurately capturing the delay.

on delay duration
    set endTime to (current date) + duration
    repeat while (current date) is less than endTime
        set delta to duration / 100
        if duration < 0.2 then
            set delta to 0.2
        end if
        tell AppleScript to delay delta
    end repeat
end delay

But instead of telling Applescript to delay for the overall duration, we just tell it to delay for a fractional period of the duration. if the period is less than what apple allows (1/60 of a second), then let's just set it to that delta. That we can keep some responsiveness, yet still be accurate. the suspicion is that sometimes delay doesn't work so the repeat while loop will keep the thread locked up, but in success scenarios, we want the delay delta to be short so that the process can still be interrupted

Answer 7

So, to put it all together, I believe Chris means this:

on delay duration
   set endTime to (current date) + duration
   repeat while (current date) is less than endTime
      tell AppleScript to delay endTime - (current date)
   end repeat
end delay