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macOS Copy files to folder using Applescript

K

Kitkat88

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 25, 2014
2
0
Hi all,

I am new to Applescript and would appreciate a bit of troubleshooting from someone! I would like to have a script that copies any files with the word "Data" in their file name on a memory stick (KINGSTON) to a folder of my choice, as long as they are not already in that folder. The script below works fine if I use the "choose folder" thing (sorry, I have little knowledge of technical terms!) as I do for setting the target folder, but not if I do the "files of folder" thing. I guess it is something to do with syntax then? I get the error "Finder got an error: Can’t get folder "/Volumes/KINGSTON"."

Thanks in advance,
K

Code: 
on run {input, parameters}
	
	tell application "Finder"
		set the_files to (files of folder "/Volumes/KINGSTON")
		set target_folder to (choose folder with prompt "Choose the target folder:")
		repeat with this_file in the_files
			set this_file_name to name of this_file --name is a property of a window
			if this_file_name contains "Data" then
				if (not (exists file this_file_name of target_folder)) then
					duplicate this_file to target_folder
				end if
			end if
		end repeat
	end tell
	
	return input
end run
 
Kitkat88 said:
Hi all,

I am new to Applescript and would appreciate a bit of troubleshooting from someone! I would like to have a script that copies any files with the word "Data" in their file name on a memory stick (KINGSTON) to a folder of my choice, as long as they are not already in that folder. The script below works fine if I use the "choose folder" thing (sorry, I have little knowledge of technical terms!) as I do for setting the target folder, but not if I do the "files of folder" thing. I guess it is something to do with syntax then? I get the error "Finder got an error: Can’t get folder "/Volumes/KINGSTON"."

Thanks in advance,
K

Code: 
on run {input, parameters}
	
	tell application "Finder"
		set the_files to (files of folder "/Volumes/KINGSTON")
		set target_folder to (choose folder with prompt "Choose the target folder:")
		repeat with this_file in the_files
			set this_file_name to name of this_file --name is a property of a window
			if this_file_name contains "Data" then
				if (not (exists file this_file_name of target_folder)) then
					duplicate this_file to target_folder
				end if
			end if
		end repeat
	end tell
	
	return input
end run
Click to expand...

Better to use an HFS path (colon separated), which takes the form "disk:item:subitem:subsubitem:...:item". For example, "Hard_Disk:Applications:Mail.app" is the HFS path to the Mail application, assuming your boot drive is named "Hard_Disk". You can also try this :


Code: 
tell application "Finder"
	-- Use an HFS path eg. "disk:Volumes:KINGSTON:"
	-- Example : set the_files to files of folder "disk:Volumes:KINGSTON:" whose name contains "Data"
	set the_files to files of folder (POSIX file "/Volumes/KINGSTON" as alias) whose name contains "Data"
	set target_folder to (choose folder with prompt "Choose the target folder:")
	repeat with this_file in the_files
		if (not (exists file (this_file's name) of target_folder)) then
			duplicate this_file to target_folder
		end if
	end repeat
end tell

Note : Tested on Leopard. YMMV
 
Next time -- check the built-in command rsync.

It needs to be run from a command line (terminal). I believe the following might work.
rsync /Volumes/KINGSTON/Data* /targetfolder

You need to change the target folder of course.

// Gunnar
 
Copying from computer to harddrive

Hi all!

I have a similar problem as Kitkat88: I get the "Can't find folder", and I'm too much of a noob to know how to solve it.

What I want the script to do: When the script runs it should copy files from a folder on my computer ("Test1") to a folder on my external hard drive ("TestV").

This is the script I've tried:

Code: 
tell application "Finder"
	set source_folder to (folder "MHD:Users:Zvzk:Desktop:Test1:")
	set target_folder to (folder "disk:Volumes:Zvzk Verba:TestV")
	if source_folder is not target_folder then
		set the_files to every file of source_folder
		repeat with each_file in the_files
			set file_name to name of each_file
			if not (exists file file_name of target_folder) then
				duplicate each_file to target_folder
			end if
		end repeat
	end if
end tell

This is the error message I get: "Can't get folder "disk:Volumes:Zvzk Verba:TestV".

When ever I run the script to copy files between two folder on my computer everything works, but as soon as my external is involved I get the error message.

Any help would be very very appreciated!

Greetings

Finnur

NB. I've tried to copy/paste the code in to my text. Don't know if it will show up as a code, or if it'll show it as ordinary text. Please bear with me.
 
Last edited:
kryten2 said:
Try this :

Code: 
set target_folder to (folder "[B]MHD[/B]:Volumes:Zvzk Verba:TestV")
Click to expand...

Or try this:
Code: 
set target_folder to (folder "Zvzk Verba:TestV")
This is the conventional way of specifying a different disk-drive in an AppleScript: start with the disk name.

Note that this only works for colon-delimited names. It does NOT work for slash-delimited names.

EDIT
I see this is actually explained in post #2. The problem lies in that post #5 is interpreting the "disk:" as a literal "disk:", rather than as a template showing where to put the disk name.
 
Thank you, Applescript-overlords (Kryten2 and Chown33)!! Thank you!

Both suggestions worked. It it so simple that it is strange that I didn't get it to work myself: I tried all different variations of the path – even the correct one (but with a misspelled folder).
 
Hello everyone! I’m new in the forum and also in scripting.
I wrote the following script, but i have a problem with the speed of its implementation.
i would be grateful if anyone can help to speed up the script.
Thanks in advance.

Code: 
set f to (choose folder)
tell application "Finder"
  set fFile to files of entire contents of f
     repeat with aFile in fFile
	 try
	 set extFile to name extension of aFile
	 make new folder at f with properties {name:extFile & " files"}
	 move (items of f whose name extension is extFile) to folder (extFile & " files") in f with replacing
	 end try
      end repeat
end tell
 
mishev said:
Hello everyone! I’m new in the forum and also in scripting.
Click to expand...

It would probably be better to start a new thread for this question. However, you could do something like this in Terminal:

Code: 
thePath="[COLOR="Red"]/Users/Admin/Desktop/MyFolder[/COLOR]"; find "$thePath" ! -path "*/.*" -type f | while read theFile; do theExt="${theFile##*.}"; echo "$theExt Files"; mkdir -p "$thePath/$theExt Files"; mv "$theFile" "$thePath/$theExt Files/";  done

...just change the path as required. You can use "do shell script" from AppleScript to execute it if you really need to.
 
superscape said:
You can use "do shell script" from AppleScript to execute it if you really need to.
Click to expand...
This is the way to fly if you're copying more than a few tens of files at a time.
Finder bogs down easily on file transfers, and you can avoid that entirely using UNIX mv command as part of a shell script.
 
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