Workflow that creates a new folder with today's date and deletes folder named yesterday's date

[Charlotte]

1. Does anyone know how I can make a workflow that would create a new folder (in my Downloads folder) and have it automatically named that day's date?

 

(The date format I would specifically want is yymmdd)

 

2. I would also like the workflow to delete the folder in the downloads folder that is named yesterday's date (This is less necessary but it would be nice)

 

I would appreciate any guidance! Thank you!

Edited October 24, 2019 by Charlotte

[deanishe]

It's only a couple of lines, so it's probably easier to show you than to explain. This workflow will do what you asked for.

 

[Charlotte]

1 hour ago, deanishe said:

It's only a couple of lines, so it's probably easier to show you than to explain. This workflow will do what you asked for.

 

 

Amazing! Thank you so much!! That was so kind of you

 

Would you happen to know if there's a way to change Chrome's preferences through a workflow? -- specifically to change the default download folder for Chrome?

 

Ideally after it creates today's date folder, the workflow can then set that folder as Chrome's default download folder. I do it manually every day and it would be a dream to not have to anymore 😁

[deanishe]

22 minutes ago, Charlotte said:

specifically to change the default download folder for Chrome?

 

It's stored in the Preferences file (which is JSON) in the Chrome profile directory (~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Profile XYZ/Preferences).

 

It's not a great idea to change applications' internal files, however, and you have to close the application (or at least that profile) in order to change it.

 

It would probably make more sense to use another application or script to watch your ~/Downloads directory and move new files into today's folder.

[Charlotte]

13 minutes ago, deanishe said:

 

It's stored in the Preferences file (which is JSON) in the Chrome profile directory (~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Profile XYZ/Preferences).

 

It's not a great idea to change applications' internal files, however, and you have to close the application (or at least that profile) in order to change it.

 

It would probably make more sense to use another application or script to watch your ~/Downloads directory and move new files into today's folder.

 

Gotcha. Thank you so much for the guidance! Learning this stuff becomes a black hole haha

[tjluoma]

7 hours ago, deanishe said:

It would probably make more sense to use another application or script to watch your ~/Downloads directory and move new files into today's folder.

 

That sounds like a perfect job for Hazel.

[deanishe]

15 minutes ago, tjluoma said:

That sounds like a perfect job for Hazel.

 

If you have it. But you can also do it with Automator using a Folder Action.

[tjluoma]

On 10/25/2019 at 6:36 PM, deanishe said:

But you can also do it with Automator using a Folder Action.

 

That's true, and Folder Actions are free (well, except for time spent getting them to work.)

 

If you really wanted to nerd out, you could even use `launchd` and have it watch ~/Downloads/.

 

I've found Hazel to be far more reliable and far easier for most folks to understand than Folder Actions. YMMV.

 

I suspect that folks who appreciate Alfred would also love Hazel. It's well worth the asking price. 

 

(To be clear, I have no connection to the company, just a long-time happy user.)

Edited October 28, 2019 by vitor
Removed empty space at the end

[Charlotte]

Thank you all for your responses! This forum is awesome. But honestly, moving them to a different folder would probably just put an unnecessary strain on my computer.

 

I'm downloading dozens of video clips and images over the course of 4 hours (from our streaming service) in order to upload them to the (siloed) content management system (I know… my job is working on the workflow) and then I delete them at the end of the day.

 

Moving each of them to a different folder as I download them would only be helpful if I needed to keep them for future reference. So I'll just keep changing the download folder in chrome manually.

[deanishe]

2 minutes ago, Charlotte said:

But honestly, moving them to a different folder would probably just put an unnecessary strain on my computer.

 

Moving a file is literally the same as renaming it if you aren't moving it to a different disk.

 

[Charlotte]

3 hours ago, deanishe said:

 

Moving a file is literally the same as renaming it if you aren't moving it to a different disk.

 

 

😮Well that's good to know. Maybe down the line I'll explore it. I'm definitely one of those people who procrastinates by trying to improve their workflow and trying to fiddle with that would definitely qualify 🤣