The lowdown on the downloads -- how to stay organized?
September 20, 2007 10:06 AM Subscribe
How to best organize and maintain my Downloads folder in OS X? Automator tips?
My Downloads folder currently has 96 items in it... I know I should just take the time to manually sort and delete/save it all, but I'm curious how other people manage to organize their downloads.
Are there any useful Automator tricks? It would be handy for files older than a week or so to automatically be moved elsewhere, but as far as I can tell, OS X only recognizes a file's created-on date, not its saved-to-this-folder date.
My Downloads folder currently has 96 items in it... I know I should just take the time to manually sort and delete/save it all, but I'm curious how other people manage to organize their downloads.
Are there any useful Automator tricks? It would be handy for files older than a week or so to automatically be moved elsewhere, but as far as I can tell, OS X only recognizes a file's created-on date, not its saved-to-this-folder date.
I have an Applescript attached as a Folder Action script for my downloads folder:
posted by mkultra at 10:17 AM on September 20, 2007 [1 favorite]
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items tell application "Finder" repeat with this_item in these_items try set this_type to the kind of this_item as string tell me if (this_type is "Folder") then processFolder(this_item) else processFile(this_item) end if end tell on error err display dialog (err as string) end try end repeat end tell end adding folder items to on processFolder(this_folder) tell application "Finder" set these_items to every item in this_folder if the (count of these_items) is 1 then repeat with this_item in these_items try set this_type to the kind of this_item as string tell me if (this_type is "Folder") then processFolder(this_item) else processFile(this_item) end if end tell on error err display dialog (err as string) end try end repeat end if end tell end processFolder on processFile(this_file) set new_folder to (path to home folder as string) & "Inbox:" tell application "Finder" if (the name of this_file ends with "dmg" or the kind of this_file is "Installer package" or the kind of this_file is "Application") then set new_file to new_folder & "Apps:" & the name of this_file if not (exists new_file) then move this_file to new_folder & "Apps:" else delete this_file end if else if (the name of this_file ends with "doc" or the name of this_file ends with "xls" or the name of this_file ends with "ppt" or the name of this_file ends with "pdf") then set new_file to new_folder & "Docs:" & the name of this_file if not (exists new_file) then move this_file to new_folder & "Docs:" else delete this_file end if else if (the name of this_file ends with "mp3" or the name of this_file ends with "aac" or the name of this_file ends with "m4a" or the name of this_file ends with "m3u") then set new_file to new_folder & "Music:" & the name of this_file if not (exists new_file) then move this_file to new_folder & "Music:" else delete this_file end if else if (the name of this_file ends with "avi" or the name of this_file ends with "mov" or the name of this_file ends with "mp4" or the name of this_file ends with "mpg" or the name of this_file ends with "mpeg") then set new_file to new_folder & "Movies:" & the name of this_file if not (exists new_file) then move this_file to new_folder & "Movies:" else delete this_file end if else if (the name of this_file ends with "jpg" or the name of this_file ends with "jpeg" or the name of this_file ends with "gif" or the name of this_file ends with "png" or the name of this_file ends with "bmp") then set new_file to new_folder & "Images:" & the name of this_file if not (exists new_file) then move this_file to new_folder & "Images:" else delete this_file end if else if the name of this_file ends with "html" then set new_file to new_folder & "Web Pages:" & the name of this_file if not (exists new_file) then move this_file to new_folder & "Web Pages:" else delete this_file end if end if end tell end processFileYou'll need to adjust your folder structure accordingly, but that's the gist of it.
posted by mkultra at 10:17 AM on September 20, 2007 [1 favorite]
I have an AppleScript similar to mkultra's except without all the
posted by jjg at 11:03 AM on September 20, 2007
else if
statements; it just makes new folders for filetypes it hasn't seen before.posted by jjg at 11:03 AM on September 20, 2007
Seconding Hazel. It's a shareware preference pane add-in that let's you create rules to automatically keep your downloads folder (or any folder really) organized by criteria you set (e.g., date downloaded, file type, etc.) It really works pretty well.
I just wish there was something as simple and elegant for Windows that I could use at work...
posted by dyslexictraveler at 12:25 PM on September 20, 2007
I just wish there was something as simple and elegant for Windows that I could use at work...
posted by dyslexictraveler at 12:25 PM on September 20, 2007
I advise having separate folders for the types of things you download and just downloading directly into there. For example, it is simplicity itself to use a different folder for Soulseek (only music) than for BitTorrent (almost always video). If you download from Usenet, use a client that can download to different folders based on the group you're in (Thoth does this, I'm sure others do too).
I do have a general downloads folder I use for things I download with a Web browser and other "general" apps, but if I download something that I want elsewhere, I move it immediately after I download it, or else just download it there in the first place by doing "Save As" or "Download To" in the browser's context menu. Otherwise, I don't bother to organize or clean this folder at all. I just keep it sorted by date so the most recent stuff is on top. It currently has 755 items in it. Once every year or so I'll view it by name and delete old versions of app disk images, but that's about it.
posted by kindall at 12:36 PM on September 20, 2007
I do have a general downloads folder I use for things I download with a Web browser and other "general" apps, but if I download something that I want elsewhere, I move it immediately after I download it, or else just download it there in the first place by doing "Save As" or "Download To" in the browser's context menu. Otherwise, I don't bother to organize or clean this folder at all. I just keep it sorted by date so the most recent stuff is on top. It currently has 755 items in it. Once every year or so I'll view it by name and delete old versions of app disk images, but that's about it.
posted by kindall at 12:36 PM on September 20, 2007
Response by poster: Thanks, everyone. Hazel looks perfect.
posted by Robot Johnny at 1:44 PM on September 20, 2007
posted by Robot Johnny at 1:44 PM on September 20, 2007
Don't know if anyone's still looking in here, but MacUpdate Promo has a nice special on Hazel today.
posted by kindall at 9:18 AM on September 27, 2007
posted by kindall at 9:18 AM on September 27, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
I think Hazel will do this for you.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 10:15 AM on September 20, 2007