Folder Actions reliability issues?

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

I have used the Folder Actions utility to attach a script to a folder - but nothing happens when I add a file to this folder. I haven’t used Folder Actions since MacOS 9 and remember that they were very unreliable back then/you had to keep the folder open for them to work, but I expected that to be fixed by now?

There are some special circumstances with this folder:

  1. It is a folder on a Google Drive that is mirrored/synced with a local folder:

/Volumes/GoogleDrive-******************/My Drive/Folder/subfolderA or subfolderB

  1. The folders (A and B) are pretty big, 2 500 and 16 000 files respectively.

  2. New files are added from my phone, using an automatic sync tool that uploads the files from my phone to Google Drive and then the Google Drive client on my computer download the new files to these folders.

  3. I have added Folder Actions to Folder, subfolderA and subfolderB

  4. MacOS 11.7.10 (Big Sur)

How do I debug this issue? Is this a known problem?

#2

Once Folder Actions had poor reliability.

In macOS 10.11, it was full rewritten to use FSEvents to detect file add/delete/change action.

FSEvents works with local fle system events.

Google Drive is not a local file system, I think.

#3

It also works with iCloud folders.

#4

It also works with iCloud folders.

I think so. iCloud drive is file syncing between real local file system and cloud system.

But the way of implementation methods are different.

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