Hazel’s Sync action copies items from the monitored folder to another folder—but unlike the Copy action, Sync copies only those items that have been added since the last time the rule ran. So you can think of it as being like a smarter or more efficient Copy.
Dec 27, 2019 Allows for rule scheduling. AppSweep now cleans up Lion's saved state and container folders. Tons of fixes and tweaks. Having followed the beta discussions and observed the minor releases since the v3 introduction, I can tell you.much. more than those early features have been rolled in. Also, Hazel v2 was released in 1999, best I can tell.
Syncing items in Hazel differs from how some utilities use the word “sync.” You’ll get better results with the Sync action if you understand its limitations. Specifically:
One-way syncing only: Syncing in Hazel is one-way; files changed in the destination folder are not copied back to the monitored folder. Although you could in theory create mutual syncing rules for both source and destination folders, we recommend against doing this. Hazel was not designed for two-way sync, and it does not have the capability to handle conflicts and other complex situations the way a dedicated sync app such as ChronoSync can, nor will its syncing performance be anywhere close to that of a dedicated app.
Deletions are not synced (by default): If a rule syncs files in the monitored folder with another folder, and then you delete an already-synced file from the monitored folder, that file will not disappear from the destination folder. That’s because Hazel’s rules normally operate only on files and folders that match your conditions, and the absence of a file that previously existed in the monitored folder is not something a condition can match.
You can work around this limitation by using a rule that looks for any change in a subfolder of the monitored folder. This works because, from Hazel’s point of view, the list of files in a folder is a property of that folder. Once the subfolder matches your condition(s) and syncs, its entire list of files is processed. And, as a result, any files deleted from the source will also disappear from the destination. However, a side-effect of this approach (which may or may not be to your liking) is that the destination folder must contain a copy of the entire subfolder being synced—not just its contents—as described below.
Sync a Subfolder (including Deletions)
Here’s how you can set up Hazel to sync an entire subfolder of a monitored folder, including deletions. To be clear, if the monitored folder is “Monitored Folder” in the example below, the folder you want to sync—inside the monitored folder—is called “Synced Folder” and the destination is “Destination Folder,” the result after syncing will look like this:
That is, the contents of “Synced Folder” don’t sync directly to the top level of “Destination Folder,” but rather to subfolder “Synced Folder” within “Destination Folder.” Anything deleted from “Synced Folder” in the monitored folder is deleted from the “Synced Folder” at the destination. Syncing is only one-way; changes in the “Synced Folder” subfolder of “Destination Folder” do not sync back to “Synced Folder” in the “Monitored Folder.”
The rule that performs this sort of sync looks like this:
You can create this rule manually (be sure to read Using Nested Conditions for help with the last four lines in the “conditions” section), or, if you prefer, you can download this rule using the following link: sync.hazelrules. After you’ve downloaded the rule, open Hazel, select the folder you want to monitor (that is, the folder that contains the folder you want to sync), and drag the rule into its “Rules” list. Then edit the rule and replace the name of the “Synced Folder” and the “Destination Folder” with the folders you want to sync.
This rule looks for a folder inside the monitored folder with the name you specify. When Hazel detects changes in that folder—or in any of the subfiles or subfolders within it—the “Sync” rule runs, copying the contents of the synced folder to the destination folder.
Note that the conditions shown here merely tell Hazel when to sync (in this case, whenever the subfolder is modified). If you prefer, you can use entirely different conditions (such as Current Time is 12:00 AM any day) to specify a different schedule or frequency. Regardless of the conditions, the “Sync” action itself behaves the same way.
Tip: The conditions in this example rule are applicable to many actions, not just syncing. You can use the same conditions to trigger any action every time something is modified.
Because this rule runs every time “Synced Folder” or anything inside it changes, it can bog down your Mac a bit if that folder contains a large number of items. If you want to limit how often it runs, you can do so by adding “Date Last Matched is not in the last 10 minutes” (or however long you want the interval between runs to be) to the top of the conditions list.
SEE ALSO
“Don’t repeat yourself” is one of the most important rules programming. And it makes sense: why do the same thing over and over again manually when we have computers to do that for us? For fortunately, you don’t need to be a programmer to avoid repeating yourself. Hazel brings programming concepts to even the most code-illiterate. The app can help you organize your files automatically, increasing your efficiency and freeing your mind painstaking process of filing all your bits manually.
Hazel brings the logic of programming to folks that don’t know how to write code. It’s a macOS app with an easy-to-use graphical interface for some fairly advanced scripting capabilities. It relies on a simple “if this, then that” sort of structure, meaning that it matches specific parameters to specific files, and then performs a task if those parameters are met. The logic is simple but powerful.
Hazel is easy to set up. After you’ve downloaded and installed the application, you’ll find it in your System Preferences. Click on the icon to open the preference pane, and you’ll be able to get started.
When you first launch the pane, you’ll be in the Info tab which tells you whether or not Hazel is currently running. You’ll see a button that says “Start Hazel,” but leave it off for now.
Tick the box below that says “Show Hazel status in the menu bar.”
On the left side of the window, you’ll see a column with a list of folders. Click on one of those folders, and you’ll see the pane on the right, labeled “Rules,” fill up with some checkboxes.
These rules are what tells Hazel what to do with different files in different situations. We’ll be creating some of our own, but the included demonstration rules are useful for inspiration. Rules apply to particular folders, and each folder contains its own set of rules.
I use my Downloads folder as a sort of “on deck” folder for containing working files. Unfortunately, I don’t clean it up too often. Hazel can help me out with that, however.
1. To create a new rule in Hazel, we first need to select the folder we want the rule to “watch.” Since we’re working in the Downloads folder, we’ll obviously select Downloads. Then, I’ll add a new rule by clicking the plus button.
2. Let’s give our rule an easy-to-understand name.
Now we’ll set up our criteria. These are the criteria a file has to meet before Hazel processes it. My goal is to set up files older than seven days for processing, so I’ll tell Hazel to target those.
3. Click the drop down menu labeled “Name,” and change it to “Date Last Opened.”
4. Check the drop down labelled “is,” to “is not in the last.”
5. Change “1 hour” to “7 days.”
In the next section, we’ll set what to do with files that match our criteria.
6. Click “no folder selected,” and change it to “Trash.” This will move all the old files into the trash.
7. To save the rule, click OK. Since we have Hazel turned off right now, the rule won’t apply immediately. We’ll need to turn Hazel on before we can do that.
This is perhaps the simplest possible Hazel rule, but it’s still useful. Here’s a few other rules I use to manage my downloads folder.
This rule has two bits. First, we’ll set up a rule that puts old files into a specific folder. Then, we’ll archive that folder.
1. Select on your Desktop folder in the sidebar. If the Desktop folder isn’t there, click the plus button under the list of folders and add it.
2. Click in the plus button in the rules pane to create a new rule.
3. Change your Name drop-down to “Date last modified,” “is not in the last,” and change the time interval to one week.
Block mdnsresponder little snitch. 4. Change the “Move” drop-down to “Sort into subfolder.”
5. Click the text box after “with pattern” to bring up a list of renaming tokens you can use. Select “current date.”
6. Click after the current date token in your text box and type “archive.”
7. Click Done to close the text box and OK to confirm the rule.
Now we’ll set up as a rule to compress those folders into ZIP archives.
8. Create another new rule in the Desktop folder by clicking the plus button under the rules list.
9. Create two rules: Name contains “archive” and Kind is folder.
10. Click the action drop-down to select Archive.
This rule will automatically archive everything that hasn’t been modified in the last seven days.
This last rule requires some external hardware or software to make it work. I use my ScanSnap, which converts scanned documents into PDFs with live text data embedded. This way I can automatically file scanned paperwork into the appropriate folders.
By now, you know how to read this rule. It matches three conditions, using the contents of the PDF as triggers for the actions below. When it finds a match, the rule renames the folder with the date the scan was created and the name of the bill, and files it in my “Statements” folder.
Once you’re done creating all your rules, you can return to System Preferences and turn Hazel on. All your rules will apply immediately, so make sure you’ve got everything correctly programmed!
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