How to Setup Folder Actions to Automatically Resize Images in Your Folder [Mac]

How to Setup Folder Actions to Automatically Resize Images in Your Folder [Mac]

If you have used Mac for quite a while, you will know that there is the “Smart Folder” option that allows you to search for files based on a specific criteria. If that is not “smart” enough for you, with the help of Folder Actions, you can now assign tasks to any folder and have it perform a specific action (like converting a jpg image to png format) when you place files into the folder. In this tutorial, we will show you how to setup a folder action to automatically resize images in your folder.

Note: You can configure the Folder Action either from the Finder or Automator. In this article, we will be focusing on the Automator approach.

Creating Folder Action in Automator

1. Open Automator. Select “Folder Action”.

There are tons of things that you can get it to perform with Folder Action. Today we will show you how to automatically resize images in the folder. Once you get the hang of folder actions, you can then customize everything to fit your needs.

2. Next, select a folder that you want to attach the Folder Action to. In this example, since we are mainly dealing with images, we will use the Photos folder.

3. Select “Photos” from the Library column at the left side of the Automator window, follow by “Scale Images”.

4. Drag the “Scale Images” option to the Actions section. You will receive a prompt asking you if you’d like to keep the original file as well as the one that is resized when added. If you’d like to keep the original file as well, click “Add”. If not, click “Don’t Add”.

5. If you have selected “Add”, you should now see two actions in your Workflow. The first item is labeled “Copy Finder Items”. This is where you select the folder to store the resized images. The second item is the “Scale Images” action where you can specify the size the photos are resized to. You can do so by percentage or pixel.

6. Lastly, save this workflow. Now, whenever an image file is saved to that folder, it will be resized to the size you specified earlier.

Removing the Folder Action

If the Folder Action is not working for you, here are the steps to remove it from your setup.

1. Open the Finder and navigate to the folder where you have attached the Folder Action to. Right click and select “Folder Action Setup”.

2. In the window that show up, you can either disable “Folder Action” altogether, remove this folder from the Folder Action, or remove the Folder Action from this folder. In most cases, clicking the “-” button at the bottom of the screen will delete the folder action attached to this folder.

That’s it.

Now, it is your turn to utilize your creativity to create the Folder Action to auto mate your life.