Mac OS X Automator - Folder action for automatic copy of files from EOS CF/SD ca

[mageye]

I ran into a little problem. It involved how I would copy files across to my laptop on which the screen is broken. The laptop works fine but the screen is blank . I use Real VNC to access the laptop so I know it's still fully working (apart from the display of course ). Anyway.

You might think what is the relevance to all this? Well, like (probably) many other people, I want some portable way to offload/upload images and RAW captures from my card. I only have a 32GB CF and, as many people will know, it fills up pretty damn quickly with RAW video. So the only way to be able to capture more is backing up the card and liberating it of the captured data.

If my my laptop was operable, and I could see what I was doing on the screen, then I could just take my laptop out and offload/upload the images to it using the normal methods of selecting folders and copying them. But I can't .

At the moment I can't afford to be buying one of those expensive field CF backup devices and really I don't see why I need one (apart from the obvious convenience of course ).

So necessity is the mother of invention . I know on Windows you can use Autorun on your CF card to initiate processes and I believe automatically copying files using this method is possible. However on the Mac there was no apparent easy way of doing this . So I did a little research and found a way . I thought that it might just be possible to do something like this using OS X's built in Automator. Indeed this is possible .

What was needed was to set up a 'Folder Action' that is initiated when there is a change to '/Volumes' (ie. when a USB volume was attached). It's set to listen for this and is looking for a folder '/Volumes/EOS_DIGITAL/DCIM/100EOS5D'. When this folder turns up the folder action starts to copy the contents of this folder (all files) to a folder designated within the script. I have defaulted this to Desktop. So after insertion of the CF card the copied folder '100EOS5D' will appear on the desktop. Obviously it will take some time for the files to backup (especially if its full) but once it's stopped writing you can eject the card and then put it back into the camera and continue filming.

For what I need this is perfect. Also people may just want it to use this so that everytime you insert the card the files are automatically copied to a location (that you can specify) on your Mac HD.

I will provide the little script here: https://mega.co.nz/#!9klnAY6b!FXFW22k9trOfiBfYbvIgaWrEQ4QbRfWWgrfQ3RudUpU

Unzip the file and then place it here:

[Macintosh HD]/Users/[username]/Library/Workflows/Applications/Folder Actions/

Then the folder action needs to be assosciated with '/Volumes'

For '/Volumes' the easiest way is to get a normal Finder window open and Press cmd+shift+g then type '/Volumes' (without quotes)

To be able to apply the folder action to '/Volumes' the only way (I found) is to access it in the path bar from Finder. So from the Finder pull down menu select 'View' > 'Show Path Bar'.

In the path within your Finder window you select Volumes and right mouse click on it and then 'Services' > 'Folder Actions Setup...'. Now select the 'EOS_Transfer.workflow' and it should now be assosciated with your 'Volumes' folder.

Now when you insert your EOS card into your card reader it should automatically copy your files from the card to the desktop.

One thing to note is of course that the folder structure on your card may not be the same as mine on the 5D. So you will (maybe?) have to make an edit to the folder action/script to make it reflect the location of the files on your specific card. I think it should be the same (?) but I am not totally sure and this could be IMPORTANT!!!

This little workflow script can be edited using Mac OS X's Automator and within it you can specify locations other than 'Desktop' if you wish.

I hope I have explained myself clearly enough for you to follow the instructions. I hope this is as useful to others as it is to myself. Let me know if you have any problems with this I will try and help but please remember that I am by no means an expert in using the Automator. I just googled all of this and hope that people might benefit as I have done. Good luck.