How to create a UTF-8 encoded text file using do shell script? As I understand it, the command should start with do shell script. And what to write next?

Hi, not sure if this forum is the right place to ask, but it’s extremely difficult to search the web for answers about shortcuts.app (must be the name…). I’m learning python currently and I’m trying to automate recurring tasks on my Mac easily. I have a python script as a first test-case that works (It basically makes a bunch of named folders). I use Apples Shortcuts.app to execute the python-file with the shell-script action. I start this script in Finder from the Quick Actions menu. The script creates my folders, but not in the selected folder when executing it, but always in my users home folder /Users/markus/. I suspect I have to somehow tell the Shortcut to take the currently selected folder as a variable or something. I tried to read the help but I don’t find anything useful and don’t understand the options of the Shell-Script Action in Shortcuts.app. Any ideas how I can get this to work? Or does anyone have a link to a good forum to ask questions about Shortcuts.app and automation? Thanks! Regards Markus

I am trying to automate a backup terminal script to mirror some directories to my NAS. The terminal script is working fine, so I want to automate them. The recommended path uses the launchctl agent, which, from the description, should be what I need. However, I have been running into two errors and looking for answers. I am using a M1 Mac mini with 8GB of memory (for reference). First, I get an error 23, which means too many files are open. If I reboot the machine, this error goes away. But why am I getting this message? I can run the script manually without a problem, and the system is running fine. The machine does little, so it should have almost nothing open. The second error, once the 23 is cleared, is error 12, cannot allocate memory. The machine is an 8GB machine but is reporting 3GB free. Again, the script runs fine in the terminal. I suspect the problem is the agent, but I am unsure how to diagnose or resolve these issues. I do not want to reboot the machine to run the backup, and so is the agent running under some system constraints that are too limiting. Can I change those limits for the job and make the recommended process to automate work? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hey! Im new here and currently learning iOS/macOs development (SwiftUI), so...take me easy :) I want to create a simple macOS app to let user set time until computer power off. I found an example with AppleScript and use it on my app, but I found that App won't run with Sandbox enabled, and to deploy app on AppStore it show me that Sandbox must be enabled. The script I want to use: 'tell application "System Events" to shut down' I found some examples that add script onAbsolute path, but after I do that, it won't let me to distribute the app, only export to run local. It is any way to make script running (no matter, if app ask for user permission/admin pass) ?

Hi, I have an app generated by using osacompile on an applescript file. The app works fine as expected. However, when I try to sign it, I get two errors as in the screen shot below: After some googling around, I deleted the _CodeSignature folder in the .app directory but still signing fails with the same error. So, I would like to know two things: Is it possible to sign .app files created using osacompile as in my case? If yes, what am I missing and how to resolve my situation. Thanks,

Hi!! I tried posting about my issue on the macscripter forum, but haven't receieved any love there so I thought I would try giving it a go here. I'm trying to help automate my wife's business which uses mac and am having difficulty getting an applescript to trigger by mail rule. I am not an apple guy and myself use linux, so maybe i am overlooking something basic that I need to enable? I gave the mail.app full disk access in the security panel. If I set a rule, like to move a message to another mail folder it executes without problems. However, I can't get any applescripts to run triggered by mail rule, even something very simple...like writing to the display or logging an event. I looked through the console and saw no error messages or any evidence even that the applescript tried to run. We are running the latest mac sonoma. I asked chatgpt for help trying to debug what was wrong but it ran out of suggestions for me as well. This problem is driving me crazy, I can't understand how a nice new mac computer I bought for my wife's business is failing at the most basic task... arrrgh. Any help greatly appreciated!!!

A TextEdit RTD or RTFD document will save various document properties that you access and edit by selecting: File > Show Properties > Is is possible to retrieve these properties on a currently open document via AppleScript and place them in the clipboard? I am interested in storing some text in the Comments and later being able to copy it to the clipboard without having to manually open the properties window, selecting the text and copying it.

I made an application in Script Editor and it works as expected. But the app seems to be getting automatically deleted at random times. For example, I made it a few days ago, tested it successfully, then went back today to look for it and it was gone. Tested this multiple times. I bit more detail about my process: I wrote the app in Script editor, exported it as an Application with run-only checked and no code signing after manipulating a few things (.plist file, .icns file), I then remove extended attributes and code-sign using terminal. I have an Apple developer account that I use to code-sign: xattr -cr <path_to_app> codesign -s <my_developer_account> <path_to_app_bundle> then I copy the app into my Applications folder and test it successfully a day or more later, the app is gone (and I haven't even opened it again) Ventura 13.1, Mac Book Pro 2021

Hi Community, I'm in need of some assistance with an AppleScript that increments the due date of reminders in the Apple Reminders app by one day. The reminders are set with a due date but do not have a specific time associated with them; they are just set to occur at some point during the day. The challenge I'm facing is that when I use AppleScript to add one day to the due date, the script is setting the new due date with a time of midnight. Since the original reminders do not have a time (just a date), I want the script to increment the date without adding a time. Here is the script I'm currently using: set myList to list "My List" repeat with myReminder in reminders of myList if (due date of myReminder is not missing value) then set currentDueDate to due date of myReminder set newDueDate to currentDueDate + (1 * days) set due date of myReminder to newDueDate end if end repeat end tell I am looking for a way to preserve the 'date only' attribute of the reminder when adding a day, so it does not default to a time of 00:00. Does anyone have experience with this, or can anyone provide guidance on how to accomplish this? I haven't found a way to specify 'no time' or 'all-day' in AppleScript for the Reminders app. Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

Hello - I have a lot of photos and videos that end up in my downloads folder from amusement park photographers and rides. The problem is that when I go to download a recent trip the amusement park website downloads everything all over again, and creates a lot of folder and files in a random sequence. So I have to go through each folder and find the "new" files that I want to add to the Photos app. Could you please help me write a script that would search through the entire downloads folder, and copy all of the files that are of photo or video type, created on or after a specified date, into a new folder within the downloads folder? This is effectively just eliminating the subfolders that the website download process created. From there I would go to the newly created folder and sort by created date to obtain the new photos I want to add to the Photos app.

I’ve searched all over, posted to Reddit and Discord and forums and…. I can’t seem to get an answer. I don’t understand why this is so difficult!! It has to be doable, isn’t it?

I've been using Apple Script below for gathering every title &amp; url of opening tab from browser window. It's been works fine for a few years but it's failed recently (maybe in last two weeks). #!/usr/bin/env osascript -l JavaScript // url.js function run(arg) { arg = arg.toString() let browser = '' switch(arg) { case 'chrome': browser = 'Google Chrome' break; case 'edge': browser = "Microsoft Edge" break; default: browser = 'Google Chrome' break; } Application(browser).windows().forEach((window) =&gt; { console.log('\n\n') window.tabs().forEach((tab) =&gt; { const url = tab.url() const name = tab.name() console.log(`${name}\t${url}`) }) }) } It's been works like below (imagine that you open https://example.com on edge) $ url.js edge example.com https://example.com But I found it failed today. $ url.js edge execution error: Error: Error: Application isn't running. (-600) of course I'm make sure Edge browser up and running. Same error for Chrome. I keep my environments(os, browser etc) up-to-date but I don't know which updates affects here. Any thoughts or helps are welcome. Settings MacBook Pro M2 Sonoma 14.2.1 Edge 122 Chrome 122

Hi there, I've created an Automator app running an Apple script to toggle a setting within the "systems preferences". I'm on German systems settings, so I hope you can make any sense out of the below... The intention is to toggle a setting within "Desktop & Dock" off and on again (i.e., just toggle the blue switch left and right in one go). I've attached screenshots to make clear what I mean. I've been running the following Apple Script (for only a few weeks so far), and it worked perfectly fine until just recently: on run {} repeat 2 times tell application "System Settings" to activate tell application "System Events" tell process "System Settings" click menu item "Schreibtisch & Dock" of menu "Darstellung" of menu bar 1 delay 2 tell window "Schreibtisch & Dock" click checkbox "Beim Programmwechsel Space auswählen, der geöffnete Fenster des Programms enthält" of group 9 of scroll area 1 of group 1 of group 2 of splitter group 1 of group 1 end tell end tell end tell end repeat end run Now, since a few days, it keeps throwing an error message as follows: "System Events" has received an error: "group 1 of window "Desktop & Dock" of process "System Settings"" cannot be read. Invalid index. I'm not sure whether I've made an update of the MacOS in the meantime or what the reason could be. As mentioned, I'm not using the script for too much time, only a few weeks so far (mid-February). My MacOS version: Sonoma 14.3.1 Macbook Pro 16" 2021 (Apple M1 Pro) Unfortunately, my research did not point me into the right direction, I couldn't find an answer as to what exactly I'd need to change. Would much appreciate if anyone can help me set the correct index, or how to otherwise correct the script. Thanks a lot! S.

I am trying to write a script that will perform an operation in Numbers document TEST on sheet GAMES (it’s a bunch of random number generations for a game show simulator) look at the output in cell B66 of that sheet, output it in cell B3 on another sheet called TRIALS2 then perform the operation again and output the new result on sheet TRIALS2 in cell B4 and so on for 2000 repeats. Here’s the script I have but I get an error message. The document is open and I have confirmed all the document and sheet names are correct. There is definitely something in cell B66 of Sheet GAMES in document TEST. What am I missing? tell application "Numbers" activate tell document "TEST" repeat 2000 times tell sheet "GAMES" set inputValue to value of cell "B66" end tell tell sheet "TRIALS2" set table1 to table 1 set outputColumn to column "B" set nextRow to (get cell (3 + (count of rows of table1)) of outputColumn) set value of nextRow to inputValue end tell end repeat end tell end tell Here is the error message: error "Numbers got an error: Can’t get cell "B67" of sheet "GAMES" of document "TEST"." number -1728 from cell "B67" of sheet "GAMES" of document "TEST"

Is anyone familiar with the Sonoma 14.4 update file? I asked LLM to help me write a script to update the recovery partition. It keeps suggesting files that were in the old InstallAssistant.pkg, but Sonoma is different. Is anyone familiar with the Sonoma setup and its file structure? Is there a way to update the recovery partition with the latest OS? Because when I restore my computer back to factory reset, it always restores the macOS which came with the Mac. I have a Mac mini M2. Below is the script I used: #!/bin/bash Function to display an error message and exit function display_error { echo "Error: $1" exit 1 } Path to the directory containing InstallAssistant.pkg pkg_directory="/Users/colinp/Downloads" Check if InstallAssistant.pkg exists in the specified directory if [ ! -f "$pkg_directory/InstallAssistant.pkg" ]; then display_error "InstallAssistant.pkg not found in $pkg_directory." fi echo "InstallAssistant.pkg found in $pkg_directory." Prompt user to continue read -p "Do you want to continue? (y/n): " continue_response if [ "$continue_response" != "y" ]; then echo "Operation aborted by user." exit 0 fi Mount the InstallAssistant disk image echo "Mounting InstallAssistant disk image..." if ! hdiutil attach "$pkg_directory/InstallAssistant.pkg" -noverify -mountpoint /Volumes/InstallAssistant; then display_error "Failed to mount InstallAssistant disk image." fi Prompt user to continue read -p "Do you want to continue? (y/n): " continue_response if [ "$continue_response" != "y" ]; then echo "Operation aborted by user." hdiutil detach /Volumes/InstallAssistant >/dev/null 2>&1 exit 0 fi Find the BaseSystem.dmg within the InstallAssistant disk image basesystem_dmg=$(find /Volumes/InstallAssistant -name "BaseSystem.dmg" -print -quit) Check if BaseSystem.dmg is found if [ -z "$basesystem_dmg" ]; then display_error "BaseSystem.dmg not found within InstallAssistant.pkg." fi echo "BaseSystem.dmg found." Prompt user to continue read -p "Do you want to continue? (y/n): " continue_response if [ "$continue_response" != "y" ]; then echo "Operation aborted by user." hdiutil detach /Volumes/InstallAssistant >/dev/null 2>&1 exit 0 fi Determine the device identifier of the target disk recovery_partition=$(diskutil list | grep "Recovery HD" | awk '{print $NF}') if [ -z "$recovery_partition" ]; then display_error "Recovery partition not found." fi echo "Recovery partition found: $recovery_partition" Prompt user to continue read -p "Do you want to continue? (y/n): " continue_response if [ "$continue_response" != "y" ]; then echo "Operation aborted by user." hdiutil detach /Volumes/InstallAssistant >/dev/null 2>&1 exit 0 fi Unmount the recovery partition echo "Unmounting the recovery partition..." if ! diskutil unmountDisk "$recovery_partition"; then display_error "Failed to unmount the recovery partition." fi Prompt user to continue read -p "Do you want to continue? (y/n): " continue_response if [ "$continue_response" != "y" ]; then echo "Operation aborted by user." hdiutil detach /Volumes/InstallAssistant >/dev/null 2>&1 exit 0 fi Restore BaseSystem.dmg to the recovery partition echo "Updating the recovery partition. This may take a while..." if ! sudo asr restore --source "$basesystem_dmg" --target "$recovery_partition" --erase; then display_error "Failed to update the recovery partition." fi Detach the InstallAssistant disk image echo "Detaching InstallAssistant disk image..." if ! hdiutil detach /Volumes/InstallAssistant >/dev/null 2>&1; then display_error "Failed to detach InstallAssistant disk image." fi echo "Recovery partition update complete. any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I found this older post, which modifies the cursor size via AppleScript. I managed to update it to work in Ventura and Sonoma, but only in a kludgy manner. Here's the working code: set theSystemVersion to system version of (system info) tell application "System Settings" reveal anchor "AX_CURSOR_SIZE" of pane id "com.apple.Accessibility-Settings.extension" delay 1.0 tell application "System Events" if (text 1 thru 2 of theSystemVersion) is "13" then set contentView to group 2 of scroll area 1 of group 1 of group 2 of splitter group 1 of group 1 of window "Display" of application process "System Settings" else set contentView to group 3 of scroll area 1 of group 1 of list 2 of splitter group 1 of list 1 of window "Display" of application process "System Settings" end if set theSlider to slider 1 of contentView set stash to value of theSlider if value of theSlider is 1.0 then --set value of theSlider to 4.0 repeat while value of theSlider is less than 4 increment theSlider end repeat say "Big Mouse" using "Ralph" else --set value of theSlider to 1.0 repeat while value of theSlider is greater than 1 decrement theSlider end repeat say "Tiny Mouse" using "Ralph" end if stash end tell end tell The problem is the two commented out lines: In the original post, those commands work to set the slider to an exact value. In Ventura and Sonoma, they do nothing at all—no errors, just nothing. The script runs fine, but it won't change the cursor size. The only way I got it to work is via the method you see here—repeatedly incrementing or decrementing the value of theSlider until it was either 4 or 1. (The setting of 'stash' seems completely unnecessary, but I left it there anyway.) Does anyone know why the command to set a specific slider value is failing? I'd like to be able to set it in one pass, as this method is slow and ugly. thanks!

I need to translate various items from a Numbers file. I used chatGPT to help me write a script which receives a cell range and translates them using Google Translate. The problem I am having is that it only translates the first and last items in the desired cell range. Please help me integrate a way to have it translate the whole range, i.e (D435:D440). Here is the script: -- Define the document file path set filePath to "file path here" -- Define the sheet, table, and cell range set sheetName to "Sheet 1" set tableName to "Table 1" set cellRange to "D429:D433" -- Function to translate text from Spanish to English using Google Translate API on translateText(textToTranslate) set baseURL to "https://translate.googleapis.com/translate_a/single?client=gtx&sl=es&tl=en&dt=t&q=" set encodedText to do shell script "python -c \"import urllib, sys; print urllib.quote(sys.argv[1])\" " & quoted form of textToTranslate set translatedText to do shell script "curl -s \"" & baseURL & encodedText & "\"" set translatedText to my parseTranslatedText(translatedText) return translatedText end translateText -- Function to parse the translated text on parseTranslatedText(translatedText) try set translatedText to quoted form of translatedText set translatedText to do shell script "python -c \"import sys, json; print json.loads(sys.argv[1])[0][0][0]\" " & translatedText return translatedText on error errMsg return "Error translating text" end try end parseTranslatedText -- Function to get the contents of a cell range on getCellRangeValues(filePath, tableName, sheetName, cellRange) set cellValues to {} tell application "Numbers" set doc to open filePath tell sheet sheetName of doc set tbl to table tableName repeat with cellRef in words of cellRange set end of cellValues to value of cell cellRef of tbl end repeat close doc saving no end tell end tell return cellValues end getCellRangeValues -- Function to set the translated text in a cell range on setTranslatedValues(filePath, tableName, sheetName, cellRange, translatedValues) tell application "Numbers" set doc to open filePath tell sheet sheetName of doc set tbl to table tableName repeat with i from 1 to count of words in cellRange set cellRef to word i of cellRange set value of cell cellRef of tbl to item i of translatedValues end repeat close doc saving yes end tell end tell end setTranslatedValues -- Main translation process try -- Get the Spanish texts from the specified cell range set spanishTexts to getCellRangeValues(filePath, tableName, sheetName, cellRange) -- Translate the Spanish texts to English set translatedTexts to {} repeat with textToTranslate in spanishTexts set translatedText to translateText(textToTranslate) set end of translatedTexts to translatedText end repeat -- Set the translated texts in the specified cell range setTranslatedValues(filePath, tableName, sheetName, cellRange, translatedTexts) display dialog "Translation completed successfully." on error errMsg display dialog "Error: " & errMsg end try The only way i have been able to bypass cell access errors is by indicating both the sheet and table numbers. Also I found a post that metions using the word 'Item' when working with a specific cell in a cell range. Thank you for your help.

For our iOS inception e2e test, sometimes the test is blocked by the Mac pop-up window alert. The possible pop-up as follows: Java Access Pop-up Accessibility Pop-up SystemProperty Pop-up and so on...... In order to fetch the unexpected pop-up dialog window when executing e2e tests. I write a simple Apple script get_popup_windows.scpt as follows: tell application "System Events" set allProcesses to processes whose background only is false -- Log the count of allProcesses log "Number of processes found: " &amp; (count of allProcesses) set dialogInfos to {} repeat with eachProcess in allProcesses try tell eachProcess log "Process Name: " &amp; (name of eachProcess as text) set allWindows to (windows whose subrole is "AXStandardWindow" or subrole is "AXDialog") log "Number of allWindows found: " &amp; (count of allWindows) repeat with eachWindow in allWindows set uiElements to UI elements of eachWindow log "eachWindow: " &amp; (name of eachWindow as text) set the end of dialogInfos to {title:(name of eachWindow as text), processName:(name of eachProcess as text)} end repeat end tell end try end repeat end tell return dialogInfos However, when I execute the script: osascript get_popup_windows.scpt The result as follows: Number of processes found: 10 Process Name: Terminal Number of allWindows found: 1 eachWindow: scripts — osascript get_popup_windows.scpt — 143×41 Process Name: Google Chrome Number of allWindows found: 1 eachWindow: Gemini - Google Chrome - Will Process Name: sublime_text Number of allWindows found: 0 Process Name: Notes Number of allWindows found: 0 Process Name: Music Number of allWindows found: 0 Process Name: Finder Number of allWindows found: 0 Process Name: app_mode_loader Number of allWindows found: 0 Process Name: Simulator Number of allWindows found: 0 Process Name: app_mode_loader Number of allWindows found: 0 Process Name: Script Editor Number of allWindows found: 0 title:scripts — osascript get_popup_windows.scpt — 143×41, processName:Terminal, title:Gemini - Google Chrome - Will, processName:Google Chrome =&gt; I cannot fetch the target pop-up window in the Mac desktop. Please guide me if you have any suggestions, thanks.

Hello. How to write this command correctly on a Macbook, in the script editor, so that I can click the "Run script" button and the script will give the result: if there is no folder, then report that there is no folder, if there is a folder, then report that the folder exists. do shell script "test -d 'Users/user/Desktop/New folder'" Now, if the folder exists, an empty string ("") is returned, if the folder does not exist, the script editor reports that an error has occurred. In general, my task is to write a script that checks the existence of a folder.

Where can I read the help for all Do Shell Script commands? For example, there is a "test" command. Which reference book mentions this command? I.e. I want to go to some website, all the Do Shell Script commands will be there, and among these commands I will find the "test" command. Or are there no such directories and the programmer should randomly find commands on the Internet on random sites?