This new rule makes the other rules for this folder apply to subfolders as well. So you can add a third rule-the “Go into subfolders” rule described above: These rules work fine for individual files, but what if you drop a folder full of images or audio files into your monitored folder? Nothing would happen, because by default, Hazel matches only top-level items in the monitored folder, and the folder containing images or audio files does not, itself, match your rules. You initially have two rules: one that moves audio files to your Music folder and another that moves image files to your Pictures folder. Imagine Hazel is monitoring a folder in which you often place music and image files. To demonstrate why and how you might use the “Run rules on folder contents” action, let’s walk through a series of examples. Then add the “Go into subfolders” rule to extend their behavior to items in subfolders of the monitored folder as well as the top level of the monitored folder. Therefore, it’s usually best to write all your rules as though they were operating on items at the top level of your monitored folder, and test them to make sure they function as intended. Instead, it effectively modifies the behavior of your other rules, making their actions apply to items in subfolders. If it looks as though this rule doesn’t actually perform any actions, that’s because it doesn’t need to. In many situations, this can be the whole rule. This rule has just one condition (it matches any folder) and one action (“Run rules on folder contents”). After you’ve downloaded the rule, open Hazel, select the folder you want to monitor, and drag the rule into its Rules list.) (For your convenience, you can download this rule here: subfolder.hazelrules. The easiest way to make a “Go into subfolders” rule is to configure it as follows. To solve this problem, Hazel offers a special action: “Run rules on folder contents.” If a subfolder inside your monitored folder matches a rule containing this action, then the other rules in the list will also apply to that subfolder’s contents. But that’s not always practical-especially if you don’t know in advance what the subfolders’ names will be, or if there are quite a few of them and you want the same rules to apply to all of them. If you want Hazel rules to process the subfolders within a monitored folder, you can of course add those subfolders as monitored folders and create special rules just for them. But if you download a PDF directly to the Research subfolder, the rule won’t match, because Hazel ignores what goes on inside subfolders, unless you expressly tell it to examine them. If you have a rule that matches any PDF document and opens it in Preview-and you download a PDF to your Downloads folder, that file will open.

So, suppose you’re monitoring your Downloads folder, and inside that is a folder called Research.

When Hazel checks your rules against the item in a monitored folder, it normally treats files and folders the same-for example, a Move action moves either a file or a folder if it matches your conditions, and a Rename action renames either a file or folder if it matches.Īs a result, Hazel normally ignores specific changes inside subfolders of the monitored folder.

Folder tidy vs hazel