Batch Actions not working properly. Please help

[uaiomex]

My PS Cs6 developed this issue recently:
In just about every “batch” Action, I have a variant of anomalies. In File>Automate >Batch, after setting the Action, setting source folder and destination folder, I hit the Ok button and PS starts doing the Action. However, 3 different things can happen at random. Either:

1. PS creates the duplicates and sends them to the destination folder but creates another set of duplicates and sends them to the Desk.
2. PS creates a duplicate of the first file, sends it to the Desk and stops.
3. PS creates the whole set of duplicates sending them to the destination folder but also creates a duplicate of the first file on the Desk.

I thought it was a problem of my trusty but aged Cs6 so I installed a copy of CC2018 and installed too a whole set of Actions created by me and stored in a folder in Documents back in 2015. But found I still have the same issues.  I also created a couple of Batch actions from scratch this time just to have the same issues.
Now the problem seems to be the OS X, or what would you think?

I need to say that before these issues revealed, coincidentally I moved, deleted and changed folder names to many photo folders. What I did was to change my photos from original folders named by DATES to new or renamed folders named by SUBJECT. In short, I did these changes to almost every folder in my 1TB SSD inside my Mid 2010 iMac running Sierra 10.12.6.
Perhaps this was the cause?

By suggestion of someone a lot more knowledgeable than me, I tried to repair permissions in Disk Utility> First Aid by re-iniating the computer with Command + R.  No, it didn’t help either.

My “savy” friend said I may have to do a fresh new installation of the OS, but that I could not use my Time Capsule to re-install the OS or the Applications as the TC duplicates may have the broken things already.
As you all know, this is an epic royal pain in the behind.

Any ideas or suggestions please
Sorry for the long post. Thanks so much in advanced.
Ed

[nirpat89]

Do your actions have "save as" command with destination folder no longer in existence or moved and renamed?

[kers]

It would help if you make screendumps of the actoons and batch control menu.
But nirpat89 is probably right.

That said - as you probably know CS6 is not officially supported on Sierra.
I also used it with actions and my problem was that actions will stop after 5 or 10 minutes.
Otherwise it seemed to work as planned.

[Garnick]

It would help if you make screendumps of the actoons and batch control menu.
But nirpat89 is probably right.

That said - as you probably know CS6 is not officially supported on Sierra.
I also used it with actions and my problem was that actions will stop after 5 or 10 minutes.
Otherwise it seemed to work as planned.

I also agree with nirpat89's assessment, along with kers' suggestion to offer some screenshots so that we might be able to assess the problem more correctly.  One thing I don't agree with is the statement that PS-CS6 is not supported in Sierra, which taken verbatim is correct of course.  I'm using PS-CS6 in High Sierra with no issues at all.  All of my previously written actions (most from at least 4-5 years ago) are still working as expected.  Perhaps Sierra had some issues with CS6 but not High Sierra.  I skipped Sierra and upgraded directly from Mavericks to HS, very smooth and workable.  The only upgrade issue I found was when I tried El Capitan.  In PS-CS6 I could not get the "Open" and "Save" dialogs to stick and maintain the resizing, so every time I opened them they reverted to the default position and sizing which was useless of course.  I tried both the Apple and Adobe forums with no positive results.  Since the OS takes care of those two dialogs I gave up on El Cap and jumped from Mav to HS.  Everything has been good in PS-CS6 and the print dialog has always worked very well also, a very important consideration since my business depends heavily on my printers. 

Gary   

[kers]

...  One thing I don't agree with is the statement that PS-CS6 is not supported in Sierra, which taken verbatim is correct of course...

Hai Gary,
Try an action and see if it still works after 5 or 10 minutes...
i believe 5 minutes in Sierra and 10 in High Sierra or vice versa, but on my computer it did not work...
Maybe it was related to my computer ( Macpro 2008)

Pieter Kers

[uaiomex]

Hi guys, thanks!
How do I post a screen grab from my computer?

It would help if you make screendumps of the actoons and batch control menu.
But nirpat89 is probably right.

That said - as you probably know CS6 is not officially supported on Sierra.
I also used it with actions and my problem was that actions will stop after 5 or 10 minutes.
Otherwise it seemed to work as planned.

[Garnick]

Hai Gary,
Try an action and see if it still works after 5 or 10 minutes...
i believe 5 minutes in Sierra and 10 in High Sierra or vice versa, but on my computer it did not work...
Maybe it was related to my computer ( Macpro 2008)

Pieter Kers

Since I've never used Sierra I cannot offer any information about the action of actions with PS-CS6.  However, in High Sierra I just followed your Action Test and it passed with an A+, better than I've ever been able to accomplish.  I used three images and varied the actions at both the 5 and 10 minute lapses without any issues.  I don't know why you are having problems, but perhaps it does have something to do with the vintage of your MacPro, although I cannot think of why that would necessarily be a factor.  I just check Mac Tracker and the 2008 OS max is OSx-10.11 and you are apparently running 10.12.  I suppose that in itself might be a factor, but not sure.  The fact that you were able to install 10.12 is perhaps pushing it somewhat, so it may very well be interfering with the actions, although the time lapses you mentioned is a bit of a conundrum.

Gary

[Garnick]

Hi guys, thanks!
How do I post a screen grab from my computer?

Are you working with Mac or Windows?  Beyond that, are you familiar with the procedure of actually creating a "Screen Shot"?  Once you have the Screen Shot you would write your reply and then just below that area you will see this -- "Attachments and other options".  That's where you attach Screen Shots, JPEGs etc.  Just read the information there so that you don't try to attach a file that's too large for the site to handle.

Gary

[uaiomex]

Hi Garnick, Niranjan and guys! Thanks for the help. I think I found a way to solve this problem by ALWAYS clicking on "Override Action Save as Commands"
The only thing is, I have to make sure the action has a “Save As” command in it.

Now, this may sound as the obvious thing for many but I never had to click on this case before since I started doing Actions since PS5.
All I had to do was to set the Action and Source and Destination folders.

As long as my Batch Actions keep working fine like this, I will have no more complains.
Thoughts?
Thanks so much.
Ed

[nirpat89]

It would seem that the batch process is conflicted because the action itself is a "save as" command.  Normally if you save as a jpg from a non-jpg file, it would by default name it the same and save it in the same folder (unless you specify another folder in which case that is ingrained in the action in perpetuity so you better not change the folder or the path:  I learned the hard way when I changed the computer and specified my User Name differently and I had a whole bunch of actions that had to be redone.) 

In this case on top of it there was another destination folder that is different from the source folder with an additional subfolder /jpg.  If you had chosen None in the destination folder, I would think it would have simply saved in the folder as specified in the action itself. 

In any case, great that it works now.  Probably Adobe provided the "override" feature for just such scenarios.

:Niranjan.

[Garnick]

Hi Garnick, Niranjan and guys! Thanks for the help. I think I found a way to solve this problem by ALWAYS clicking on "Override Action Save as Commands"
The only thing is, I have to make sure the action has a “Save As” command in it.

Now, this may sound as the obvious thing for many but I never had to click on this case before since I started doing Actions since PS5.
All I had to do was to set the Action and Source and Destination folders.

As long as my Batch Actions keep working fine like this, I will have no more complains.
Thoughts?
Thanks so much.
Ed

Hi Ed,

Since perhaps a lot of your actions were created some time ago and the batch conversions as well, I would bet that the "Override Action Save as Command" had always been checked.  The reason for creating such an action and then using it in the Batch command is to save you time.  For instance, if you had 200 JPEG files that you wanted converted to TIFF, PSD etc., if the "Override Action ......" was unchecked you would have to physically do that step for every file during the conversion process.  Of course that would not be much of a time saving venture.  The "Override ...." means that you know the Save As command is built into the Action, so override it in the Batch Conversion.  Then every file will be converted in the most efficient way.  Occasionally I will encounter this same issue, in which case I stop the Batch and start again after I have checked the "Override ...." box.  I don't know why it becomes "unstuck" occasionally, it just does.  What can I say?  It's a computer and !¡!¡ things happen.

Gary

[uaiomex]

Right Gary, computers are temperamental.
On the other hand it could be that i recall wrongly.
But there's is glitch in my OS X for sure. Sometimes without the "Override" active, PS saves the first converted file with a name entirely not related to any of the folders involved. I have checked what kind of Save As commands I have and usually they go to the Desktop or "Nowhere" or Folder not found.
One question: At the time of creating an Action to be used for Automate>Batch conversion, wich folders should be used for Destination folder? Is there a specific way to do this?.

TiA
Ed

Hi Ed,

Since perhaps a lot of your actions were created some time ago and the batch conversions as well, I would bet that the "Override Action Save as Command" had always been checked.  The reason for creating such an action and then using it in the Batch command is to save you time.  For instance, if you had 200 JPEG files that you wanted converted to TIFF, PSD etc., if the "Override Action ......" was unchecked you would have to physically do that step for every file during the conversion process.  Of course that would not be much of a time saving venture.  The "Override ...." means that you know the Save As command is built into the Action, so override it in the Batch Conversion.  Then every file will be converted in the most efficient way.  Occasionally I will encounter this same issue, in which case I stop the Batch and start again after I have checked the "Override ...." box.  I don't know why it becomes "unstuck" occasionally, it just does.  What can I say?  It's a computer and !¡!¡ things happen.

Gary

[Garnick]

Right Gary, computers are temperamental.
On the other hand it could be that i recall wrongly.
But there's is glitch in my OS X for sure. Sometimes without the "Override" active, PS saves the first converted file with a name entirely not related to any of the folders involved. I have checked what kind of Save As commands I have and usually they go to the Desktop or "Nowhere" or Folder not found.
One question: At the time of creating an Action to be used for Automate>Batch conversion, wich folders should be used for Destination folder? Is there a specific way to do this?.

TiA
Ed

I don't know that this is indeed THEE specific way to do this, but here's my method, very simple and never fails.  Let's say you want to start with "Conversions".  My first step is to create a new "root" folder named "CONVERSIONS".  Then, within that folder create another folder named JPEG to TIFF.  In the Actions Panel I then create a folder named "CONVERSIONS", in which I have several Conversion Actions, all titled accordingly.  For instance, if I need to convert a bunch of JPEGs to TIFF in PC format the first step is Save as TIFF.  The second step is Byte Order: IBM PC.  The third step is to find the folder you have created for converting JPEGs to TIFF IBM PC format.  The final step is  - Close.  You can of course have several Conversion Types, but all you need to do is to make sure you have a Folder titled accordingly within the "CONVERSIONS" "root" folder.  With this method of setting up folder specifically for the purpose of Batch Processing is IMO absolutely necessary.  Otherwise, you can save as many batch processed files with no particular destination, which I believe might be what you have encountered. I'm going to attach two screen grabs.  One for the JPEG to TIFF action and one for my "CONVERSIONS" folder in which all conversions are directed to.  I hope this might be of some use to you Ed.

Keep in mind that the second Screen Grab is to show some of my conversion destination folders, which reside in the "root" folder named "CONVERSIONS".

Gary

 

 

 

[uaiomex]

Thank you Gary. Appreciated.
Best
Ed

I don't know that this is indeed THEE specific way to do this, but here's my method, very simple and never fails.  Let's say you want to start with "Conversions".  My first step is to create a new "root" folder named "CONVERSIONS".  Then, within that folder create another folder named JPEG to TIFF.  In the Actions Panel I then create a folder named "CONVERSIONS", in which I have several Conversion Actions, all titled accordingly.  For instance, if I need to convert a bunch of JPEGs to TIFF in PC format the first step is Save as TIFF.  The second step is Byte Order: IBM PC.  The third step is to find the folder you have created for converting JPEGs to TIFF IBM PC format.  The final step is  - Close.  You can of course have several Conversion Types, but all you need to do is to make sure you have a Folder titled accordingly within the "CONVERSIONS" "root" folder.  With this method of setting up folder specifically for the purpose of Batch Processing is IMO absolutely necessary.  Otherwise, you can save as many batch processed files with no particular destination, which I believe might be what you have encountered. I'm going to attach two screen grabs.  One for the JPEG to TIFF action and one for my "CONVERSIONS" folder in which all conversions are directed to.  I hope this might be of some use to you Ed.

Keep in mind that the second Screen Grab is to show some of my conversion destination folders, which reside in the "root" folder named "CONVERSIONS".

Gary