Duplicate items on folder action import scripts

I have been using the import folder action script for over a year now without any problems. All of a sudden a few weeks ago whenever I moved a file to the correct folder DT will import two copies of the file instead of one.

I have tried disabling the folder action script and re-enabling but the problem persists. My suspicion is that it has something to do with the way leopard handles the files and thus the script thinks the file is moving to the folder twice, but I have nothing to back up this suspicion.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

Maybe the script is internally assigned twice to the folder. To check if it’s a folder specific issue, just create a new folder and assign the script. Does it work as expected?

No, it does not. I assigned the script to another folder and the same problem happens. Any other suggestions?

You might also try this using a different user account.

I could try that, but if it fixes the problem to use another account that won’t help me because I need to be able to use my primary user account.

Am I the first user you know to have reported this problem?

I don’t think that I reported it, but I had that problem after I put the folder in the dock. One file would import immediately and a duplicate would import after a few minutes. I was getting “throttling respawn”? messages in Console. Is that what is happening to you? I didn’t have time to chase down the problem, but something else I did in the normal course of system maintenance (I use C*cktail and TechTool, less often than I should) fixed it and now I only get one file imported and no Console messages. Sorry I can’t be more helpful.

Trying another account would also help isolate the problem.

Katherine

Christian’s suggestion to create a new “clean” user account is often useful to a user who is experiencing flaky performance. If the flaky performance doesn’t happen under the new account, it’s pretty good evidence that something installed in the original user account – a preference pane, an Input Manager plugin, a third-party QuickTime plugin, etc. – has modified OS X in such as way as to cause errors. The prudent course would then be to identify and remove the offending software. That could be done by temporarily removing all the third-party hacks to the OS, then adding them in one by one while testing after each addition.

Unfortunately, there are all too many downloadable utilities and add-ons, some of them promising “can’t live without it” features, that can and do screw up computers. That’s why Apple has taken steps to try to restrict one of the commonly used OS X modification approaches, Input Manager plugins, with the release of Leopard.

I’ve never experienced “double posting” by a Folder Action script, and don’t recall any other user report of this on the forum, except for KP’s report in this thread. Double copies to the database is not normal behavior.

I haven’t tracked it down with Console, but yes the second file is imported a few minutes later.

Thanks to everyone for the advice. I’ll try with another user account and see if it is still a problem.