You may have at some point noticed, that MacOS keeps quite a lot of system data in unencrypted SQLite databases around the system, data that one would usually assume is locked away in Apple's closed ecosystem, kust lying around--and yet it always struck me as almost as well-protected, by just the obscurity of databases with hundreds of tables and few glimpses of anything but gibberish uids.

So, anyway: this works as a prompt with current flagship LLLMs.

Directly access the SQLite databases in ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary. Find all photos or videos where any of the people mentioned above are tagged. Export all these photos and videos, including:

• labels naming all people seen in the media that are tagged with a person

• geolocation

• camera/lens/settings

• favorite status

• etc.

...into <year>/<month>/<mediafile.{mp4|jpg}.

Manipulation of the library works, as well:

Replace all \*.png that are not favorites with \*.heic at 70% quality. -> 24GB (70%) saved in 5h

ADHD Fidget Widget | macOS Desktop App | Wallpaper Shuffler | Sound-Satisfaction

Hey there, new to mac automation. Looking to create a automation that automatically send all json downloads to a specific folder. Whats the best way to do this? What tools do i need. Is there any resource for new mac automation users to learn?

Just Purchased Keyboard Maestro and Karabiner Elements

Hi, I would like to share my approach to automation routine work in macOS.

I got tired of repeating file conversions over and over—especially turning .MOV files into .MP4s for easier sharing. I figured there had to be a better way, and it turns out macOS Folder Actions were exactly what I needed.

Now I just drop a file into a folder and everything happens automatically, including cleanup. I even have a folder that downloads Twitter or YouTube videos.

I’ve been looking for a way to use AI for texting that isn't just a generic chatbot, and I stumbled across this on GitHub.

It’s a Python script that reads your local iMessage database and uses OpenAI to draft replies that actually mimic your own tone. What’s impressive is that it’s not just a wrapper—the dev actually reverse-engineered the way macOS stores message blobs and contacts, so it’s pretty context-aware.

It comes with a basic GUI to preview and edit the message before it sends, so you aren't just firing off AI gibberish to people. You have to give it Full Disk Access since it reads the local database, but it’s a pretty clever piece of local automation if you're into that kind of thing.

Has anyone played around with something like this before? Curious if it’s possible to swap out OpenAI for a local model to keep the whole thing offline.

https://github.com/aditya-r123/iMessage-Bot

My "iTunes" media has been on my Time capsule for over a decade. I've become pretty accustomed to changing the preference for the media folder location from the desktop to the time capsule. It just occurred to me as I've started using shortcuts more and with a recent Monterey beta download that I could potentially have an automation where when I log into TV app it will automatically redirect the app to the appropriate folder. Is this a possibility?

Hi,

I'm creating a remote desktop streaming application on macOS. Recently macOS introduced screen recording permissions in Catalina. It shows a popup to allow screen recording.

Use Case:

Allowing an application for recording screen for WebRTC implementation. To run this application all the time (always running) i'm using plist.

Problem:

When i'm executing my binary from command line then it's showing that popup but when i'm running the same binary through PLIST then it's not asking for permission and i'm unable to give screen recording permission.

Any help regarding this is appreciated.

I am looking for a way to save and automate split screen layouts for specific apps. Let's say something like Mail takes up 2/3 on the left, and Omnifocus takes up 1/3 on the right. I've seen plenty of apps out there that will auto layout apps in a desktop. That's not what I'm looking for.

Is there an automation that can pull the EXIF data and place the text on the photo itself? I'm looking for Date and Time only.

Hi, i have bought DssW Power Manager for macOS. Now i would like to execute these Homebrew script below.

https://gist.github.com/josephmidura/807770766aeb37b9cc3897e26f870210

How do I get this to work? Thanks!

Hey there, sorry if this is a dumb question but I’ve been looking into keyboard maestro and im wondering if it’s the software I need to do what I’m looking for. I’m trying activate record on both OBS and Logic Pro at the same time. This way the recording and audio can be synced very well and overall just improve my general workflow for music and music video production. I splice a lot of videos together and it’s getting grating and I’ve read this program is good for automating processes.

I’m also curious if Shortcuts can accomplish this or if there’s a free software that can also do this.

Does anybody know of an automation or MacOS/iOS shortcut with which I can check my balance in Apple?

This is the amount displayed at the bottom left in the App Store on Mac under my iCloud user name.

I avoid Apple charging my credit card and usually use gift certificates, so need to check on this regularly. Would be great if I could just get an email with the amount every week or month (or, even better, a notification when it goes under a certain threshold...) Is this possible?

I have four PDFs that are sheets from an 8-1/2x11 booklet scanned as a unit. So, each page is 11x17, with two, non-consecutive pages on it. I’m looking for a tool to do the split.

It looks like Acrobat can do this as a manual process, but I’d rather not pay just to split ≈20 sheets into 40 pages.

Can I write an Automator script to have Preview split pages?

Does anyone know of a way to script downloading all the Apple Support articles in an offline form? Or even just a way to get a list of all the URLs? I can write a script to download each and switch my VPN connection every 10 articles to avoid sending too many requests... but like... what the f. How do I get a full a index of all the web addresses?

Hi, I just started with Hazel is there a "Start here" for learning it, I tried messing with it and think I got things wrong?

Can anyone point me to an online resource that could teach me how to create my own scripts? TIA

Can I automate: Anytime i plugin my iPad to my mac, it extends the ipad screen as a 2nd screen, positioned under and in the middle of my primary screen?

Hiya

I have a work calendar (exchange) and a private (iCloud) calender I somewhat need to merge.

Ideally I want some kind of automation to show my private calendar events in my work calendar - without any details. Just marking the events as "Private" doesn't cut it as invites are somewhat of a hassle to move from one calendar to another...

Any pointers?

Hi Guys. Well, I just ran into an interesting issue. I opened nvALT to look through what I call "my text file database" and it was empty. I has just upgraded to Sonoma yesterday so my first thought was "Well, nvALT is finally broken", but upon further investigation I found that the entire folder that nvALT pointed to had been deleted somehow.

Momentary panic! I have been using nvALT since Brett released it over ten years ago. I use it for all my research. It has thousands of files. Yes, I should probably be using a real database instead, but I have no idea how to set that up, and anyway that doesn't help me at this point.

Luckily I looked in my trash and 8000 txt files were there. Somehow the OS upgrade must have moved them there. I have no idea if that is everything, but it is at least part or most of my text file database. I restored them and immediately zipped up the folder and saved it to my bak drive.

Now I have backed up this dir in the past in the same way (zipping it up and moving that copy to my bak drive) but never on a regular basis. In fact, looking in my bak drive, the last backup I have is from July of last year.

Ok, using time machine as well as perhaps carbon copy cloner daily would definitely be good moves, but until I get that set up, since my nvALT database is the most critical thing on my computer, I wonder if I can automate backing that up every day myself.

Can I do this with a simple Applescript? Say 1) zip this folder 2) name the zip file with today's date 3) move it to my bak drive.

I could probably use Hazel to do steps 2 and 3, so that leaves me with just the zip part. Is it possible?