At a glance
Expert’s Rating
Price When Reviewed
Hazel : $42 (single user); $65 up to 5 users); $20 (upgrade)
Best Prices Today – Hazel
Apple’s smart folders and folder actions together brought some intelligence to macOS. Smart folders let you see the results of a query as if it were the contents of a folder and have those results automatically updated whenever files or folders change. Folder actions allow connecting scripts to folders that run whenever the contents of the folders change.
But as clever as those two options are, they don’t combine to allow the kind of workflows that you may need for day-to-day work or to improve efficiency. Hazel fills that gap by pairing the observation of folder contents, including the special system Trash folder, with rules and actions.
Based on what it finds, it can notify you, delete files and folders, move them to other locations, rename them using a pattern, tag them and add comments, or import them as media into Music, Photos, or TV libraries. Rules can also produce notifications with optional audio alerts and upload files to several kinds of FTP and web servers. It can leverage Apple’s smart folders by letting you monitor those virtual collections as well as static folders. No coding knowledge is required to use Hazel.
Hazel started as a preference pane in 2006. However, the version 5 release in late 2020 promoted it to full standalone app status while consolidating multiple views into a single unified interface. The update also lets you create a list or table in Hazel or import one, and use it to match against entries in a folder for renaming. Version 5.1 from late 2021 brought support for both Shortcuts in macOS 12 Monterey and AppleScript. The app also supports Automator workflows, JavaScript, and shell scripts.
Hazel can automate any task related to changes in a folder’s contents. That can include letting you know when files are added or removed. The app ships with a few prefabricated rules attached to your home Downloads folder, a common catch-all location that helps demonstrate its utility.
In Downloads, you might want to:
- Color items older than four weeks.
- Automatically delete disk image files older than a year.
- Alert you when the folder exceeds 50GB.
- Automatically import downloaded movies, music, and images into TV, Music, and Photos.
- Move PDFs with financial information in them into a selected folder elsewhere.
To add rules, you start with an already added folder or smart folder or add one by clicking the Add Folder (single folder with a +) button in the toolbar. Hazel 5 added folder groups to help manage large numbers of watched folders: click the Folder Group button (two folders with a +). With a folder selected, you can manage existing rules or click the Create Rule button. Click the Status button to see which files and folders have had rules applied and when. A Pause/Play button lets you suspend and resume rules in a selected folder. Individual rules can be unchecked to disable them, too.
The rules are similar to Apple’s approach to smart folders, photo albums, playlists, and other saved searches. You start by setting one or more conditions that define what you’re looking for in that folder. For instance, you might search for all files and folders added more than four weeks ago. Clicking the + (plus) to the right of a condition lets you add additional ones.
With multiple conditions, you define whether you want matches to apply only when all conditions, any of them, or none are met. As with Spotlight searches, holding d