Show HN: Download organizer for Mac

Show HN: Download organizer for Mac(downloadorganizerapp.com)

76 points by saucow 11 years ago | 48 comments

lstamour 11 years ago |

If anyone's getting it for the filters, well ... you know you can do exactly that using Spotlight already, right? If not, well, it might be worth giving Spotlight a second look, it can be unexpectedly powerful, and more than just an app launcher ;-)

I posted about it here (yes, I need a blog!) https://www.facebook.com/4LSTA/posts/10154052744565574

To excerpt:

  mdfind "(kMDItemWhereFroms != '*google*') && (kMDItemWhereFroms != '') 
  && (kMDItemWhereFroms != '*gmail*') && (kMDItemFSName == '*.zip')" -onlyin ~/Downloads

Yep, you guessed it. Looks for zip files in my Downloads folder which have a download location, but they had nothing to do with Google or Gmail as sources or referrers.

Bonus: You can perform the same filters from Spotlight searches -- see photo at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154054043670574&se... Just edit the list of available filters, there are many more than you might expect...

amarcus 11 years ago | |

That's great for power users but, I could guess that the average Mac user hasn't ever typed a command into Terminal.

This was the top comment in the Dropbox Show HN thread:

"For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software"

lstamour 11 years ago | | |

Perhaps you missed my screenshot later, in which I reveal that this is also possible from Finder's Spotlight? It's equally reminicient of "smart folders" or, effectively, saved searches on either Windows or Mac platforms. I'm not saying the whole thing could be replicated, or isn't easier. I'm just pointing out a potentially simpler approach for power users who would read HN. :)

saucow 11 years ago |

Here are 10 promo codes for the app; please let us know how you like it and what we can do to improve :) XA494F6AP3T6 THN3M4LKLL6K 9WXENNEA3R9F YYFXYF3FAMFJ 4M6WWR7ER6H6 FJNJ9HWXXLWY R69TAP4LRJEP JJTT6FJEME79 XHM4HHWXTHWP MPW6FRWPFTJ7

selectout 11 years ago | |

All used up, thanks for providing those to the community though! You definitely have me interested enough that I'm purchasing.

robinhoodexe 11 years ago | |

All gone :) That's probably the one thing I miss from before the convinience of App Store took over; the ability to get a trial version to test the functionality.

Granted, 6 USD is not much, but I'm a broke student nonetheless.

heliostatic 11 years ago | |

Thanks. Downloading now to compare with Hazel for keeping my Downloads folder organized.

aroch 11 years ago | | |

Looks like a less powerful Hazel, or perhaps just more user friendly / prettier GUI. Given that I'm a long time Hazel user and have 40+ rules, I can't see a reason to switch -- there's no compelling difference

wingerlang 11 years ago | | |

Could you let me/us know your results? I've been looking into this and Hazel seems to be the only option until now. But iirc it is a bit pricy.

sbirarda 11 years ago | |

Damn - missed it. Got any more? This looks awesome.

dfischer 11 years ago | |

Can you send me one? me@danielfischer.com

nness 11 years ago |

Pretty damn cool. For those interested (and running OSX obviously), you can find the source of your downloads by running the following from the Terminal:

  mdls file -name kMDItemWhereFroms

lstamour 11 years ago | |

Ah, posted as I was writing my own reply -- that you can use mdfind or Spotlight to search against that field, or file type, or file size, all in one go. But yes, md* tools on OS X are awesome. Now I need to hunt down the counterpart on Windows...

ecnahc515 11 years ago |

Id like to try it, and I see you had some promos, but I suggest you go with the route of free, and after X downloads it begins to ask you after every X other downloads whether or not you would like to pay, using a pop up.

It lets people try the app without risk of paying for something they don't like. If they like it, then they go to your website, or use the popup to get a license to upgrade to the 'pro' version which doesn't bug them, and has more features or something.

Osmium 11 years ago |

Just bought this, and there's a big problem: the filters won't let you choose a destination directory that's not in your Home directory! I'm not sure if this is a weird Sandboxing constraint or not? But I keep my Downloads folder on a SD card[1], so the app is currently useless for me (sadly!).

Question for the dev: any plans to fix this, or should I contact Apple for a refund? If it's a permanent restriction, I'd suggest putting a notice in the App Store description.

[1] https://www3.pny.com/category_buymulti.aspx?Category_ID=591

erlendfh 11 years ago | |

Same problem here. I don't have much space on my main drive, so I don't have any downloads stored inside the home folder, I have everything on my secondary hard drive. What is the reason for this restriction?

fuzzywalrus 11 years ago | | |

Thanks for the heads up on that, my downloads folder resides on another drive. This app wouldn't be much help :(

oellegaard 11 years ago |

Just downloaded it and a bit disappointed it doesn't sort the existing download folder - furthermore, I would like a delete-after-x-days feature, preferably per website.

cr3ative 11 years ago |

Scrolling on the site doesn't appear to work on Chrome (Mavericks, OSX 10.9.4). Have to use the nipples on the right to force a scroll.

modfodder 11 years ago | |

Scrolling worked for me. (Mavericks 10.9.4, Chrome 35.0.1916.153).

khass 11 years ago | |

Doesn't work on Chromium in Debian Jessie either

colmvp 11 years ago |

Don't have a promo code but I just wanted to say this is a really simple idea that makes so much sense. A very nice optimization.

pyre 11 years ago |

FYI, I'm seeing the frontpage a bit off: http://i.imgur.com/wi1EOdD.jpg (Firefox 30.0 + Mac OSX 10.9.4)

edit: Sorry if I came off a bit blunt, but something else was demanding my attention, so I just quickly commented on the issue without expanding much. :)

exo_duz 11 years ago |

This is a really great idea for people to be able to organise their download folders. Will give it a try :)

cale250 11 years ago |

This is a nit-pick really, but I'd like to see it organize on first run rather than on first download. Unfortunately for me disk I/O can be a bottleneck on this old machine. It slowed down a rather large download while it shuffled things around and unpacked them.

llamataboot 11 years ago | |

So does it organize all already existing files as well?

saucow 11 years ago | | |

Yes it does, you have to download a new file after setup, and this will trigger sorting for the rest of the files in the downloads directory.

kthr 11 years ago |

Just bought the app. Love everything apart from the arrow icon on the menubar. It seems like the rest of the app has had a lot of care and attention given to it whereas this is just a simple filled in arrow. Takes away from the entire thing.

lominming 11 years ago |

Something that many people keep missing out is Automator. You can easily create a Folder Action in Automator and makes magical stuff happen. I think Automator is really underused for many people.

I should make one for myself and open source it.

tmikaeld 11 years ago |

I love the presentation of this app, simple and clear message!

And it's much cheaper than Hazel that i have been using for many years, so for those that don't need all the advanced stuff this is perfect!

jason_slack 11 years ago |

I got a code. I like this. It will work well for new downloads, but my already cluttered downloads folder will still need to be manually organized

mnutt 11 years ago | |

I don't know if it does this, but it's at least possible for the app to retroactively categorize based on metadata added by your browser. Right-click, "Get info", "More info" should tell you the page the file was downloaded from.

andyhmltn 11 years ago |

Nice application! Just a note though: The first images you see on the homepage are pretty low resolution so it looks really distorted

vincentbarr 11 years ago |

Hazel seems like a more robust solution, and it also allows you to set rules beyond just the 'Downloads' folder.

matdevdug 11 years ago |

Really liking it so far. Works as advertised and I like how its 50% of the power of Hazel for less than 50% of the price.

xemoka 11 years ago |

It'd be nice if you had the cost on your page instead of just a link to the Apple Store. I dislike this trend.

joshstrange 11 years ago | |

I'm not sure why you are getting downvoted. I couldn't agree more. It seems very bait-and-switch-y to me to have a landing page without the price on it.

melvinmt 11 years ago | |

I don't think you can advertise prices for Mac apps (and iOS apps) because Apple determines the prices for you, based on country and so forth.

TamDenholm 11 years ago |

Awesome, my downloads folder has 2865 items in it. This will help. :)

emehrkay 11 years ago | |

Ha. I just moved everything in my downloads folder to an "Old" folder to get to downloads zero. 28 gigs, I don't know why I'm holding on to it. I do the same with desktop icons.

When I run daisy disk, the folders with the most used space are Virtual Machines, Downloads, and Desktop

jonah 11 years ago | | |

Daisy Disk looks cool. I've been using the free OmniDiskSweeper which gets the job done just fine, but isn't as pretty.

thehodge 11 years ago |

I've taken a promo code, will try it out and let you know :)

mutant 11 years ago |

I'm not sure I can leave my Hazel.

gaelian 11 years ago |

FYI, your home page looks pretty messed up in IE9. Not that IE users would be your primary target market I assume. :)

mrmondo 11 years ago | |

And isn't IE9 pretty ancient anyway?!

gaelian 11 years ago | | |

If you work in an environment where you get to pick your own browser, yeah it is. Work in many an enterprise setting and IE9 could be more like the latest thing.