DropWatch

A Mac menu-bar app, in beta

Drop a file in.
It comes out filed.

DropWatch watches the folders you pick. When a file lands in one, it reads it, renames it and moves it where it belongs, following a rule you wrote for that folder.

Example: three files dropped into a Books folder. good_omens_v2 (1).epub is renamed Good Omens_Pratchett, Terry & Gaiman, Neil_1990.epub and moved into clean-books. GoF-design-patterns.pdf becomes Design Patterns_Gamma, Erich & Helm, Richard and 2 more_1994.pdf. scan_0042.pdf has no author, even after an Open Library lookup, so it goes to needs-review unchanged. Dates stay as they were. The books rule at work. Each file keeps its dates; only its name and place change.

A rule is one sentence

When an epub, pdf, mobi or azw3 file lands in this folder, read its book details, rename it to {title}_{authors}_{year}, and move it into clean-books. If details are missing, move it to needs-review and tell me. If a different file already has that name, ask me.

Each folder has its own rules, and you fill in the blanks. Nothing is built in: a file no rule matches is left alone. Book details come from the file itself, and anything unclear is looked up on Open Library by ISBN, then by title and author.

It moves files the careful way

Copied, checked, then trashed
The file is cloned into its new place and checked against the original (SHA-256) before and after it is renamed. Only then does the original go to the Trash.
Only the name changes
Created, modified, last-opened and date-added times stay as they were, along with Finder tags, so sorting by date in Finder still works.
Asks before it overwrites
If a different file already has that name, the Conflicts window shows both side by side: Replace, Keep both or Skip. You can also type what you want, like “keep both, the new one is the 2nd edition”. Apple’s on-device model turns it into one step, and what you type never leaves your Mac.
Says what went wrong
A book with no author, even after a lookup, goes to needs-review with a notification that names what was missing. You fill in the details there and file it.

Send files from anywhere

DropWatch lives in the menu bar, with no Dock icon and no window to manage. It only works while it is running and switched on, and it can open at login.

Try the beta

DropWatch is in TestFlight for macOS 14 and later. If you have a login, unlock the link.