Managing and undoing
Everything you can do to a watched folder from outside the template is in Prefab's menu bar itemnotification area icon. It lists the folders being watched, applies their rules to files that were already there, and puts the last batch of changes back.
The Watching list
Open it and you get Watching 3 Folders, or however many are running. A paused folder is still listed but is not counted in that number.
Each folder has its own submenu, headed by the number of rules it carries, or by Paused. The list is re-checked every time the menu opens, so it never offers a folder that has since gone.
Each folder's submenu holds:
- Pause Watching / Resume Watching
- Apply Rules to Existing Files…
- Reveal in Finder Show in Explorer
- Undo Last Change, when there is a batch to undo
- Stop Watching This Folder
Applying rules to files already there
Rules act on files as they arrive, so a folder that was already full before the rules existed stays as it is until you ask. Apply Rules to Existing Files… does the asking, and it shows you the answer before it changes anything.
Choosing it opens a list of every change it would make, file by file, headed by how many there are and by the folder's name. Nothing has happened at this point. Apply carries the changes out and reports how many files were handled. Cancel leaves the folder exactly as it was. If no file would change, you get Nothing to change instead of an empty list.
The preview runs the same code as the real thing rather than a description of it, so the two cannot drift apart. It takes no counter numbers and marks nothing as handled, which is what makes cancelling genuinely free. Files that have already been handled, and files no rule matches, are counted as nothing to do.
Pausing and stopping
Pause Watching leaves the folder registered, with its rules and its history, and stops acting on it. Resuming starts watching again from that moment. Files that arrived while it was paused are picked up the next time Prefab launches, or straight away with Apply Rules to Existing Files….
Stop Watching This Folder asks for confirmation and then removes the registration for good. Files already in the folder are left as they are and the folder itself is not touched. Prefab only stops paying attention to it. Its history goes too, so undo is no longer offered for the changes it made.
Undo Last Change
Undo works on the most recent batch for that folder, and walks it backwards so the last change made is the first one put back. The menu item names the size of the batch, and a report afterwards says how many files went back.
- A renamed or moved file goes back where it came from. If something else is sitting there now it is never overwritten - the returning file gets a number instead.
- A conversion, a resize or a metadata strip is undone by restoring the original Prefab kept, so leave Keep the original switched on for those rules. A resize or a strip made with it off happened in place and cannot be put back.
- A deleted duplicate comes back from the copy kept when it was removed.
- Finder tags are restored exactly as they were. Tags are macOS only, so this matters on a Mac and costs nothing here.
- Anything a Run Command rule did cannot be undone. It is reported as an entry that could not go back rather than passed over.
- A file that has gone back is marked as unhandled again, so the rules can act on it a second time.
If part of a batch could not be put back, the batch is kept rather than cleared, so you can deal with whatever blocked it and try again.
The menu offers the most recent batch per folder, not a history to browse. Undo it, and the batch before it becomes the one on offer.
Where the originals are kept
Originals - for conversions, resizes, metadata strips and deleted duplicates - are stored inside Prefab rather than beside the file, so a folder of processed images does not end up with two of everything. They are kept for as long as the batch that needs them is remembered, and stop being kept once that batch has been undone or the folder stops being watched.
A folder that moves or disappears
A watched folder is followed rather than pinned to a path. Rename it, or move it elsewhere on the same disk, and Prefab keeps watching it under its new name.
If you delete it, or move it to the Trash, Prefab stops watching it on its own and drops it from the list. A registration for a folder that no longer exists would only make the count wrong.
A folder that has merely become unreachable is treated differently: an unplugged drive or a network share that has gone away keeps its rules, its counters and its history, and starts working again when it comes back.