Folder monitoring: OCR runs in a loop

[Culfin]

I want to monitor a specific folder for incoming PDF's.
PDF Tools should OCR the files, add "_OCR" to the filename.
Then the original files should be moved to another folder and the OCR files should stay in the original folder.

Everything works well, but PDF Tools runs this process in an infinite loop, which means that the same file gets OCR processed again and again. (so we end up with filename_OCR_OCR_OCR_OCR ...)

Any ideas how to solve this issue?

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[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello Culfin,

Move both the already processed files and the results to different folders should be the easiest solution.
You can e.g. create subfolders of the monitored one - and tell PDF Tools to NOT check subfolders.
So your _OCR-ed files will still be in relatively the same place, and won't be infinitely processed.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[DenisO]

Hello Culfin,
we will fix the issue. meanwhile you can use the workaround proposed by Stefan.
sorry for the inconvenience

[Culfin]

Hey DenisO, thanks for fixing this issue.
can you please tell me when this will happen?
Then I may wait and avoid the workaround...

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello Culfin,

The fix can only be introduced in a new build - so it might be several weeks before the new version is released. As such - I would still recommend you to try the workaround for now, and you can always quickly edit your custom tool to adjust the save locations once the fix is available.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[DenisO]

Hello Culfin,

good news the fix will in the upcoming release maybe in couple of days.
Best regards,

[DenisO]

Hi Culfin,

new version of PDF Tools is available. Please try it, monitors should work properly now
Best Regards,

[David.P]

Hello all,

as a follow-up question to this discussion, can PDF-Tools Folder Monitor be set up such that (while the Folder Monitor is running) only newly added PDF files are detected and processed?

In other words, files that already exist in the watched folder should not be processed when Folder Monitor is started, only files that are added subsequently.

Is this possible?

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello David.P,

I could not find a way to do that, however if you are setting up a folder monitoring - it might be better to also set Tools to e.g. move files it has processed to another location.
So you then can have a folder that is monitored, and another one for the already processed files.

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Kind regards,
Stefan

[David.P]

Yes thanks Stefan, I think that's also what it says over there in the instructions linked above.

What I had in mind was to specify my normal download folder as the watched folder (which of course contains all kinds of stuff), and then automatically OCR only those three dozen PDFs that I might download during a certain period, while Folder Monitor is active and running.

If this shouldn't work, I'll probably have to temporarily change my download folder and point the downloads to an otherwise empty watched folder.

Best regards
David

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello David.P,

For the moment I do not think your desired workflow can be achieved, so it's best to just use another temporary empty folder as the watched one.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[David.P]

Thank you, Stefan.
Will do.

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]