Eureka! I clicked "Run" and finder had to ask for permission to use Downloads, where the files happened to be. Get your handy notifications and everything. You are a genius and a gentleman, Tom. Seriously, this is awesome.
Did you maybe get a message like this, and missed it because it popped up in the background:
Wow...you're intuitive, too!
It's lightening fast!
Yes, 3 seconds or so for files under 1GB.
Glad that it works now 
1 Like
Tom, if you're able to help customize to personal perfection can you tell me what might be happening to thwart the keyboard shortcut trigger? I select the mp3 files and immediately press the shortcut but nothing happens. It works well when I press Run in KM but this is the only trigger that gives me any love. Also, since I have so many to convert, is it possible to disable the need to approve the text return for every file? Finally—and I get this is probably asking too much but I don't want to bug you again—is m4b an option? It's recommended for the PLEX server I'm aiming for and also works great with our fleet of iPods. Thanks in advance. I do feel a bit sheepish asking for so much when it already works so well.
Possible reasons:
- You have the scope of the macro set incorrectly.
- The macro might be disabled.
- The macro's parent macro group might be disabled.
Try running Interactive Help from the Keyboard Maestro Editor's Help menu:
Thanks ccstone. With the associated Macro Group enabled I now get the error below. The macro still doesn't work and now all trigger methods return this error.
Post your macro, so we can test it directly.
Of course. Checked in terminal and for the ENV path. Both are the same as last, above.
Join files with MP4Box.kmmacros (5.6 KB)
Please check your user-menu (upper-right corner of the Keyboard Maestro forum website) for DMs.
Hmm...
I ran your macro as is, and it worked for me...
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How many files are you running it on.
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What are their names?
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In what directory (path)?
Check for DMs? I've been Staring for them! ; )
It's working again with the "Run" command, no idea what changed. Still no shortcuts.
Typically 8-10 files
God-Part01.mp3 followed by a dozen more named sequentially
/Users/pamela/Downloads/Francesca Stavrakopoulou - God - mp3/God-Part01.mp3
Putting my moderator hat on...
So you saw my instructions on not posting remote images and how to post a macro to the forum (not via remote hosts like Dropbox)?
You also saw that I made corrections to post #29 and post #31 in this topic?
There's a very limited number of things that could cause that.
Did you run the Interactive Help with the macro selected?
It worked! Changed the shortcut keys three more times and on the third it worked. So grateful for all your help. Is it too much to ask about the text approval and hope for m4B, or is there a better place?
m4B
Sorry for the late reply.
You should get m4b output simply by specifying the output format accordingly. (First, green, action in the macro: So, with the example output file name it would be “joined file.m4b” instead of “joined file.m4a”.)
I did a short test and according to mediainfo the output container is definitely different (i.e., not just a changed file name extension).
Of course, this will not automagically add any audiobook-typical metadata, if they are not present in the source file. However, it seems you can use MP4Box also for adding chapter information.
Disclaimer: I stopped fiddling around with audio/video a couple of years ago, so I’m certainly not the most competent person for that.
Some sources:
Bless you, Tom. You truly are an angel.
This is working very well and would be even better if it would work on an attached USB? It throws an error unless the files are on my local HD.
Wondering if someone might recognize this error and be able to point me in the right direction. It happens whenever I try to use the macro, regardless of which trigger I use. Tried quitting Finder, rebooting, and deleting/re-installing the macro. None change the error.
Also getting the 1Password line discussed elsewhere on the forum, if it matters.
"2022-04-20 04:36:07 Execute a Shell Script failed with script error: text-script: eval: line 1: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `''
text-script: eval: line 2: syntax error: unexpected end of file. Macro “Join files with MP4Box” cancelled (while executing Execute Shell Script)."
It works fine on one of my USB drives...
What 1Password line?
All my books are stored on an external drive so it would be lovely to be as lucky as you are.