Record audio and save file workflow for iOS, any help?

Cool Workflows
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1

Hi,

I need help to build a workflow that lets me:

  • start recording audio
  • then on a tap stops recording
  • then names the file given name + date, for example “interview training 01.08.2018”
  • then saves the file in iCould on the desktop folder of my choice (interview training)

I managed the first two steps and adding the date but the rest didn’t work. it saves the file in iCloud in workflow and doesn’t give it the name but just calls it audio recording.
I’m totally new to this and in my case power user is very very aspirational… . Glad for any help that lets me get deeper into this:)

Anybody any ideas how to achieve this?

2

I managed to put this together for you, including Comments explaining what, and how, the Workflow does what it does - hope that does it for you :slight_smile:

[https://workflow.is/workflows/9271a61c7707406b9a56b8eec0aa19b0](http://Audio Record workflow with naming)

3

Here’s a pretty simple workflow that does much of everything on your list in just a few steps.

I’ve also included a screenshot below for this workflow.

Expand for screenshot.

image

However, one thing I changed was taking the file name in “{text} dd.MM.yyyy” format (based on current date) and switched it around to be “yyyy.MM.dd {text}”. You should find this is a better format for working with files you want to date stamp. You might also want to extend that date stamp with a time, something like Tonny_Bukdahl did in his workflow. I normally time stamp in this sort of format “yyyy-MM-dd-hh.mm.ss {text}”.

The final save step also deserves some attention. In both Workflow workflows in this thread so far, the file is saved using the picker option. If you uncheck the picker, automated saving can only occur to a subfolder in the Workflow folder. If you pass control to the user to use the picker, then the scope of where the file can be saved broadens. I believe this is an iOS app sandboxing constraint. If you want to save to a specific folder without intervention, then you may need to look at:

  1. Using a Workflow subfolder in iCloud.
  2. As above, but then use something else (Hazel perhaps on a Mac) to automatically move the file elsewhere.
  3. Use non-iCloud storage … but unfortunately that might cause other challenges down the line with the new Shortcuts app as it does not currently support natively saving files to third party storage providers.

Finally, you might also want to look at the media encoding action. By default the audio file will be saved as a WAV file. Encoding will expose some other file formats and the option to add in some meta data - which you can use variables for populating and can be useful in later searches, etc.

The screenshot below shows where you would insert the encoding action if you wanted to use it.
image

Hope that helps.

4

In case it helps, rather than using list and choose from list, the menu action should be able to help you streamline the workflow a little bit if you are just using static lists of choices.

5

Thanks for all the help! I’m understanding more and more how this works. Thanks Tonny for the commets in your workflow, learned lots from that.

My focus is to minimize my input as much as I can. I don’t want to choose manually where to save the file. I guess I have to get hazel for the mac and move the file around from there (what have I gotten myself into?:sweat_smile:).

@sylumer Why is it so important to date stamp the file in the form you suggest? Does it make search easier? Is it a more accepted standard?
Where in the Workflow would you insert the encodng action, after the naming?

1 Like
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That’s come up numerous times on the MPU podcasts and you can search online for numerous file naming conventions and they are almost always based arund this sort of front loading increasing granularity approach

The increasing granularity approach placed at the start allows things to be sorted more easily. Including it at all enabled expression matching independent of file meta data (created/modified date) for easier filtering.

In my experience, yes. But there are a range of potential standards to choose from. This is just one and at the end of the day it is simply a matter of preference for whatever suits your particular needs best.

Please see my post - it notes it explicitly in the last line in reference to the screenshot.

Hope that covers everything for you.

1 Like
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Thanks, guess I will read with a bit more care, sorry for steeling some time for no reason. Thanks for the answer!

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You’re welcome - I’m just happy to help :smiley: