It's one of those "I'm a genius" moments. You're sitting at your Mac, staring at a repetitive task that’s going to take three hours, and you remember: Automator. You record a quick "Watch Me Do" sequence, add a loop, and hit play. You expect to sit back and watch your computer work like a tireless digital intern.
Then it happens. The cursor wobbles, stops, or just sits there like it’s forgotten its own name. Or worse, it runs once and then the loop just... dies.
Basically, "Watch Me Do" is the black sheep of the macOS automation family. It’s powerful but incredibly fragile. If your Automator loop is giving you the silent treatment or throwing an "OSStatus error -50," you aren't alone. Most people assume they recorded the clicks wrong, but the problem is usually deeper, buried in macOS security settings or a literal memory leak that’s been around for over a decade.
The Permission Trap: Why It Usually Quits Early
Honestly, 90% of the time, the reason your loop isn't working is that macOS thinks Automator is a hacker trying to hijack your mouse. Since macOS Mojave and Catalina, Apple has tightened the screws on "Accessibility" permissions.
If you’re running a workflow from inside the Automator app, the Automator app itself needs permission. But if you saved your workflow as an Application, then that specific app needs its own permission.
How to give it a kickstart:
- Open System Settings (or System Preferences if you're on an older OS).
- Go to Privacy & Security > Accessibility.
- Look for Automator in the list. Is it toggled on? If it is, toggle it off and then back on again. It sounds like "turn it off and on again" advice, but for macOS permissions, it actually clears the cache for that specific privilege.
- If you saved your loop as a standalone app, click the + button and manually add your app to this list.
There’s a weird quirk where if you change even one tiny thing in your workflow and resave it, macOS sometimes sees it as a "new" app and revokes the permission without telling you. You’ll be sitting there wondering why nothing is moving while the OS is silently blocking the click events.
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The Infamous "Slowing Down" Bug
Have you noticed your loop starts off fast but gets slower and slower until the mouse is crawling through molasses? This is a known issue—kinda a legend in the Mac automation community.
Essentially, "Watch Me Do" has a massive memory leak. Every time the loop restarts, it eats a little more RAM and doesn't give it back. After an hour or so, your Mac is gasping for air.
Expert Tip: If you need a loop to run for hours, don't use the "Loop" action at the end of your workflow. Instead, save your workflow as an Application. At the very end of the script, add a "Launch Application" action and point it to itself. Then, add a "Quit Application" action for the current app. This forces the memory to clear and starts a fresh instance every single time.
Why Your Mouse Clicks Land in the Wrong Place
You recorded the click on a button, but when it plays back, it clicks three inches to the left. Why?
Usually, it’s because the window moved. "Watch Me Do" doesn't actually "see" the button. It just remembers the coordinates $x, y$ on your screen. If your browser window shifts or a notification pops up and pushes the UI down, the automation is clicking blind.
To fix this, you've gotta make sure your environment is static. Use a "Get Specified Finder Items" or "Launch Application" action at the start to ensure the window is exactly where it’s supposed to be. Better yet, use a dedicated AppleScript to set the window bounds:
tell application "Safari" to set the bounds of the first window to {0, 0, 1000, 1000}
This guarantees the button is always at the same $x$ and $y$ every time the loop resets.
Stop Using "Watch Me Do" for Everything
I know, it's the easiest way to automate. But it’s also the least reliable. If you're trying to move files, don't "Watch Me Do" a drag-and-drop. Use the built-in "Move Finder Items" action.
The "Watch Me Do" action uses the Accessibility API to simulate a human. It's slow. It's prone to interference. If you accidentally bump your mouse while it's running, you can break the whole sequence.
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Better alternatives:
- AppleScript: It’s intimidating at first, but for stuff like clicking menus or buttons, it's 100x more stable.
- Shortcuts: Since macOS Monterey, Apple is pushing Shortcuts hard. It handles loops much better than Automator's legacy engine.
- Third-Party Tools: If you're doing heavy-duty UI automation, look at Keyboard Maestro. It's paid, but it handles loops and "Watch Me Do" style recording with way more grace than Automator ever will.
When the Loop Just Stops After One Cycle
If your loop runs perfectly once and then just stops, check your Loop action settings. There’s a tiny dropdown that asks how you want to loop.
- Loop automatically: This is what you want, but you must specify the number of times or a time limit. If it's set to "0 times," it won't loop.
- Ask to continue: This will pop up a dialog every single time. If you’re trying to go AFK, this will kill your progress.
Another common culprit? The "Watch Me Do" action itself encountering a tiny error (like a window taking 0.5 seconds too long to load). When an error happens, the default behavior is to stop the entire workflow.
To bypass this, right-click the "Watch Me Do" action and select Options > Ignore this action's input. It won't stop the error, but it might keep the loop from crashing entirely if the mistake is non-fatal.
Actionable Next Steps
If you're stuck right now, do this:
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- Clear the Permissions: Go to Privacy & Security, remove Automator from Accessibility, and add it back.
- Add a "Pause": Put a 2-second "Pause" action right before your "Watch Me Do" block. Sometimes the system just needs a heartbeat to catch up before it starts clicking.
- Reset Warnings: In the Automator app menu, go to Automator > Reset Warnings. This often clears "stuck" states where the app thinks it’s already told you about a permission error.
- Test in Small Batches: Don't set the loop to 1,000 times immediately. Set it to 5. If it survives 5, it’s a logic issue. If it fails at 100, it’s likely the memory leak.
Automator is a bit of a dinosaur. It hasn't seen a major update in years because Apple wants us all using Shortcuts. But for quick-and-dirty UI tasks, "Watch Me Do" is still a lifesaver—as long as you know how to talk it off the ledge when it stops working.
Next steps for your workflow:
Start by checking your Accessibility permissions for both Automator and any standalone app you've created; if the permissions look correct but the loop still fails, try replacing the "Loop" action with a Launch Application command that restarts the app at the end of the sequence to bypass the common memory leak issues.