How to see which files were skipped in a batch on a Mac
You can do this with B64 by clicking one pill. Here is what gets skipped, why, and what to do about each case.
Real folders are messy. A folder of photographs also holds a .DS_Store, a notes file, an archive somebody left there, and two files whose extensions lie about what they contain. A batch run has to do something about all of them.
B64 reports them. Nothing is passed over in silence, because a run that quietly converts most of a folder is worse than one that refuses part of it loudly.
See the list
Look for the orange pill
After a run, an orange N skipped pill appears beside the folder summary at the top of the Batch workspace. No pill means nothing was skipped.
Click it
You get the full list: every file that was not converted, and the reason for each.
Act on the reasons
Most of the time the answer is that is correct, carry on. Occasionally it tells you that you dropped in the wrong folder.
Why files get skipped
| Reason | What it usually is | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Not a supported image or PDF | An archive, a video, a spreadsheet, a system file | Nothing — that is right |
| The bytes are not what the extension claims | A file renamed rather than converted | Open it and find out what it really is |
| Not Base64, in a decode run | A README or a manifest sitting with the payloads | Nothing — that is right |
| Unreadable | A permissions problem, or a file on a volume that went away | Check the file opens at all |
| Empty | A zero-byte placeholder | Nothing to convert |
A file called photo.png whose contents are not a PNG is judged on its contents. That is a feature: it catches renamed files before they become corrupt payloads downstream.
A large skipped count is not automatically a problem
Drop your Pictures folder in and hundreds of files will be refused, because hundreds of them are not images. Drop a project directory in and every source file, lock file and dot-file is refused too. That is correct.
What the number is useful for:
- Confirming you picked the right folder. A skipped count larger than the converted count usually means you did not.
- Finding mislabelled files. Any file refused for a type mismatch is worth opening.
- Reconciling a hand-off. Somebody said there were four hundred images; the run found three hundred and eighty-one and refused nineteen. Now you know which nineteen.
After you have read the list
- Add more sources — Batch accepts additions without starting again.
- Convert the files that were mislabelled once you know what they are.
- Export what converted — the skipped files do not block anything. How to save all batch results to a folder.
Troubleshooting
There is no skipped pill
Nothing was skipped. Every source you added was converted.
An image I can open in Preview was skipped
Check the reason given. The usual explanation is that the file is not the format its extension claims — Preview is more forgiving about that than a byte-exact encoder can afford to be.
Everything was skipped
The direction is probably not what you think. In a decode run, images are not valid input; in an encode run, text files are not. Check the direction tag beside the folder name.
Frequently asked questions
Does a batch run ever drop files silently?
No. Anything not converted is reported as skipped, with a reason, on a pill beside the folder summary.
Why was a file with a .png extension skipped?
Because its bytes are not a PNG. Files are judged on contents rather than names, which catches renamed files before they become corrupt payloads.
Is a high skipped count a problem?
Not necessarily. A real folder holds plenty that is not an image. It becomes a signal when it is higher than the converted count — that usually means the wrong folder.
Do skipped files stop the export?
No. Everything that converted can be exported as usual.