CodeKit for Mac not auto-compiling Compass upon file change

After purchasing and upgrading from CodeKit 1 to CodeKit 2, I noticed that my SCSS files were not automatically compiling upon file change. I tried absolutely everything, and simply could not get it to work after hours of debugging. This is one of my favourite features of Compass, and I love the simplicity that CodeKit adds to the feature (i.e. not having to manually poll for changes in terminal).

Some things I tried, that didn’t work (but may work for you?):

• Reboot computer (this wouldn’t be a techie how-to guide without this point, would it?)
• Check your drive for permissions issues, and then repair them if present (disk utility for Mac)
• Add your Codekit website folders to privacy in spotlight settings, and then remove them again. This will get them reindexed by the OS.
• Use external libraries for CodeKit (SASS + Compass)

None of these things made a difference. In a last ditch attempt to get CodeKit working again (I was seriously close to going back to using terminal for compiling my CSS), I thought I’d try and rename my main sites folder (equivalent to HTdocs, but mine is at /username/<sites>/, but it wouldn’t change! See below…

How I fixed the issue

If you’re unable to rename the folder, as I was, then simply copy your sites (aka htdocs) directory and paste it back in, then rename it to the original (I’d recommend first renaming your original to something like “htdocs_old” or whatever, just in case). So eventually you’re left with an exact duplicate of the folder, at exactly the same path and filename. This worked for me! My SCSS finally started automatically compiling upon file save.

Still stuck?

The above is related to permissions in some way, but I didn’t stick around long enough to figure out how or why. If you’ve tried all the suggestions above and still can’t get it working, then feel free to leave a message below and I’ll see if I can help.