iTunes 9 has a "watch folder": Auto-add songs

[rorschach]

Go to your iTunes > iTunes Music folder.

There's a folder called "Automatically Add to iTunes" -- drag files in there and they are automatically added to your library.

You can't change the location but hopefully someone will figure out a way.

 

[Aeryn]

Um yeah, THAT'S convenient. I never would have even found that buried in my library folders...

I think I'll stick to a double-click on the file to get it into iTunes, until they let me change the watch folder to one of my choosing.

 

[swiftaw]

I bet this would work.

Create a folder of your choosing, and place a folder action on that folder that says anything placed in that folder is copied to the iTunes Watch Folder.

 

[Aeryn]

Yeah, I was thinking about that...but I'd rather have it be my general Downloads folder and only look for audio files. Similar to the watch folder in Lightroom.

Probably could still be done...just more futzing than I'm in the mood for at the moment.

 

[Rapmastac1]

Wouldn't creating an alias to that folder suffice? Most music I download now though automatically is imported into my music library anyway.

 

[rorschach]

Ok, I figured out why this might be useful - you don't need to have iTunes open or open it. If you drop some music files in there they get added to the library automatically. When you open up iTunes they're already there.

 

[Aeryn]

Eh, okay that's kinda cool. When you open iTunes does it tell you what the new tracks are or that you even have new tracks?

I dropped an audiobook in there (with iTunes open) and had to manually find it to edit the tags.

 

[devburke]

Eh, okay that's kinda cool. When you open iTunes does it tell you what the new tracks are or that you even have new tracks?

I dropped an audiobook in there (with iTunes open) and had to manually find it to edit the tags.

That’s what “Recently Added” smart playlists are for

 

[devburke]

OK, so this makes more sense if you use the new folder organization. Go to File > Library > Organize Library… and you get this:



The second option is grayed out for me, cuz I already did it, but what it does is reorganize your iTunes Music folder like so:



Admittedly, the iTunes Music folder’s name now doesn’t make any sense, and it should be iTunes Content or iTunes Media or something, but whatever.

If you do this, be prepared for Time Machine to need to re-copy EVERYTHING. But I can afford to lose my oldest backups, so I did it.

 

[devburke]

OK, so this makes more sense if you use the new folder organization. Go to File > Library > Organize Library… and you get this:

View attachment 193387

The second option is grayed out for me, cuz I already did it, but what it does is reorganize your iTunes Music folder like so:

View attachment 193389

Admittedly, the iTunes Music folder’s name now doesn’t make any sense, and it should be iTunes Content or iTunes Media or something, but whatever.

If you do this, be prepared for Time Machine to need to re-copy EVERYTHING. But I can afford to lose my oldest backups, so I did it.

Haha for some reason it looks like it didn’t delete Sublime > Second Hand Smoke after moving the files to the new location, I still have that empty folder there.



Also, it looks like seasons of TV shows are now organized into folders by season, so I no longer have to use album numbers to keep them organized! Time Machine, get ready to take another hit… (unfortunately, it still does the filenames by track, not episode number. I should have tested that before changing them…)