Noodlesoft Forums

I want Hazel to go into a subfolder and rename all the music files with the extension .flac using their id3 tag so the tracks end up being named "TrackNumber_Title" while keeping the "flac" extension in tact. Thanks for the assist.

[note: please do not post questions or requests in the Tips forum]

It should be pretty straightforward using the Rename action. What part are you hung up on?

When I ran the rule it didn't rename using the scheme I wanted but instead wiped out the existing filenmae and renamed them just as 01, 02, 03, etc. I selected Rename with "Track" "Title".

Do you have a Spotlight importer for flac files? In Hazel's preview, click on the "i" button for the files and see what metadata is actually available. I suspect the title may be blank in this case.

Yes, I'm using "Tag", from the same developer as Max. When I look in the Hazel window I don't see a box for Title in the info screen, instead it's Name, Extension, Full Name, Date Added.....but not Title. If the metadata isn't in that field I guess it doesn't even show the field in Info? I did just add another group of files to that same folder and when I check in Hazel I do see that there is data for those in the Title field. I'd like to run a test on these but don't want Hazel to wipe out the names again. What can I do? Also, if the files are contained in a subfolder, I should be using the Go Into Subfolders rule?

I do notice that there are 2 separate "title" fields to select from in the Rename options when setting up the rule, one says just "title" and one says "title of this item". Does it matter which one I select? That's kind of confusing.

As mentioned before, you need to find a Spotlight importer for flac files. Hazel won't be able to see the metadata for the files without that. A quick google search comes up with this: http://sbooth.org/importers/

I haven't used it but I'd start by installing that first.

The metadata is there, I checked it. If I manually write the metadata onto the file using Tag and check it in Hazel then it's there. When I run the rule, it renames the file with the proper title name, but doesn't add the correct track name and also subsequently wipes out the rest of the metadata. What will a Spotlight importer do for me if Hazel is wiping out the metadata that was previously there?

The FLAC importer is already installed. i'm quite sure it's the rule that I've created that isn't working, not the fact that Spotlight can't index the metadata.

If the fields aren't showing up in the preview, then there is a Spotlight issue there. Spotlight may not even be processing those files. Have you check your Spotlight privacy settings? Also, if you are command line savvy, you can try using the mdutil, mdimport and mdls commands to try and diagnose or fix it.