Sorting audio files into subfolders

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Moderator: Mr_Noodle

Sorting audio files into subfolders Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:16 am • by enkaytee
Don't know if this is possible, but what I'm interested in doing is taking downloaded mp3 files and based on the tags, automatically sort them into a new subfolder structure so that I have something like:

ARTIST->ALBUM->TRACKS

Though I understand the concept of the 'Sort file into subfolder' rule, I can't seem to make it work for me. There are a couple of issues:

1. There doesn't seem to be a Spotlight attribute corresponding to artist name under the 'Other' lozenge - is there an equivalent to the MP3 'Artist' tag?

2. Whatever I choose from the 'Other' dialogue (for example 'Album'), the attribute doesn't 'stick' in the 'with pattern' box.

3. Sometimes, once Ive been through this process, some of the remaining lozenges can't be transferred to the 'with pattern' box - in fact, the 'Other' lozenge simply refuses to play ball!

Is what I'm trying to do possible - I'm fairly new to Hazel, but reckon I've grasped the concepts of rules, but I'm at a bit of a loss as to how the Spotlight attributes refer to more recognisable tags etc..

I'm assuming that something like this is doable as the web page refers to renaming your music files with artist, album and year.

Thanks...
enkaytee
 
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Tue Jan 01, 2008 7:02 pm • by Mr_Noodle
The problem with the "Other" lozenge is a known issue. I've filed a bug with Apple but I think I may have to figure out some sort of workaround as I probably will not be able to wait for them to fix it (if they even do).

If it were working, you would use the "Authors" field. That's where Spotlight stuffs the artist tag info.

At some point I'll issue a patch to fix the "Other" lozenge problem. I will be putting test versions up (check the beta forum) so check there periodically if you want to test it out.
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Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:47 am • by enkaytee
Great - thanks for the reply - I'll keep my eyes open for patches...
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Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:15 pm • by Mr_Noodle
Just a heads up that I've posted a fix for this in the latest beta version. Check the beta forum for details.
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Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:22 am • by enkaytee
Works absolutely perfectly now - thanks a million.
enkaytee
 
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Re: Sorting audio files into subfolders Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:07 pm • by enkaytee
Not sure, but I think the problem with the lozenges is back in 2.2.2 - I've been testing on a couple of macs and they both seem to exhibit the same behaviour.

If you need any more info, let me know, but I've had to revert to 2.2.1 to keep my workflows stable.

Thanks
enkaytee
 
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Re: Sorting audio files into subfolders Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:58 pm • by Mr_Noodle
Ack. It looks like there's a new problem actually. Just to make sure we are seeing the same thing, are you getting a crash when dragging the lozenge in? If so, could you send me the crash logs? You can find them in your Library/Logs/CrashReporter. They should be files named something like "System Preferences_XXXXXXXX.crash" where the XXXXXXX is the date of the crash and the machine name.

Sorry about the problem and many thanks for bringing it to my attention. I should have a fix in the next release.
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Re: Sorting audio files into subfolders Sat Oct 25, 2008 6:46 am • by enkaytee
Thanks - the latest update has fixed the problem for me. Sorry I didn't get back earlier with the crash report - I've been off line for a while...
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