Noodlesoft Forums

I am trying to setup a rule to help me manually manage my iTunes folder, and I can't figure out this one part

My iTunes folder is set up like this:
iTunes>Music>(Artists)>(Albums)>(Songs)

Say I download a folder of music by the artist "The National".

My Downloads folder now contains this:
Downloads>The National>Trouble Will Find Me>(songs and album art)

What I can't figure out is how to make Hazel move the folder into the iTunes Music folder particularly if that artist's folder already exists.

If the destination already has a folder of that name ("The National"), how do I get Hazel to ADD the new folder (the new album: "Trouble Will Find Me") to the already existing folder of that artist?

If a folder for that artist doesn't exist yet, obviously create one and keep the "The National>Trouble Will Find Me>(songs and album art)" structure

Try using the "Sort into subfolder" action (search for it in the help if you want more details).

Thanks for getting back to me Mr. Noodle

Do I sort it first then move it? or move then sort? I'm not understanding the pattern tokens. That seems to build a folder structure based on the contents/tokens - what I want is to sort into an existing structure.

I'm not very good at this. I just need the equivalent of "if folder already exists, add the contents to that existing folder" (instead of renaming it)

To back up a step, is there a reason why you don't just use the "Import into iTunes" folder? I know you said you are doing it manually but I'm wondering if there's a good reason for that.

If you really need to do it, you should probably do it this way:

- Write a rule to process the music files themselves (not the folders containing them).
- Have that rule move it to the iTunes/Music folder.
- Use sort into subfolder to file it under the proper artist and album. There should be metadata on the file for this. I think (Artists) may actually be under (Authors).
- Read the sticky article near the top of this forum on subfolders. You'll want that to get Hazel to dig into the artist and album folders in the first place.