"Automatically Add To Music" Folder Stopped Working on macOS Monterey?

Use Music > Preferences > Files to check the location of your Music Media folder. That is the folder that should have an active Automatically Add to Music folder.

tt2

You might try deleting the Automatically Add to Music folder and emptying the trash, which should allow the folder to be recreated. See also Repair security permissions for iTunes/Music for Mac - Apple Community. I'm thinking there might potentially be some form of permissions issue.

tt2

What is the path to your designated media folder (Music > Preferences > Files)?

Where has the Automatically Add to Music folder been created?

Did you see Repair security permissions for iTunes/Music for Mac - Apple Community?

tt2

Same issue, spent a long time on the phone with support, they had no idea. best they could do was say reinstall monterey - which didn't fix it. What i've done instead is if i copy the files and then paste them into the apple music app under new music, it performs the "sort and disappear" function which does the things that Automatically add to music used to do.

In my case, I created a new Music library from my old iTunes Library file after I migrated over to a new M1 MacBook Pro. I held down the option key and pointed to the old library. It worked. Then I found multiple "Automatically add..." folders in the Music folder. The default one didn't work, but it seems a new folder was created in my old iTunes folder. (See picture.) That one does work as before, loading new music into the new Music library. d

Apply the security permissions fix to /HDTunes/iTunes and all of its subfolders. Move the Automatically Add to Music folder from the wrong location into /HDTunes/iTunes/iTunes Music. Launch Music, see if the folder works in the correct location now.

tt2

I hat the same problem. Before macOS Monterey 12.0.1 the "Automatically Add to Music.localized" folder was located in my iTunes Media Folder and worked as expected. After the update, the folder stopped working. I found a similar folder in "Music/Media" which indeed added the songs to Music, but did not delete them afterwards. The result is, that it keeps adding them to the library again and again resulting in multiple copies.

I found a workaround by setting up a folder action in Automator, which essentially does the same thing as the old "Automatically Add to Music"-Folder, but moves the songs to trash after adding them to the library.

I just tried: it worked.

For the record, the track is imported and disappears from Automatically add to Music folder only if Music app is running. My Automatically add to Music folder has the following path:

Music/Media/Automatically Add to Music

So while this appears to be broken for you place the content anywhere else inside the ~/Music/Music/Media folder (or whatever the path to your media folder is) then drag it into Music. Music should add it to the library and move it to the correct location without duplication.

tt2

I use a different approach, almost similar. I create a directory in the Media folder for both the artist, if this doesn't exist yet, and than I create a folder within that artist folder naming it after the album. Than copy the files into it. Last, I use CMD-O to add the specific content of that directory to the library.

For me, music gets added but not deleted anymore. Under all previous OS versions, files got added to the library, moved to the locations the Music app deems desirable and then deleted. Now it gets copied to a new location but stays in the "Add to Music folder"...

Music will create one at the appropriate location on launch, unless perhaps there is a permissions problem that prevents it. I guess you can manually create the folder, though if Music has created one at a different path because it couldn't use the proper one then a manually made one might not function correctly.

tt2

I deleted the folder "Automatically Add To Music". Apple Music app on my iMac recreated the folder , so I added my music files which I wanted to add in that folder. The app added them to my library, however, it did not move the files, it only added the 1st two songs and multiplied them in my library.

kdj3003 wrote:

It pretty much defeats the purpose of the "Automatic" folder, if I have to do all this copy, naming & deleting manually - especially since it worked before.

Quite, but until Apple fix it workarounds will have to do.

tt2

Jan@Mac wrote:

"If you're letting Music organize the media folder you can put them anywhere inside it, although I have to say I have some naming conventions of my own so organize the folder manually. I used to do it by hand but now use a script that encodes all of my rules."

I don't think this automatic reorganisation is working either, if it would work, it would move the music from the "Automatic" folder to the right place inside the folder structure.

It is working for me, but your milage may vary. Hopefully the next build of Monterey will squash this bug.

tt2