Applescript to copy/export mp3 by album

Awesome!! thank you! I got this to work for genres below. Im trying to created a folder tree based on the comma separated values of my Genre field.

I would like the script to read the genre field and create folders based on the genre and subfolders based on the subfolders inside.

For example.

[ main genre, sub genre, sub sub genre]

the folder tree would look like.

main genre

sub genre

sub sub genre

choose folder with prompt "Choose a folder into which to copy the selected iTunes items inside their album folder:"

set DestinationFolder to the result

set TrackLocations to {}

-- Get filepaths of the selected iTunes items

tell application "iTunes"

repeat with SomeTrack in (get the selection)

if class of SomeTrack is file track then

set TrackLocation to location of SomeTrack

set genreName to genre of SomeTrack

-- finds or creates a folder in the destination folder named after the genreName

set destinationSubFolder to my checkForFolder(POSIX path of DestinationFolder, genreName)

-- copies file track file to new folder

my copyFileToFolder(TrackLocation, destinationSubFolder)

end if

end repeat

end tell

tell application "Finder" to reveal DestinationFolder

to checkForFolder(fParent, fName)

-- find or create a folder

tell application "System Events"

if not (exists folder fName of folder fParent) then

set output to path of (makenewfolderat end of folderfParentwith properties {name:fName})

else

set output to (path of (folder fName of folder fParent))

end if

end tell

-- returns an HFS path string, which the Finder likes

return output

end checkForFolder

-- The "move" statement below can be changed back to "copy" if you want to put copies in a folder, not actually move the originals. The copies do not have entries in iTunes so you do not end up with duplicates. Moved files do preserve links to their entries in iTunes as long as you have disabled iTunes managing your media for you, allowing you to move files around without the links breaking.

to copyFileToFolder(fileAlias, folderPath)

tell application "Finder"

-- you can use with or without replacing, as you prefer. You need one or the other to avoid any 'duplicate file' error messages

movefileAliastofolderPath without replacing

end tell

end copyFileToFolder

-- This pops up a notification button that the script ran okay but doesn't tell you if everything was moved successfully.

display dialog "Script run finished, check your result." buttons {"Done"} default button 1 with icon 1 giving up after 4

I think you just need to get the album name from iTunes and create a new folder from it at the destination folder.

if application "iTunes" is not running then

display alert "iTunes is not running" message "Please activate iTunes and select items."

return

end if

-- Choose destination location

choose folder with prompt "Choose a folder to copy the selected iTunes items into:" default location (path to desktop)

set DestinationFolder to the result

set TrackLocations to {}

-- Get filepaths of the selected iTunes items

tell application "iTunes"

repeat with SomeTrack in (get the selection)

if class of SomeTrack is file track then

set TrackLocation to location of SomeTrack

set albumName to album of SomeTrack

-- finds or creates a folder in the destination folder named after the albumName

set destinationSubFolder to my checkForFolder(DestinationFolder, albumName)

-- copies file track file to new folder

my copyFileToFolder(TrackLocation, destinationSubFolder)

end if

end repeat

end tell

-- Copy all selected MP3s

repeat with SomeFile in TrackLocations

tell application "Finder"

duplicateSomeFiletoDestinationFolder

end tell

end repeat

tell application "Finder" to reveal DestinationFolder

to checkForFolder(fParent, fName)

-- find or create a folder

tell application "System Events"

if not (exists folder fName of folder fParent) then

set output to POSIX path of (makenewfolderat end of folderfParentwith properties {name:fName})

else

set output to (POSIX path of (folder fName of folder fParent))

end if

end tell

-- returns a POSIX path

return output

end checkForFolder

to copyFileToFolder(fileAlias, folderAlias)

tell application "Finder"

copy fileAlias to folderAlias

end tell

end copyFileToFolder

Well, I have two ideas. First is that you speak French, which probably isn't related to the problem but leaves me having to use my poorly remembered knowledge of the language to translate that error. But I think I know the problem regardless - that handler returns a POSIX path, and the Finder has an intrinsic dislike for POSIX paths. Try changing the last line of the handler to:

-- returns an alias

return POSIX fileoutput

Which ought to return a alias object that the Finder will approve of.

Well, you speak English far better than I speak French, so thanks for the translation. 🙂

With respect to the error, the problem (as I see now) is that we are passing an alias to the handler where the handler expects a POSIX path string. Easiest solution may be to send the handler the POSIX path it expects, like so:

set destinationSubFolder to my checkForFolder(POSIX path of DestinationFolder, albumName)

otherwise you'll need to revise or remove the folder keywords in the handler to get it to work correctly.

You might have a look at this thread.

Sorry… I was under the impression that you were talking about iPhoto albums, not iTunes albums. 😊

Please keep us updated if you resolve this. I have been looking for a means to move selected files for tracks in an iTunes album to a folder labeled with the album name in a manually managed iTunes library and yours seems to be very close to what I need.

Thanks!

YeeeEEEEeeee! I made a complete newb mistake, which is truly embarrassing. The Finder command to copy files (as I've told so many other people in the past) is duplicate, not copy. facepalm...😊

I tweaked and tested the handlers I've sent you. these work on my machine.

to checkForFolder(fParent, fName)

-- find or create a folder

tell application "System Events"

if not (exists folder fName of folder fParent) then

set output to path of (makenewfolderat end of folderfParentwith properties {name:fName})

else

set output to (path of (folder fName of folder fParent))

end if

end tell

-- returns an HFS path string, which the Finder likes

return output

end checkForFolder

to copyFileToFolder(fileAlias, folderPath)

tell application "Finder"

-- you can use with or without replacing, as you prefer. You need one or the other to avoid any 'duplicate file' error messages

duplicatefileAliastofolderPath without replacing

end tell

end copyFileToFolder

In applescript they're called "handlers". Vive le différence!

With respect to the other question, see the user tip I just created. If only you knew how often I've had to explain that POSIX path thing. 😢 The 'set output' lines catch the path (in your final version the HFS path) of the folder (be it newly created or found in the file system), so that the path can be returned in the last line.

Thanks for this discussion. I used the bits and pieces to make a working script which will move (instead of copy; change duplicate to move) files to a folder with the album name of the tracks (or folders if tracks from several albums are chosen at once). If a folder with the album name already exists in the destination folder it just adds to that one.

In my version I removed the defaulting to desktop for destination folder so it defaults to whichever folder was last used as the host folder for the album folders instead of having to change this from the desktop each time.

Checking if iTunes is running is redundant. Since the script relies upon using iTunes for track selection I can't see how you can use it without iTunes running (and my version of Applescript didn't recognize "running"). I simply put it in my iTunes scripts library and always invoke it from inside iTunes.

I added a line at the end which produces a button so I know the script has finished running.