Unpossibilities…

Excellent! Thanks much.

Opus: You probably placed the file in a wrong location. Here’s a screenshot showing the correct path to the workflow location. Now it should be accessible through right click -> Automator -> Synchronize Library.

Hello, i have just bought a new MAC and tried to follow your instructions. I am lost when I try to add the application to my Library workflow, for some reason Workflow doesn’t appear. Am I doing something wrong? thx

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Sorry for the last post. It was just my Automator that needed a restart. Seems to work fine in Leopard.

Thank you so much for making this.
A quick question: Will it add duplicate listings to the Library? Or does iTunes itself prevent that from happening?

Thanks Robert!
I also figured out you can “Save as..” an Application in Automator, makes it easy peasy after putting it in Startup Items.

I will pass this on to others!

@ Alex: Are the songs MP3 encoded? The script searches for songs with .mp3 extension only. If your songs have a different type of format you can easily adjust the extension with Automator.

Thnx for the info Alex. I think the change you made works even better, allowing different filetypes to be added (that are supported by iTunes).

@ brettdog: No, once the files are added to the iTunes Library they will not be readded.

You might want to try the following AppleScript: Refresh Selected Tags

Download and unzip the file. Put the file in “/Username/Library/iTunes/Scripts/”. From iTunes you will now be able to use the script from the script icon in the menu bar.

Any chance you’re running Microsoft Windows? The above script requires Mac OS 10.4+.

@ Guillermo: Try unzipping by double clicking the downloaded zip file.

You can still use Synchronize Library.workflow. Similar to an OS X application, the automator script basically is a folder with package contents (e.g. /Contents/document.wflow). Just drag the Synchronize Library.workflow to the appropriate folder as desribed above. Double click on it to start Automator and adjust the script to match your own preference.

I think you’re right on the problem. Automator probably came first with OS X 10.4.

If you’re ever going to upgrade to a newer version, be sure to give it a try :) I’m still using 10.4 (not going to upgrade any time soon) and have no experience with 10.5 (Leopard), but people say the script works fine.

Yes you can. The location of the library files doesn’t really matter. You do have to make sure that the library on the remote server is active in iTunes when updating (you can switch between different libraries holding the option key while starting iTunes).

This script only adds songs to the library according to a set of rules, e.g. location, date modified etc. So don’t worry about losing or overwriting current songs in the existing library. All you need to do is open this script with automator (right click on the script and select “open with automator”) and change the location of the songs. I think it’s even possible having multiple users on different Mac’s use this script and update one single library.

Here’s a screenshot showing what you could edit.

The message displayed on startup is only a reminder to myself, making sure I have my drive connected :) You can change the text yourself, or completely remove it.

Hope this helps ;)

Hi,
I’ve ran automator and the only files that are synching with my itunes are ones that are not within another folder. any files that are within a folder named after the album/artist they are from will not synch.
what am i doing wrong?
thanks

Excellent.

I actually did this myself, and then googled to see what the deal was and stumbled on your site.

I’ll say it: I download a lot of music. It doesn’t matter from where, but they come in folders with an sfv, nfo and m3u file ;)

Anyways, I wanted to have my music automatically added to itunes when I dragged it to a folder. Without much luck doing the above, I found a better way that works.

http://img.skitch.com/20080405-da1tbbj346yfba6d7cdi8ubtqx.jpg

Create the above in Automator, save it as a plug-in, select folder actions and pick the folder you want the action to run from. I’ve tested it to my needs, and found that it does exactly what I want it to. I download my music to desktop, make sure its neat and tidy, then drag to my ‘incoming’ folder and bam; iTunes pulls it and it’s ready to listen to.

If you like the idea of doing the library sync, I’ve also created my ‘own’ version from Robert’s right-click (GREAT) idea:

http://img.skitch.com/20080405-egk8sappy1sbfep49tup8sa6fp.jpg

Hi Jeff! It should not matter what type of harddrive you have. I’ve done a test with a standard MS-DOS formatted USB-Stick and it works flawlessly. Your type of HDD is not the problem. Have you set the proper location (nr. 2) where the script has to search? The reason I ask this is because of the error saying “…was not supplied with the required data”, which makes me think it’s searching in a non-existing location and returning no results.

And yes, subfolders are searched for files :)

@ Zac: Looks very nice, and probably very useful for alot of people. Of course the downside is having iTunes manage the file locations. But that’s something many people don’t mind. As long as you have the ID3 tags neat and tidy, just like you mentioned ;)

Nice one Michael! Works a treat.

Ok, I was just having the same problem as David. The issue for me was that I was using the Automator action “Add Songs to Playlist.” The action to use is “Add files to playlist.” A subtle but important difference.

For the LOVE of God, when is someone going to make it possible to sync folders in Finder with Playlists!????? Doug Scripts has this script, except its BACKWARDS!!! Here is the link:
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=syncplaylistfilestofolder

Can anyone figure out how to make it so my playlists will sync according to my folder? … not Vice Versa Like he has it!?

If not, then APPLE… F****** MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO “WATCH” FOLDERS, OR SYNCHRONIZE FOLDERS WITH PLAYLISTS!!!! PLEASE. You are slacking.

Thanks for the tutorial Robert! While it still wonders me why this is no standard functionality built in iTunes, I’m very glad how to do this myself. For me it’s a first to the Automator. Being a hard-core Windows user for more than a decade, I feel that the Mac suits me better every day…

Thanks again.
Corné.

Superb. This has been annoying me for months. Works a treat – thanks very much.

Next problem to fix is removing duplicate tracks. Anybody know a reliable routine for that?

Your background is gorgeous, where did you download it from? could you please share a link =)

Thanks
-Greg

So, did you make that gorgeous desktop background?

ok So I’ve read through the posts and have even gone as far as changing the set-up based on others recommendations. I problem I’m having, that others have add is…
The action “Import files into itunes” was not supplied with the required data.
I allocated the find finder items to a folder on my external but it wont pick up the files. When allocating it to a folder on my internal it works fine. Help!! I’ve read through the posts and nothing have worked. My external is partitioned to Mac Os Extended (Journaled).

Doesn’t seem to be working if you have your music on a networked server…

Have you already tried to re-create the workflow with Automator yourself? You can use the search function to find the appropriate rule. Here’s a screenshot with the rules you need to use.

Anyone fancy a video tutorial?

Amazing mate.Very usefull.Thank you very much!

Thank you very much. I wasn’t even aware Automator could do so many things!

Automator option doesn’t show up with right click on 10.6 :(

But yet works running through the automator program

hey,

i think this version doesn’t work anymore with snow leopard, or does it?
because there is not even a possibility to open the automator with a rightklick.

thanks for an answere!

thank u very much!
everything’s perfect now = )

Nevermind., got it! Thx

Hello!

I have another question, instead of adding music files into itunes from an external harddrive, I would like to use a special folder (dropbox folder). But it should be the same but instead of the external harddrive I say the automator to find finder items which are music files.

Every thing works fine but when I chose the aspect that I only want to chose files which have been modified within the last 2 weeks I have the problem, that sometimes I have files which are modified a longer time ago but are new to me, and so these files won’t get improted into iTunes. Do you have an idea how to change the timestamp or to make it possible that it only tries to import newer files. You are right the progress of reloading all files will take too much time!

And I am using Snow Leopard, I can’t use the right mouse click on my desktop to chose automator! Do I need to activate it somewhere?

Thank you very much!

Markus

@ Markus: I’m also familiar with the problem that some files are modified a longer time ago than two weeks. These files are not synchronized.

If you are experienced with the Terminal you could try the following command (execute it in the drop box folder) to change the modified timestamp to the current date:

find . -type f -name 'test.txt' -exec touch `date +%m%d%H%M` {} \;

I don’t know if the above problem can be fixed using Automator. I’ll have to look into it.

@ Frank: It seems the contextual menu option is no longer supported in 10.6 Snow Leopard. Since I’m still on 10.4 I don’t know how to solve this problem.

You may find the solution on this page: automator-and-finder-interactions-in-os-x-10-6

I’ve updated my post concerning this issue.

This is absolutely perfect for my problem. If you put your music on an external hard drive and try to play a song while the HD is not connected to your mac, all of the songs on your iTunes library will have a small exclamation point next to them. This is incredibly annoying and will not auto-play a song unless it is double clicked on (you cant use the arrow keys to skip to the next song if it has one of these marks.) This automator script works PERFECTLY and is quick running. Thank you so much for your help.
-Carlin

works like a charm! super (goed gedaan :-) ). thnx

Hi Robert,

I was wondering if you could help me or point me in the right direction.

As a preface I will describe my set-up. I am using a Mac-mini (8BG), with a 2TB fire-wire external HD as my media server. This external HD is shared across my home network. The EX. HD is the location for my iTunes library. Other computers on the network (all PC’s), use the exact same location / directory (2TB external HD) for their iTunes library.

The problems is, when I purchase iTunes content on one of the PC’s, although the file downloads onto the 2TB external HD connected via fire wire to the Mac-Mini, when I use Apple TV (which is using the iTunes library of the Mac-mini), which is what I use as my media “interface”, it will not “see” the file because I have not added it to the library on the Mac-mini (remember the file was purchased from a PC whose library resides at the same directory / location as that for the Mac-mini).

How can I configure the Mac-mini to at a keystroke scan for or import new files in my iTunes library?

Many thanks for any help or suggestions.

Simon