Creating New File Subdirectory Structure Without Changing Original Directory

MusicBrainz Picard
1

Earlier, it was explained to me that I needed to “Move” in order to create a new subdirectory structure.

My original directory is e:/songs/song1, e:songs/song2, etc…

I want, for example, to now have a e:/songs/1972/song1, e:/songs/1973/song1, etc.

But I can’t. I need to “Move” and can only have, for example, e:/Newdir/1972/song1

I didn’t realize this originally, and that was why my new subdirectory structure kept not working. And I couldn’t understand it. For me, it was not intuitive.

Now I understand this restriction. But I still don’t get why Picard can’t just create a new subdirectory structure within the original directory.

2

That sounds like you could set e:/songs as the base directory to move to. Or why does this not work?

If you have a file e:/songs/1972/song1, what is the original location? e:/, e:/songs or e:/songs/1972? Why, and how should Picard decide? If the script is supposed to create a subfolder, where should it place it?

1 Like
3

Now there’s an idea. I’ll try it next.

4

Let me be clearer. The original location is e:/songs. I now want all songs to go into e:/songs/subdirectory-x, with a number of subdirectories based on criteria. So the subdirectories would be subdirectory-x, subdirectory-y, subdirectory-z, etc.

5

Yes, exactly. But how would Picard know that e:/songs is the location to save to, if it “just create a new subdirectory structure within the original directory”, as you suggested? For me the “original” directory would be e:/songs/1972/, because that is where the file is.

That’s why there is a setting to set the base directory. In Options > File Naming you can configure the “Destination directory”.

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6

No, the original directory for all songs is e:/songs

That’s where all songs are.

Based on script criteria, in my view Picard would create subdirectories off of e:/songs and stick songs from e:/songs in each directory based on script criteria.

7

I think you don’t get my point. You asked:

So my question is how Picard would know that the original directory you mean is e:/songs without you telling it?

If you set e:/songs as the destination directory Picard will do exactly what you are asking for.

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8

Ok. So if i tel it to “move” it to the original directory where it starts off, then it should do what I am looking for.

In which case my issue is trivial, in that I am only complaining that I have to say “move,” when it is never going to a different parent directory. But it is actually moving to a subdirectory, and I just have to specify the home directory.