Import music files directly into a playlist

[zarb0z]

I'd like a playlist just for my new music, and I'd like to be able to drag my music directly into that playlist. From there, I could massage the metadata, look up artwork, or other housekeeping, and know that once it leaves that playlist, the music is scrubbed and ready for use.

As it stands, the only way to do this is to watch the incoming directory, make a smart playlist for things added in the last day, and quit MM every day.

The problem here is twofold:

• you have to quit every day
  if you don't, then stuff that gets deleted will stay in the playlist

Part of the problem is that while there's a mechanism to watch a folder for incoming files, there's no mechanism to watch the folder for outgoing files.

[Lowlander]

Folder Monitoring knows if files are being removed.

[rivorson]

you have to quit every day
if you don't, then stuff that gets deleted will stay in the playlist

You can just refresh the playlist either by pressing F5 or by switching to another playlist and back. There is no need to quit MM for this.

MM can create a playlist every time files are imported. You can use those playlists exactly as you have stated; when you have completed your housekeeping you can remove the tracks from the playlist or delete the playlist. It creates a separate playlist for each import but all playlists are created as children of a single playlist so it stays tidy.
The option can be found under Tools --> Options --> Tags & Playlists --> Create playlists of Tracks newly added to the library.

[zarb0z]

I'll try it and report back if my results differ. Thanks.

[zarb0z]

My results differ.

OK, let's see if I can insert screencaps to help things out.

First, I have monitoring enabled at all times, not just startup:



Then, here's a snippet of my library. We're going to deal with the first song from Fjaak, and here's what their album looks like in my library:



If I select the first song and check its properties, it shows me the directory it lives in.



If I go to that directory (Linux subshell, Windows 10) and look, there it is. And if I delete that directory, there it isn't, just as expected:



BUT...when I go back to the library, the songs are all still listed. If I try to play the first track, it just skips all songs on down the list and turns them all grey:



And if I go select the first song and check the properties, the song is supposedly still in the same location. It's not deleted, it's not in the Recycle Bin, it's listed as still being there.



If I hit F5 or leave and come back from another playlist, the album is still there. Even if I quit and come back, the album is still listed in the library, even though it's unplayable.

The only way to delete the album from the library is...well...to do exactly that: delete it from the library. Auto-monitoring the directory only updates additions, it does not update subtractions.

Which brings us back to the original issue: why can't I just drag sound files from Windows Explorer directly into a playlist? The workaround seems to be "Make a smart playlist of everything added in the last day, and hurry up and get your work done before the day ends or stuff will slip out of the working playlist and stay unnoticed in your library with no housekeeping done on it at all."

It's not a showstopper, but it's been a capability of iTunes forever (and still is that way in the >10.7 world), so that's what I'm used to.

[zarb0z]

OK, why aren't the images showing up? I'm using the "Img button" and putting the Imgur.com URL between the tags.

[rivorson]

The Imgur links you have pasted in the [img] tags are web pages, not images. That's why they don't show up in your post.

You can set MM to automatically remove deleted files from the database under Tools --> Options --> Library --> Remove unavailable items. With that option enabled MM will stop showing tracks if you move or delete the files. It's not enabled by default because you might want to point MM to the new location of moved files instead of removing and reimporting them.

[zarb0z]

The Imgur links you have pasted in the [img] tags are web pages, not images. That's why they don't show up in your post.

So what's the correct format? I can't drag an image into the post, so I'm not clear how to get images in here.

It's not enabled by default because you might want to point MM to the new location of moved files instead of removing and reimporting them.

Seems reasonable, except that in large quantities it may be easier to re-import than manually change the file location in each song's metadata.

Yeah, I can't imagine a practical reason to reimport a bunch of songs, but if the "organize library" function worked correctly, one shouldn't need to edit that field, right?

And, in any case, importing files by dragging them from the desktop (etc) into one of MM's playlists should put it in the directory MM defines for its library, right? There shouldn't be any need to change it anyway.

[MMFrLife]

So what's the correct format? I can't drag an image into the post, so I'm not clear how to get images in here.

You can't use any url. It must be the url of the image itself. The url should end in a graphic extension like ".jpg" (no quotes)

It's not enabled by default because you might want to point MM to the new location of moved files instead of removing and reimporting them.

Seems reasonable, except that in large quantities it may be easier to re-import than manually change the file location in each song's metadata.

You wouldn't do it manually. You use "Entire Library > Files to Edit > Dead Links > Select all > File > Locate Moved/Missing Files".

[MMFrLife]

This is the link you are looking for,
http://i.imgur.com/5ZckrnO.png

paste between
for this,

[zarb0z]

This is the link you are looking for,
http://i.imgur.com/5ZckrnO.png

paste between
for this,

EXTREMELY helpful, thanks. I'll go back and edit my post.