Tip: Using The New Automatic Import Folder In iTunes 9

Giles Turnbull ()

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iTunes 9 has neat little new feature: it will automatically import any music or videos you throw into a specific folder.

That folder is called “Automatically Add to iTunes”, and after installing iTunes 9 you’ll find it tucked away inside your “~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/” folder.

Anything you drag into it will be imported into iTunes immediately – and it’s worth noting that the original file (the one you put into the Automatic folder) promptly disappears afterwards. It doesn’t get trashed, but moved to the appropriate place inside the iTunes Music folder.

I’m slightly bemused about this folder’s location. It’s a bit, well, tucked away. If you move it elsewhere, the automatic import function stops working. It has to be inside the iTunes Music folder.

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Still, now at least we know it’s there and we know what it does; perhaps there’s some scripting or Services potential to uncover. One benefit is that you no longer have to keep iTunes running to add new stuff to it, you can simply save files to this folder instead. The files will sit there until iTunes is next launched, and get processed then.

19 comments »

About the author

gilest

Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He writes for the Press Association and The Morning News. He has a website you can ignore and a Twitter account you needn't follow.

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Posted in iTunes, News |

  • James Jardine

    If you drag the folder to the doc it still imports anything you drop on it.

  • http://blog.richarddas.com Richard

    I think the reason it has to sit inside the iTunes library folder, is to ensure that the item is on the same drive as the library (for exampe, if the folder were on one drive and the library on another drive, the file would need to be copied, rather than moved, to the correct location).

  • David

    I don’t know what I’m doing wrong here, but it’s not working for me. Does the files have to be a specific format or something?

  • Kevan Marriner

    I don’t have this folder. My active Music folder is on a NAS – nothing there. I still have a Music folder on my hard drive – nothing there either.

  • Kevan Marriner

    Redact – user error!! Feeling a bit silly

  • http://www.riverstone.sk Peter Cambal

    You can put that folder to dock. It’s still at its place in iTunes folder and easily accessible…

  • http://www.carrieactually.com Carrie

    i wish this folder lived somewhere other than inside the itunes music folder. i keep my itunes music folder on an external hard drive but i download a lot of stuff to my internal hard drive when the external isn’t connected and would like that to automatically import and get filed away next time i open itunes.

  • http://www.davidboni.net David Boni

    Have you tried making an alias of the folder? You could then move the alias anywhere you want. Or you could drag the folder to appear on the Dock with the rest of your stacks.

  • Arnt Maasø

    Good tip. Tries making an alias, putting it on my desktop and adding a file. Worked just fine!

  • http://twitter.com/wisher86 mario

    Cool feature. I always found weird to have to import my songs and then delete the original files once the music have been copied into the library.
    Not the import process is more straightforward.

  • Charli

    the location is likely because the process uses an AppleScript or AS like function to work. move it and the process breaks. putting it on the dock or making an alias is just making a shortcut, the folder is still there in the correct locale. so thus it works. I actually just did some downloading of files off a free mp3 site (a legal one, from Microsoft of all places) and did a save as into said folder rather than letting it download to the default download folder. worked nicely

  • Ric

    Nice tip definitely,..that must have taken some digging…Good work Giles!
    I think a nice place to create that alias instantaneously, is to select the mentioned folder and drag it into your finder sidebar.. voilá! In the dock it’s just to much “central” place for a single action.. just my opinion… but don’t ask this people http://minimalmac.com/ .
    Peace!

  • tom Tomkinson

    just make an alias, put it anywhere. works great.

  • chase
  • radioflyer

    It wouldn’t have any connection with Home Sharing, would it?

  • http://www.virtuacomputers.com Justin Esgar

    I don’t see the benefit of this. If you had the option to “keep music organized” on in iTunes, and you dragged the music you wanted into the iTunes window, it would organize it for you (much like this new folder) and remove the original.

  • apple stud

    that’s A STUPID function~ EVER!!!!!!! ><…..

  • jjs1138

    I use the eMusic download service. Before I had to download my music to my Downloads folder then move it into iTunes. Now I can just download directly into the Automatically Add folder and it will be added to iTunes for me. Super!

  • Qrobur

    What a ridiculous way of implementing this feature. MediaMonkey, for instance, has had it for a long time and allows the user to select the watched folder or folders.

    I don’t appreciate iTunes dumping an unwanted folder in the middle of my library without even asking.

    0/10 Apple.