How_To_Flatten_A_Very_Large_Collection_Of_Folders_&_Sub_Folders_?

[Flourgrader]

Hi All,
I have 141 GB of music files in 27,000 files.
There are 1,696 Folders.
Their folders names ranging from A to Z
And each folder my have many sub folders nested up to 10 deep.
I am trying to flatten all the folders and sub folders so I have all the
Individual files in one list. So, I can tag the first one and the last one and copy all the 27,000 individual music files to one folder.
Could someone give me the Syntax command line to enter to achieve this.
I did use the Audio Filter built into everything (Version 1.5.0.1298a (x64),
but it did not list all the music files.
Thank You.

[raccoon]

I love flattening folders, and it's easy!

Thing is, there are so many different ways to do it in Everything, for so many different outcomes. We'll need to figure out what you want, the nature of your files, folders, and how much information you want to preserve or discard.

There are 2 main ways:
1) Select and Cut all the files within Everything, and then paste them to your desired folder in Windows Explorer.
2) Select all the files you wish to flatten, then use Edit -> Advanced -> Advanced Move to Folder.

The first option doesn't need much explaining, but you if any of the files have the same name then you'll be prompted to either rename or replace or skip each of the duplicate collisions. Also, you will lose all of the folder naming which probably includes album information, even band information, winding up with a bunch of files named after song titles... leaving you struggling to piece back together which bands and albums they once belonged to.

The second option, while a little trickier, gives you a lot more control in your flattening. For example, in one click you can rename all of the files to include the names of the folders they used to be in. This gives you very long file names, but none of the structure information will be lost, and indeed, all of the files will be in one folder now. Example:

E:\Music\Pink Turtles\2014 Another Stone In The Pond\03 Hey Creature Leave Those Tadpoles Alone.mp3

becomes

E:\Music\Pink Turtles - 2014 Another Stone In The Pond - 03 Hey Creature Leave Those Tadpoles Alone.mp3

So. How do you want to approach this?

[Flourgrader]

Hi raccoon,
The Music collection is shot to pieces in regards to
Album Name, Artist, and artwork embedded, and so on.
My aim is to extract all the files into one folder.
Tidy up the file names, then run them through
MusicBrainz Picard and strip all the tags and so on, and re enter the correct Tags!
Then hopefully have a nice ordered music collection.
And artwork made good.
The vast majority of files are MP3 & Flac music files.
The rest of the files mixed in are regarded as garbage to me!
Your first suggestion sounded OK to me?
Cheers…

[raccoon]

Shoot. Everything can do all that too. Who needs MusicBrainz Picard?

Once you've flattened all the files into one folder, you can use the Edit > Advanced Rename feature to name them properly from their metadata tags.

Before even doing that, you can Add Columns for Album, Artist, etc so you can sort and inspect which files have these tags. Right-click on the column headers to add the new columns. Click on (sort) the column headers you added and they will begin to populate. Once you have a better idea of which files have ID3 tags and which do not, you can select several of them at a time and Advanced Rename them accordingly. The Advance Rename feature accepts variable names based on those columns and the data they find. Example:

#artist: - #year: #album: - #track: #title:.mp3

[Flourgrader]

Thanks, raccoon, I will take a look at that,
and see what I can make of that.

[NotNull]

There are 2 main ways:
1) Select and Cut all the files within Everything, and then paste them to your desired folder in Windows Explorer.

An Everything alternative for that:
- Select all your files
- Menu:Edit > Copy To Folder
- Select a folder
- All your files will be copied to that folder (without path)

Note: "if any of the files have the same name then you'll be prompted ..." also applies here.


If your tags are all messed up, MisicBrainz Picardis the best way to get them fixed (that I know of)
IIRC, there is a max number of songs you can check daily, so might take a while.

[void]

#artist: - #year: #album: - #track: #title:.mp3

I ran into some issues with this:

#year: is using the preprocessor function instead of the 'year property'.
I will make sure Everything favors the property in the next update.
I will also add the #getyear: and #getbasename: preprocessor functions to resolve conflicting names.



In the advanced renamer, please make sure regex is unchecked.
Set the old format to:
%1.mp3
Set the new format to:
#if:<#and:<#len:<#artist:>,#len:<#album:>,#len:<#track:>,#len:<#title:>>,#artist: - #album: - #track: - #title:.mp3>


This will only rename files where the artist, album, track and title tags are defined.
(An empty filename is not renamed in the multi-file renamer)
Double check the newly generated filenames before clicking OK.
You can make changes to the newly generated filenames before clicking OK.



Search Preprocessor

[Flourgrader]

Thank you, guys for the info.
I am making progress.
Got all my music together in one folder,
and sorted.
Just need to match the artwork to the Artist.
Easier said than done!

[void]

Everything 1.5.0.1299a will now favor properties over preprocessor functions when using the preprocessor.

For example #year: will now return the year property value for the current file.
Use #get-year:<date/time> if you would like to avoid using the year property and get the year part of a date/time.

[Flourgrader]

Thank you, David, for the info.

[void]

Everything 1.5.0.1302a will now accept $property-name: and #property-name: in the multi-file renamer.

The preferred syntax for property values is now: $property-name:

The preprocessor will now expand in order:
User defines.
Preprocessor functions.
Character entities.
Literal runs.
Properties.

(instead of expanding properties first)

This means:
#year: will now mean the preprocessor year function, not the year property.
Use $year: for the year property.

[Flourgrader]

Thank you for the Info.