# Format \_DIRECTORY (Crossover v9.1 Mac OS X 10.6.5)
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/format-directory-crossover-v9-1-mac-os-x-10-6-5/11378
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [January 1, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/format-directory-crossover-v9-1-mac-os-x-10-6-5/11378 "2011-01-01T19:56:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chewy311](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/chewy311)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/format-directory-crossover-v9-1-mac-os-x-10-6-5/11378/1 "2011-01-01T19:56:51Z")
Help please,
I have been trying to get this action item to work on my Mac for awhile now and have not had any luck. I have tried countless numbers of placeholder combinations and also relative and absolute paths and still cannot get the \_DIRECTORY folder to rename. I have no problem editing the folder path by using the field \_FILENAME, but I need all other files to move over as well (m3u, nfo, sfv files etc.)
Action: Format Values
Field: \_DIRECTORY
Formatstring: %artist%\%album%
I have no problem getting this to work on my PC, but unfortunately all my music is on my Mac and I would like to keep it there.
With that said, does anyone have any suggestions on a work around here? Any mac users out there able to accomplish this?
Any suggestions that you may have will be GREATLY appreciated.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2011, 8:31am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/format-directory-crossover-v9-1-mac-os-x-10-6-5/11378/2 "2011-01-02T08:31:24Z")
> [@chewy311](#):
>
> ... but unfortunately all my music is on my Mac ...
I think that the MAC filenames do not use the backslash as directory separator. I think it is the colon : - which is the separator for drives in windows.
So I guess, it is technically impossible to rename paths on a Mac with a program using Windows conventions. But I am not quite sure
Additionally, the backslash has a special meaning in MP3tag's regular expressions which is to mask other special characters. If you want to mask the masking character you would have to apply two of them:
%artist%\%album%
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### Author:  [@pone](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/pone)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2011, 12:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/format-directory-crossover-v9-1-mac-os-x-10-6-5/11378/3 "2011-01-02T12:21:39Z")
> [@ohrenkino](#):
>
> Additionally, the backslash has a special meaning in MP3tag's regular expressions which is to mask other special characters. If you want to mask the masking character you would have to apply two of them:
> %artist%\%album%
this is wrong. %artist%\%album% is enough.
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### Author:  [@chewy311](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/chewy311)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2011, 4:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/format-directory-crossover-v9-1-mac-os-x-10-6-5/11378/4 "2011-01-02T16:21:40Z")
> [@ohrenkino](#):
>
> I think that the MAC filenames do not use the backslash as directory separator. I think it is the colon : - which is the separator for drives in windows.
>
> So I guess, it is technically impossible to rename paths on a Mac with a program using Windows conventions. But I am not quite sure
yes, it appears that mac actually uses "/" as their directory separator. Wouldn't that mean that I should at least be able to use a relative path string? Even as simple as %artist% ?
Anyone have any other suggestions?
thanks
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:22pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/format-directory-crossover-v9-1-mac-os-x-10-6-5/11378/5 "2026-02-09T12:22:47Z")