It may be easiest to re-write the whole path (with an absolute pathname, incl. drive letter and all superceding folders) if the variable parts of the path consist of tag-information.
E.g.
d:\music\%artist%\%year - %album%
There is a tread in the German part of the forum that also deals with addressing the parent directory. But it seems to be rather tricky. /t/14270/1
There are only two pseudo tag-fields in Mp3tag, which can be used to manipulate ...
the path of a folder: _DIRECTORY (can rename folder and leave the content as is);
the path of a file: _FILENAME (can create folder and move single file).
If you want to rename a particular folder in the folderpath resp. in the filepath, you have two options ...
write the path in an absolute manner beginning from the path's root;
write the path in a relatively manner beginning from the path's end.
Using the relative addressing, the folder one up above the home folder of the file should be renamed by ...
Converter: Tag - Tag ... or Action: Format value
Field: _DIRECTORY
Format string: %_directory%'....<!--colorc-->'%ARTIST%'<!--colorc-->'%_directory%
Using a mixed absolute-relative addressing, the folder one up above the home folder of the file should be created and the file should be moved by ...
Converter: Tag - Tag ... or Action: Format value
Field: _FILENAME
Format string:
Make sure that all envolved tag-fields contain useful content.
If you undo a _FILENAME related action, then you must expect to retain empty folders, which Mp3tag could not remove.
Thanks to you both! DetlevD, what a great insight and very important facts on understanding just how this can be done. I used your first example with format values and it works perfectly !!
Much appreciated for the great explanation. Now can you make me a video.........(just kidding).
I spoke to soon and only after trying a single directory where I must have already changed that artist directory manually. I'm getting an Rename error window stating that directory already exists, at the album directory level. (I've inclosed a jpg)
Again, my structure is:
\music\artist\year - album
example:
\music\System of a Down\1998 - System OF A Down
Using the Format Value with the _DIRECTORY, I get the Rename error "The source and destination file names are the same", showing the album directory.
My artist field in this example is "System Of A Down", all in caps. So my goal was to end up with the Artist directory like this:
\music\System Of A Down\1998 - System Of A Down
This is not a huge problem really, but now I'm obsessed with it.
I will think again into ... but it will take some time ... at least until next year!
In the meantime you can explain from what application did you get the screenshot with the error message?
My fault, sorry. I using Windows 7, I have a REadyNAS where my music is, but I pulled that example artist to my Windows 7 box to verify it was not a Share naming problem. Same results.
I just copied your string directly into a new Format action, same results. Another thing I do, which seems to be non-standard around here is I typically right click on the album folder and select all files. Seems I remember that may have issues sometimes?
I have to admit, that there is something unusual going on when trying to change the letter case of folder names above the home folder of the file.
Mp3tag displays the changes by its system variables as performed, but the foldernames in the filesystem keep their old status.
This situation needs some more time to explore it in depth.
I feel as having an impression in my mind that the forum has already discussed this theme some time ago.