A script to export playlists from iTunes to a folder. Includes the song files and an m3u playlist file.
Created to easily export playlists and media from iTunes to Android.
NOTE:
-
This script will work only with iTunes on OS X and macOS. It's written in AppleScript, a language built into the Mac operating system since Mac OS 7.
-
Tested with:
- macOS 10.11.6 - 10.13.3
- iTunes 12.4.3 - 12.7.3
- Compile the script. This can be done in various ways:
- Use the Makefile; or
- Compile and export as an application from the Script Editor app
- Run the app.
- Compile the script
- Move the app to
~/Library/iTunes/Scripts/
- The
make deploy
command compiles the script and moves the app to the correct location.
- The
- Open iTunes.
- The script can be run by opening iTunes's Script menu (scroll icon) and selecting the script's name.
Rule | Description |
---|---|
make |
Build an app, and save it to this directory |
make deploy |
Build an app, and move it to ~/Library/iTunes/Scripts/ |
make exportplaylists |
Build an app from the ExportPlaylists script |
make clean |
Remove all apps from this directory |
make clean-deploy |
Remove the app from ~/Library/iTunes/Scripts/ |
The options that can be set before exporting:
- The playlists to export (one or more can be chosen).
- The location in which to export.
- The method in which to export multiple playlists:
- Same folder - Creates a new folder and places all songs from all playlists there. All m3u playlist files are saved to a subfolder.
- Different folders - Makes separate subfolders for each playlist. The m3u playlist is saved in this folder, and a further subfolder is made for the media files.
- The folder structure and filename rules to use for the media files.
- Can use the iTunes metadata. Available attributes are:
[album]
,[album artist]
,[artist]
,[composer]
,[track name]
,[track number]
,[disc number]
,[playlist order number]
,[original file name]
. - These attributes can be used to form the folder structure and filename.
For example:[artist] > [album] > [track number] - [track name]
- This will create<export location>/<playlist name>/[artist]/[album]/file.extension
.
- The file will be renamed to[track number] - [track name]
, and its original extension will be kept.
- Can use the iTunes metadata. Available attributes are:
iTunes already has an option to export a playlist. This creates a playlist file in several formats (m3u
, xml
, etc.), but doesn't export the actual media files, which can make it difficult to use the exported playlists on other devices.
The script makes a copy of all media files in a playlist alongside the m3u
file. However, m3u
is the only format supported.