Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

RadicalxEdward

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 8, 2011
448
13
Does anyone know of a way to permanently get rid of this folder? It's beyond useless. If i'm manually dragging files into the folder, I might as well just drag them directly into iTunes. And any time I try to save content to the folder they get put in the Not Added subfolder. (i.e. if I download a video to that folder, or convert a video with that as the target location, etc) So I'd rather just get rid of it since I never use it. But iTunes will keep recreating it each time it's relaunched.
help?

SOLUTION (by KALLT)
In Terminal navigate to the parent folder of the AATI folder. Then enter:
Code:
chflags hidden Automatically\ Add\ to\ iTunes.localized
 
Last edited:

KALLT

macrumors 603
Sep 23, 2008
5,361
3,378
There is no elegant way other than blocking iTunes from writing there. Why not just ignore the folder to begin with? You don’t need to venture into that folder anyway, as it belongs to iTunes and directly manipulating files/folders within the directory will mess up the accuracy of your iTunes Library. The only workaround I could suggest is hiding the folder from Finder with:
Code:
cd ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes\ Music && chflags hidden Automatically\ Add\ to\ iTunes.localized
 
  • Like
Reactions: RadicalxEdward

fisherking

macrumors G4
Jul 16, 2010
11,093
5,443
ny somewhere
really, why are you in that folder to begin with? everything you import or remove from itunes should be done thru the app's window; never go into the folders in Music>iTunes>iTunes Media, always work thru the iTunes app itself.
 

Toutou

macrumors 65816
Jan 6, 2015
1,079
1,573
Prague, Czech Republic
really, why are you in that folder to begin with? everything you import or remove from itunes should be done thru the app's window; never go into the folders in Music>iTunes>iTunes Media, always work thru the iTunes app itself.

No, no the folder exists for that exact reason. It's supposed to take everything you throw into it and add it into your library, automatically. That's its sole purpose. Works great for me.

Does anyone know of a way to permanently get rid of this folder?

Just ignore it, iTunes insists that it's there. It doesn't take up space or anything.
 

KALLT

macrumors 603
Sep 23, 2008
5,361
3,378
No, no the folder exists for that exact reason. It's supposed to take everything you throw into it and add it into your library, automatically. That's its sole purpose. Works great for me.

In which case it would be better to create an alias to it and put that alias in a location where you are more often. The OP is asking to remove this directory, which suggests to me that they need access the parent directory more frequently for this to matter.
 

RadicalxEdward

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 8, 2011
448
13
Part of the problem is an aesthetic / organizational one. I failed to mention my folder setup. I always thought it was stupid that iTunes traditionally puts all your media inside the music folder of your home folder even if you select keep iTunes media organized.

In my case I'm running an SSD/hdd setup.
Samsung 850 Evo 250GB (boot)
Seagate 2TB HDD

I have all the traditional home folders running from the hdd except the Library folder. Which are then symlinked to the SSD. I also have the iTunes library set to keep media organized and set to the root of the hdd. So my drive looks like

/Volumes/Macintosh SSD/Users/RadicalxEdward
/Volumes/Media...
.../audiobooks
.../automatically add to iTunes
.../mobile applications
.../music
.../movies
.../tv shows
Etc

I have a large media library most of which isn't in iTunes yet. But I still keep it organized in those folders by kind. Thus the AATI folder is just added clutter that is right upfront, not buried in a sub directory.

If someone thinks there's a better way to organize everything I'm open to ideas. But putting os/apps on SSD and media on hdd seemed like the most efficient solution.

(EDIT: Just in case it matters, the actual iTunes media folder and associated iTunes library files are actually on the ssd. I put them in the ~/Library/iTunes folder.)
 
Last edited:

RadicalxEdward

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 8, 2011
448
13
The only workaround I could suggest is hiding the folder from Finder

I couldn't ignore the folder since it's in the root of my media drive, however this was a sufficient solution for me considering it doesn't seem to be possible to get iTunes to stop recreating the file.

The code I ended up using was:
Code:
cd /Volumes/Media && chflags hidden Automatically\ Add\ to\ iTunes.localized

Thank you all, and especially KALLT for your help.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.