beets-filetote

Filetote plugin for beets

A plugin that moves non-music extra files, attachments, and artifacts during imports and CLI file manipulation actions (move, modify, reimport, etc.) for beets, a music library manager (and much more!).

This plugin runs on Python 3.10+ in beets v2.4+ (tested through v2.11). Older versions of the plugin have additional compatibility back to v1.6.

Installing

Stable

The stable version of the plugin is available from PyPI and can be installed using pip3:

pip3 install beets-filetote

Or if you have installed beets via pipx:

pipx inject beets beets-filetote

This ensures the plugin is installed into the same virtual environment as beets.

Configuration

You will need to enable the plugin in beets’ config.yaml:

plugins: filetote

It can copy files by file extension:

filetote:
  extensions: .cue .log

Or copy all non-music files:

filetote:
  extensions: .*

Or copy files by filename:

filetote:
  filenames: song.log

Or match based on a “pattern” (via glob pattern):

filetote:
  patterns:
    artworkdir:
      - "[aA]rtwork/"

It can look for and target “pairs” (files having the same name as a matching or “paired” media item/track):

filetote:
  pairing:
    enabled: true

You can specify pairing to happen to certain extensions, and even target/include only paired files:

filetote:
  pairing:
    enabled: true
    pairing_only: true
    extensions: ".lrc"

It can also exclude files that are otherwise matched:

filetote:
  exclude:
    filenames: song_lyrics.nfo

And print what got left:

filetote:
  print_ignored: true

File Handling & Renaming

In order to collect extra files and artifacts, Filetote needs to be told which types of files it should care about. This can be done using the following:

• Extensions (extensions:): Specify individual extensions like .cue or .log, or use a catch-all for all non-music files with .*.
• Filenames (filenames:): Match specific filenames like cover.jpg or organize artwork with [aA]rtwork/*.
• Patterns (patterns:): Use flexible glob patterns for more control, like matching all logs in a subfolder: CD1/*.log.
• Pairing: Move files with the same name as imported music items, like .lrc lyrics or album logs.

Filetote Renaming Basics

Unless otherwise specified, the default name for artifacts and extra files is: $albumpath/$old_filename. This means that by default, the file is essentially moved/copied into destination directory of the music item it gets grabbed with. This also means that the album folder is flattened, and any subdirectory is removed by default. To preserve subdirectories, see $subpath usage.

[!NOTE] To update the default renaming from $albumpath/$old_filename, use the filetote:default path specification.

Configuration for renaming works in much the same way as beets Path Formats, including the standard metadata values provided by beets along with replace settings. Filetote provides the below new path queries, which each takes a single corresponding value. These can be defined in either the top-level paths section of beets’ config or in the paths section of Filetote’s config. Both of the following are equivalent:

paths:
  ext:.log: $albumpath/$artist - $album

filetote:
  paths:
    ext:.log: $albumpath/$artist - $album

[!IMPORTANT] If you have the same path specified in both the top-level paths section of beets’ config and in the paths section of Filetote’s config, the Filetote’s specification will take precedence. There should not be a normal scenario where this is intentionally utilized with Filetote’s new path queries, but it may be needed if there’s a conflict/overlap with another plugin; this allows you to specify renaming rules that will only impact Filetote and not other plugins.

New path queries

These are the new path queries added by Filetote, from most to least specific:

• filename:
• paired_ext:
• pattern:
• ext:

This means that the filename: path query will take precedence over paired_ext:, pattern:, and ext: if a given file qualifies for them. This also means that the value in paired_ext: will take precedence over pattern: and ext:, and pattern: is higher priority than ext:.

[!WARNING] ext:.* is not a valid query. If you need to update the default renaming, please use filetote:default.

Renaming considerations

Renaming has the following considerations:

The fields available include the standard metadata values of the imported item ($albumartist, $album, $title, etc.), along with Filetote specific values of:

• $albumpath: the entire path of the new destination of the item/track (a useful shorthand for when the extra/artifact file will be moved alongside the item/track).
  • Note: beets doesn’t have a strict “album” path concept. All references are relative to Items (the actual media files). This is especially relevant for multi-disc (multidisc) files/albums, but usually isn’t a problem. Check the section on multi-discs for more details.
• $subpath: Represents any subdirectories under the base album path where an extra/artifact file resides. For use when it is desirable to preserve the directory hierarchy in the albums. This respects the original capitalization of directory names. Defaults to an empty string when no subdirectories exist.
  • Example: If an extra file is located in a subdirectory named Extras under the album path, $subpath would be set to Extras/ (with the same casing).
• $old_filename: the filename of the extra/artifact file before its renamed.
• $medianame_old: the filename of the item/track triggering it, before it’s renamed.
• $medianame_new: the filename of the item/track triggering it, after it’s renamed.

[!WARNING] The fields mentioned above are not usable within other plugins such as inline. That said, inline and other plugins should work without issue unless otherwise specified here.

The full set of built-in functions are also supported, except for %aunique, which will return an empty string.

[!IMPORTANT] By default, if there are rename rules set that result with multiple files having the exact same filename in the destination, if the contents of the file are the same it will not overwrite the old file. If the contents are different, it will copy/move the new file with a unique name to persist both files. This behavior is configurable, see the Handling Duplicate Artifacts section for details on how to change this to keep or overwrite files.

Subpath Renaming Example

The following configuration or template string will be applied to .log files by using the $subpath and will rename log file to: ~/Music/Artist/2014 - Album/Extras/Artist - Album.log

This assumes that the original file is in the subdirectory (subpath) of Extras/. Any other .log files in other subdirectories or in the root of the album will be moved accordingly. If a more targeted approach is needed, this can be combined with the pattern: query.

[!NOTE] $subpath automatically adds in path separators, including the end one if there are subdirectories.

paths:
  ext:.log: $albumpath/$subpath$artist - $album

Extension (extensions:)

Filename can match on the extension of the file, in a space-delimited list (i.e., a string sequence). Use .* to match all file extensions.

Extension Example Configuration

This example will match any file which has an extension of either .lrc or .log, across all subfolders.

filetote:
  extensions: .lrc .log

Extension Renaming Example

The following configuration or template string will be applied to .log files by using the ext: query and will rename log file to: ~/Music/Artist/2014 - Album/Artist - Album.log

paths:
  ext:.log: $albumpath/$artist - $album

Filename (filenames:)

Filetote can match on the actual name (including extension) of the file, in a space-delimited list (string sequence). filenames: will match across any subdirectories, meaning targeting a filename in a specific subdirectory will not work (this functionality can be achieved using a pattern, however).

Filename Example Configuration

This example will match if the filename of the given artifact or extra file matches the name exactly as specified, either cover.jpg or artifact.nfo.

filetote:
  filenames: cover.jpg artifact.nfo

Filename Renaming Example

The following configuration will rename the specific artifact.nfo file to: ~/Music/Artist/2014 - Album/Artist - Album.nfo

filetote:
  paths:
    filename:artifact.nfo: $albumpath/$artist - $album
  filenames: cover.jpg artifact.nfo

Pattern (patterns:)

Filetote can match on a given pattern as specified using glob patterns. This allows for more specific matching, like grabbing only PNG artwork files. Paths in the pattern are relative to the root of the importing album. Hence, if there are subdirectories in the album’s folder (for multidisc setups, for instance, e.g., albumpath/CD1), the album’s path would be the base/root for the pattern (ex: CD1/*.jpg). Patterns will work with or without the proceeding slash (/) (Windows users will need to use the appropriate slash \).

Specifying pattern folders with a trailing slash (ex: albumpath/) will match every file in that subdirectory irrespective of name or extension (it is equivalent to albumpath/*.*).

Patterns are defined by a name so that any customization for renaming can apply to the pattern when specifying the path (ex: pattern:artworkdir; see the section on renaming below).

[!IMPORTANT] Patterns process in order from top to bottom, and once matched will determine which path to apply during renaming. This is important in cases where theoretically a file could match to multiple patterns. For example, if you have a file here: albumpath/artwork/cover.jpg, the pattern it will match to is the first (artworkdir) in the following config:

filetote:
 patterns:
   artworkdir:
     - "[aA]rtwork/"
   images:
     - "*.jpg"
     - "*.jpeg"
     - "*.png"

Thus, it will only match the pattern path of pattern:artworkdir and not pattern:images. Please note that irrespective if it matches a pattern, if there is a more specific path per the renaming rules it will use that instead.

Pattern Example Configuration

This example will match if the filename of the given artifact or extra file matches the name exactly as specified, either cover.jpg or artifact.nfo.

This example will match all files within the given subdirectory of either artwork/ or Artwork/. Since it’s not otherwise specified, [aA]rtwork/ will grab all non-media files in that subdirectory irrespective of name or extension.

filetote:
  patterns:
    artworkdir:
      - "[aA]rtwork/"

Pattern Renaming Example

The following pattern configuration will rename the file artwork/cover.jpeg to: ~/Music/Artist/2014 - Album/artwork/cover.jpeg

filetote:
  paths:
    pattern:artworkdir: $albumpath/artwork/$old_filename
  patterns:
    artworkdir:
      - "[aA]rtwork/"

Pairing (pairing:)

Filetote can specially target related files like lyrics or logs with the same name as music files (“paired” files). This keeps related files together, making your library even more organized. When enabled, it will match and move those files having the same name as a matching music file. Pairing can be configured to target only certain extensions, such as .lrc. By default, all paired files will be targeted unless specific extensions are specified (at which point only those extensions will be grabbed).

Pairing Example Configuration

This example configuration will grab paired .lrc files, along with any artwork files:

filetote:
  pairing:
    enabled: true
    extensions: ".lrc"
  patterns:
    artworkdir:
          - "[aA]rtwork/"

Filetote can also be configured to only target paired files, which will ignore other Filetote configurations such as filename or patterns as described above. The following configuration would only target .lrc files:

filetote:
  pairing:
    enabled: true
    pairing_only: true
    extensions: ".lrc"

Pairing Renaming

To maintain the concept of “pairs” after importing, the default path for the paired files will use the media files new name. This will ensure that the file remains paired even after moving. This is equivalent to setting:

paths:
  paired_ext:.lrc: $albumpath/$medianame_new

This can be updated for any specific extension, such as the following which keeps the old filename:

paths:
  paired_ext:.lrc: $albumpath/$old_filename

[!NOTE] To update the default pairing renaming for all paired files away from $albumpath/$medianame_new, use the filetote-pairing:default path specification.

Excluding Files (exclude:)

Certain artifact files can be excluded/ignored by specifying settings under the exclude via filenames, extensions, and/or patterns. For example, to always exclude files named either song_lyrics.nfo or album_description.nfo, you can specify:

filetote:
  exclude:
    filenames: song_lyrics.nfo album_description.nfo

Likewise, to more broadly exclude extensions .nfo and .lrc, specify:

filetote:
  exclude:
    extensions: .nfo .lrc

Likewise, patterns can be used to perform more specialized exclusions, such as excluding all files in a subdirectory. For example, to exclude all artifact files in the subdirectories artwork and/or Artwork:

filetote:
  exclude:
    patterns:
      artworkdir:
        - "[aA]rtwork/"

exclude patterns follow the same glob rules specified the higher-level patterns config.

These can be combined to exclude any combination. For example, you can exclude by filename and pattern:

filetote:
  exclude:
    filenames: song_lyrics.nfo
    patterns:
      artworkdir:
        - "[aA]rtwork/"

[!IMPORTANT] exclude-qualified files take precedence over other matching, meaning exclude will override other matches by either extensions or filenames.

Handling Duplicate Artifacts (duplicate_action:)

When an artifact or extra file is imported, it is possible that a file with the same name already exists in the destination directory (for example, during a re-import or if multiple source files map to the same destination filename).

The duplicate_action config option controls how Filetote handles these collisions:

filetote:
  duplicate_action: merge

The available options are:

• merge (default): if the new file is the same in name and identical in content, do not overwrite or rename it; if the content is different, it renames the new file to be unique. The new file is renamed by appending a number to the filename (e.g., artifact.1.log) to make it unique, in the same way as how beets handles duplicate music tracks.
• skip: The existing file in the destination is preserved, and the new file is ignored.
• keep: Both files are kept. Renaming uses the method described in merge.
• remove: The new file overwrites the existing file. Use with caution!

It is also possible to “sidestep” collisions, $old_filename can be used in conjunction with other fields to keep uniqueness in each name.

[!IMPORTANT] If the source file and the destination file are actually the same file in the same place (i.e., the source and destination paths are identical), Filetote will always do nothing, regardless of this setting.

Import Operations

This plugin supports the same operations as beets:

• copy
• move
• link (symlink)
• hardlink
• reflink

These options are mutually exclusive, and there are nuances to how beets (and thus this plugin) behave when there multiple set. See the beets import documentation and #36 for more details.

Reimporting has an additional nuance when copying of linking files that are already in the library, in which files will be moved rather than duplicated. This behavior in Filetote is identical to that of beets. See the beets reimport documentation for more details.

Other CLI Operations

Additional commands such as move, modify, update, etc. will also trigger Filetote to handle files. These commands typically work with queries, targeting specific files that match the supplied query. Please note that the operation executed by beets for these commands do not use the value set in the config file under import, they instead are specified as part of the CLI command.

Examples of config.yaml

plugins: filetote

paths:
  default: $albumartist/$year - $album/$track - $title
  singleton: Singletons/$artist - $title
  ext:.log: $albumpath/$artist - $album
  ext:.cue: $albumpath/$artist - $album
  paired_ext:.lrc: $albumpath/$medianame_new
  filename:cover.jpg: $albumpath/cover

filetote:
  extensions: .cue .log .png
  filenames: cover.jpg
  pairing:
    enabled: true
    extensions: ".lrc"
  print_ignored: true

Or:

plugins: filetote

paths:
  default: $albumartist/$year - $album/$track - $title
  singleton: Singletons/$artist - $title

filetote:
  extensions: .txt .cue
  patterns:
    artworkdir:
      - "[sS]cans/"
      - "[aA]rtwork/"
  exclude:
    filenames: "copyright.txt"
  pairing:
    enabled: true
    extensions: .lrc
  paths:
    pattern:artworkdir: $albumpath/artwork
    paired_ext:.lrc: $albumpath/$medianame_old
    filename:cover.jpg: $albumpath/cover

Multi-Disc and Nested Import Directories

beets imports multi-disc (multidisc) albums as a single unit (see beets documentation). By default, this results in the media importing to a single directory in the library.

Filetote detects when an album is multi-disc and scans for artifacts in multiple locations:

• Disc Subdirectories: Artifacts inside ./Album/Disc 1/, ./Album/Disc 2/, etc., are collected and associated with the tracks in those specific folders.
• Parent Album Directory: Artifacts located in the root album folder (./Album/artwork/, ./Album/booklet.pdf, etc.) are also collected and moved/copied alongside the media files.

This ensures that “global” album artifacts (like artwork or logs) are preserved even when tracks are organized into subfolders.

[!NOTE] Artifacts in the parent directory are treated as “shared” artifacts. To prevent false matches, Filetote will not “pair” an artifact in the parent folder with a track in a subdirectory (e.g., Album/01.lrc will not pair with Album/Disc 1/01.mp3). Artifacts must be in the same directory or a subdirectory of the track to be paired.

Files will be moved by Filetote to any specified subdirectory in the library if the path definition creates “Disc N” subfolders as described in the beets documentation.

Advanced renaming for multi-disc albums

The value for $albumpath is actually based on the path for the Item (music file) the lead to the artifact to be moved. Since it’s common to store multi-disc albums with subfolders, this means that by default the artifact or extra file in question will also be in a subfolder.

For macOS and Linux, to achieve a different location (say the media is in Artist/Disc 01, but artifacts are intended to be in Artist/Extras), .. can be used to navigate to the parent directory of the $albumpath so that the entirety of the media’s path does not have to be recreated. For Windows, the entire media path would need to be recreated as Windows sees .. as an attempt to create a directory with the name .. within path instead of it being a path component representing the parent.

macOS & Linux

The following example will have the following results on macOS & Linux:

• Music: ~/Music/Artist/2014 - Album/Disc 1/media.mp3
• Artifact: ~/Music/Artist/2014 - Album/Extras/example.log

plugins: filetote

paths:
  default: $albumartist/$year - $album/$track - $title
  comp: $albumartist/$year - $album/Disc $disc/$track - $title

filetote:
  extensions: .log
  paths:
    ext:log: $albumpath/../Extras/$old_filename

Windows

The following example will have the following results on Windows:

• Music: ~/Music/Artist/2014 - Album/Disc 1/media.mp3
• Artifact: ~/Music/Artist/2014 - Album/Extras/example.log

plugins: filetote

paths:
  default: $albumartist/$year - $album/$track - $title
  comp: $albumartist/$year - $album/Disc $disc/$track - $title

filetote:
  extensions: .log
  paths:
    ext:log: $albumartist/$year - $album/Extras/$old_filename

Filetote Compatibility with Other Plugins

Other plugins, including inline and convert, should be fully compatible with Filetote. That said, sometimes there are small considerations. For example, the new fields mentioned in Renaming Considerations are not usable by other plugins (such as inline). If you experience any issues with any other plugins, please report them.

[!IMPORTANT] convert is only compatible with Filetote v1.0.3+. convert performs conversion very early in the import process, before other plugins. In prior versions of Filetote this would cause Filetote to look into the wrong location (the temporary file location on the newly converted media file), instead of the original source the media file came from. A special workaround was needed which was introduced in v1.0.3.

Why Filetote and Not Other Similar Plugins?

Filetote serves the same core purpose as the copyartifacts plugin and the extrafiles plugin, however both have lacked in maintenance over the last few years. There are outstanding bugs in each (though copyartifacts has seen some recent activity resolving some). In addition, each are lacking in certain features and abilities, such as hardlink/reflink support, “paired” file handling, and extending renaming options. What’s more, significant focus has been provided to Filetote around Python3 conventions, linting, and typing in order to promote healthier code and easier maintenance.

Filetote strives to encompass all functionality that both copyartifacts and extrafiles provide, and then some!

Migrating from copyartifacts

Filetote can be configured using nearly identical configuration as copyartifacts, simply replacing the name of the plugin in its configuration settings. There is one change that’s needed if all extensions are desired, as Filetote does not grab all extensions by default (as copyartifacts does). To accommodate, simply explicitly state all extension using .*:

filetote:
  extensions: .*

Otherwise, simply replacing the name in the config section will work. For example:

copyartifacts:
  extensions: .cue .log

Would become:

filetote:
  extensions: .cue .log

Path definitions can also be specified in the way that copyfileartifacts does, alongside other path definitions for beets. E.g.:

paths:
  ext:log: $albumpath/$artist - $album

Migrating from extrafiles

Filetote can be configured using nearly identical configuration as extrafiles, simply replacing the name of the plugin in its configuration settings. For example:

extrafiles:
  patterns:
    all: "*.*"

Would become:

filetote:
  patterns:
    all: "*.*"

Path definitions can also be specified similar to the way that extrafiles does; however, unlike extrafiles which would implicitly append the original filename to any path, Filetote is more explicit, and you must include either $old_filename or $medianame_new in your path definition.

For example, to move all files from an artwork directory into a destination “artwork” directory, you would change this extrafiles config:

extrafiles:
  patterns:
    artworkdir:
      - "[sS]cans/"
      - "[aA]rtwork/"
  paths:
    artworkdir: $albumpath/artwork

To this Filetote config, explicitly adding $old_filename:

filetote:
  patterns:
    artworkdir:
      - "[sS]cans/"
      - "[aA]rtwork/"
  paths:
    artworkdir: $albumpath/artwork/$old_filename

This helps make configuration clearer and removes any ambiguity about how files will be named.

Version Upgrade Instructions

Certain versions require changes to configurations as upgrades occur. Please see below for specific steps for each version.

1.2.0

Default renaming of paired files now matches the track’s new name

Previously, paired files needed manual naming specification to remain paired. This has been updated in version 1.2.0 to automatically use the newer file name so that paired files remain paired after importing. That setting can be overridden as needed. See the section on Pairing Renaming for more details.

1.0.2

Config for exclude now expects explicit filenames, extensions, or patterns

As of version 1.0.2, Filetote now emits a deprecation warning for configurations setting exclude to a simple list of filenames. Instead, Filetote now expects explicit filenames, extensions, and/or patterns, e.g.:

filetote:
  exclude:
    filenames: song_lyrics.nfo album_description.nfo

Contrast to the previous configuration (now deprecated):

filetote:
  exclude: song_lyrics.nfo album_description.nfo

For now, the old configuration style is still supported but logged as deprecated. In a future version this setting will no longer be backwards compatible.

0.4.0

Default for extensions is now None

As of version 0.4.0, Filetote no longer set the default for extensions to .*. Instead, setting Filetote to collect all extensions needs to be explicitly defined, e.g.:

filetote:
  extensions: .*

Pairing Config Changes

pairing has been converted from a boolean to an object with other like-config. Take the following config:

filetote:
  pairing: true
  pairing_only: false

These will both now be represented as individual settings within pairing:

filetote:
  pairing:
    enabled: true
    pairing_only: false
    extensions: ".lrc"

Both remain optional and both default to false.

Troubleshooting

Filetote provides detailed logging at different verbosity levels to help diagnose issues:

• -v (info): Shows each file operation (move/copy/link) with source and destination paths.
• -vv (debug): Shows event handling, artifact discovery counts, exclusion decisions, and queue processing details.

For example:

beet -v import /path/to/music

This is especially helpful if files aren’t being picked up as expected. The debug output will show what Filetote discovered, what is excluded, and what is processed.

Development & Contributing

Thank you for considering contributing to Filetote! Information on how you can contribute, develop, or help can be found in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Thanks

This plugin originated as a hard fork from beets-copyartifacts (copyartifacts3).

Thank you to the original work done by Sami Barakat and Adrian Sampson, along with the larger beets’ community.

Please report any issues you may have and feel free to contribute.

License

Copyright © 2022-2026 Gavin Tronset

Licensed under the MIT license.