Using a little known folder buried within the iTunes directory, you can automatically add any compatible media to iTunes, be it songs, music, movies, just by placing files into the directory. This gets even better when you point downloads to that directory, because all downloaded media is then immediately synced to iTunes with no user interaction. It’s extremely easy to set up, here is how in two simple steps:
- Navigate to your home folder ~/iTunes/iTunes Media/ and find the “Automatically Add to iTunes” folder
- Select “Automatically Add to iTunes” and hit Command+L to make an alias of it, drag that alias to either the desktop or to the downloads folder
Anything dropped into that folder imports into iTunes immediately.
Next you will want to point downloads to that aliased folder, so open your torrent clients, SoundCloud, web browsers, or where ever else you are getting media files from, and change their respective download directories. You can also change the name of the user ~/Downloads directory and move the aliased “Automatically Add” folder in it’s place, but that isn’t the best idea if you download other files too.
Once you have apps pointed at the folder, all completed media files will now go directly to iTunes with no user involvement, copying, clicking, nothing, everything is automatic. This is an excellent way to have files downloaded from the web, newsgroups, torrents, etc, synced directly to your iTunes library, which can then go right to iOS devices.
This should work with nearly all versions of iTunes and all versions of Mac OS X. While the guide is geared towards Mac users, the folder probably exists and works the same in Windows too, though you’ll have to make a shortcut instead of an alias. Enjoy!
Thanks to Kilian for the tip
