Convert auto function unclear

[JKolman]

Hello all,

I’ve only been using beets for a couple of days now, but I haven’t been able to figure out quite how the auto function of the convert plugin works.

What I want: I want the convert plugin to automatically convert all newly imported music files to the mp3 format, as per the plugin’s default. However, I then want it to delete the originals.
(The originals will always be flac, I’ll make sure of that in the query, and I want them gone to save on disk space.)

However, the docs currently don’t mention what happens to the original files.
Are they stored in a location of my choosing? (If so, I can make the originals be “stored” in the recycle bin.)
Or are they kept in the same location as the newly converted files?

Is there a way to add -k to the auto convert commandline?

I’ve been trying a bunch of workarounds but no luck thus far. All thoughts are appreciated.

[adrian]

Hi! The option does the conversion and puts the newly-converted files in your library. Your original files are untouched.

This thread is about doing what you want instead:

Convert and delete source file(s)

I like that, but I should expand a bit more. I’m running the import over my /music directory on a schedule to tag any new music. Sometimes flac files end up next to the converted mp3 files. I’ve got beets running in a container with the cron job scheduled at the host so I figure tying it to the import process is ‘safer’ convert: command: ffmpeg -i $source -y -vn -aq 2 $dest && $dest extension: mp3

In particular, check out this feature request, which would let you change the import config to delete the originals:

convert: In `auto` mode, respect `import.move` by deleting old files