# Renaming folder by personal preference?

**URL:** <https://discourse.beets.io/t/renaming-folder-by-personal-preference/1842>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [September 4, 2021, 3:14am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/renaming-folder-by-personal-preference/1842 "2021-09-04T03:14:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Flank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Flank](https://discourse.beets.io/u/Flank)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 3:14am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/renaming-folder-by-personal-preference/1842/1 "2021-09-04T03:14:20Z")

</div>

So sometimes my folders containing the album might not be the way I want it.

I want it to be something like this:

`$artist - $album_name - $year`

And I want the separators to be the `-`

Which plugins do I need to install? And is it possible to make this a setting in the config file?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jackwilsdon](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/jackwilsdon/32/10_2.png) [@jackwilsdon](https://discourse.beets.io/u/jackwilsdon)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 11:41am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/renaming-folder-by-personal-preference/1842/2 "2021-09-04T11:41:40Z")

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The [`paths`](https://beets.readthedocs.io/en/stable/reference/config.html#path-format-configuration) configuration option (also see [Path Formats](https://beets.readthedocs.io/en/stable/reference/pathformat.html)) should let you set up the album folders how you want:

```auto
paths:
    default: $albumartist - $album - $year/$track $title

```

This will affect all of your music, I don’t believe there’s an option for changing this on a per-album basis.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Flank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Flank](https://discourse.beets.io/u/Flank)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 3:15pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/renaming-folder-by-personal-preference/1842/3 "2021-09-04T15:15:35Z")

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why is there the / symbol there?

I get that the first line does change the album folder name, and does that mean the options after / defines the song’s name?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Flank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Flank](https://discourse.beets.io/u/Flank)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 3:24pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/renaming-folder-by-personal-preference/1842/4 "2021-09-04T15:24:15Z")

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So yes I am pretty sure that is what it does in the config. setting the individual song’s name.

I used this config line:

```auto
paths:
    default: $albumartist - $album - $year/$track - $title - $artis

```

And imported an album folder that was previously there, yet the year was not added to the album folder, do you know why is that?

Scenario:

```auto
pwd
/home/user/music/
beet import album1/

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jackwilsdon](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/jackwilsdon/32/10_2.png) [@jackwilsdon](https://discourse.beets.io/u/jackwilsdon)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 5:07pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/renaming-folder-by-personal-preference/1842/5 "2021-09-04T17:07:26Z")

</div>

Was the album already imported? [If you want to move your already-imported music, use `beet move`](https://beets.readthedocs.io/en/stable/faq.html#rename-my-files-according-to-a-new-path-format-configuration) (preferably with `-p` initially to see what beets will do).