# Use -a by default?

**URL:** <https://discourse.beets.io/t/use-a-by-default/2087>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [May 9, 2022, 12:06am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/use-a-by-default/2087 "2022-05-09T00:06:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![halloleo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@halloleo](https://discourse.beets.io/u/halloleo)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2022, 12:06am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/use-a-by-default/2087/1 "2022-05-09T00:06:20Z")

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Most of my look-ups and all my manual tagging (with flexible attributes) I do on album level. Is there a way to make the `-a` switch the default? I sometime forget it and then I end up in a mess…

Also, is there any automatic way to add an attribute to the album when it is already set for all tracks in an album and vice versa? Is this even desirable? (I’m still starting out with beets.)

Thanks for any help!

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**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:** [May 15, 2022, 1:40pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/use-a-by-default/2087/2 "2022-05-15T13:40:24Z")

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I can’t speak as to whether it’s a good idea or not, but it’s not something beets offers right now. Your best option right now may be to set up some aliases on your system (e.g. `alias beetls='beet ls -a`, then using `beetls ...` instead of `beet ls -a`).