Is it possibble not to move files at all?

[isle9]

Is it possible to keep my current path for my files, so that they are not grouped in albums and artists (they are still grouped under artists if you use singleton)?
I am using Navidrome and any path change deletes the song from Navidrome's database.

[hg2s]

Does the "update" command solve this problem for you? There is a dry-run option so you can test it.

[isle9]

"Update the library (and, by default, move files)". From the wording, seems like this would only work if I have my beets library already set up? Although it does mention moving files in the brackets. I'll try using the dry run option to check what happens.

[hg2s]

I know this has been addresses before but I don't recall what it was called. It might be that in order to suppress the 'move' you have to use a different configuration file that has something like 'move: no' in it. Of course you will need to have your singleton path specified as well.

Otherwise, have you read the Command Line Interface notes on 'reimporting' and 'update'? It isn't clear to me what the -a flag does in 'update'. Maybe you can test it and report back.

[isle9]

I re-read some of the documentation stuff, and it seems that I just actually need to use copy: no in the config and it should leave my directory completely untouched? I can then run the importer on my existing music directory, and that should be it?

[hg2s]

Did it work for you?

[isle9]

I haven't tried it yet, but iirc, it should work.

[JOJ0]

Set copy to no.
And move to no.

Then you can select on import and modify commands manually when you want to copy/move

beet import --copy

beet import --move

beet mod --copy

beet mod --move

For newly downloaded stuff I often use --move.

For existing stuff that shouldnt be altered I dont use either option, ie my default is to never touch path!!