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Save

This statement is used to save modifications to files. This statement is the only statement has access to all loaded files, (ie. not hidden), as opposed to only those which are selected. The statement does not modify the Editing state.

The following are exceptions where you can only save the files being processed. ie. the Save all/selected files option is ignored.

When Save all files is specified, files ignored by an Ignore Files or a Constrain Execution to a Single File statement will be processed. If you are running in the UI, the option will not process hidden files.

Once files are saved you will have lost the ability to revert to the initial state. You can however stil revert to a saved editing state. While you are testing actions it is a good idea to leave the Save statement out of the action.

When linked files are saved, this statement will automatically tell the linked Apple application to refresh its metadata. Depending on your Settings - Apple Apps settings, some metadata such as ratings, play counts, etc. may automatically be exported.

You can elect to save files under three conditions:

if modified
Only those files which have been modified will be saved.

always
Files are always saved regardless as to whether they have been modified.

if not auto saving
When batch processing, files will only be saved if the Batch Processor Auto save files option has not been set. ie. the Batch Processor is not automatically saving modified files. If Auto save files is not set, the files will only be saved if they have been modified. When not batch processing, this mode is treated the same as if modified. Note that automatically saving is more efficient than the Save command as the file's content is no longer required. This mode is largely a convenience to avoid:
Test if named variable 'Batch Auto-Save' is true (Set test state)
if false
&nbsqp;   Save selected files if modified
endif

The following additional options can be set depending on the above mode:

Save files with non standard tag containers
This option will force the saving of files containing non standard tag containers even if the files are not modified. It will force the saving of MP3 files with an ID3V1 or an APE tag and FLAC and APE files with ID3 tags. When the files are saved the non standard containers will be removed. Note that when a file is saved, non standard containers are always corrected. This option merely serves as criteria force the saving.

Remove free space if greater than the audio padding size
Via Settings - Audio - Remove free space you can force the removal of free space above a specified amount every time a file is saved. When this option is set, the Remove free space setting is ignored. This allows the action statement more granularity. When set and the only if the file is being saved option is not set, a file will always be saved if it has free space in excess of the current padding size. The excess space will be removed. If the only if the file is being saved option is set, the save will not be forced. ie. free space will only be removed if the file is saved for different reasons. Note that you can override the default padding amount by the Modify Application Settings statement.

Remove leading audio padding
Some mp3 files have leading padding. This is extra space before the start of the audio stream. This is rarely placed in the file intentionally but may have been caused by how the audio was captured. Typically this extra data is benign. However, If you have files which are not playing correctly or which cannot be fingerprinted, removing the leading padding may fix the issue. We do not like messing with the audio stream. Only do this if for some reason you feel that the audio track is not behaving correctly.

Completely remove all tags
As the name implies all tags are removed. Tags which have been configured to be written each time a file is saved will not be written. Note that for all audio formats with the exception of MPEG-4, OGG and Opus, the object encapsulating the tags is removed. In FLAC/OGG/Opus files the vendor identification (typically mapped to Encode BY) is removed (FLAC) or emptied (OGG/Opus). In MPEG-4 files, free space in the tagging area greater than the free space padding setting will be removed.