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Simplest way to write selected metadata to file
CarlinSmithPostSeptember 11, 2025, 09:34
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January 1, 2020, 15:15
Hot topicSimplest way to write selected metadata to file

I think I am overcomplicating a simple task. What is easiest method to choose some metadata tags and batch write them to a text file?

IE for all files in a batch process create a text file with Album Artist, some delimiter, then Track title.

2MR2PostSeptember 11, 2025, 10:33
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August 23, 2012, 19:27
Hot topicSimplest way to write selected metadata to file

I'm missing some information. One line per file? No association to the file? Please send me one or two sample text lines.

That being said, there are numerous ways to do this. If all required info in in fields, simple create an export set and then a one line action which creates a Standalone track database via Create Track Database statement. Configure it to produce a TSV file and you'll have simple text file with a tab delimiter .... one row per file.

You can also use a Write Text File writing whatever you want and specifying append to file.

Or ... in the batch action you can call the resource action Generic Text Exporter and append the results to a text file.

CarlinSmithPostSeptember 11, 2025, 10:42
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Hot topicSimplest way to write selected metadata to file

Sure example would be:

Adele,Strangers By Nature
Adele,Easy On Me

One line per track title.

CarlinSmithPostSeptember 11, 2025, 11:23
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Hot topicSimplest way to write selected metadata to file

I was able to follow your suggestion creating an export set plus a single action. My next step is to sort the output on Album Artist (first field in my file)

2MR2PostSeptember 11, 2025, 11:30
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Hot topicSimplest way to write selected metadata to file

You're fast 🙂

I just modified my sample to sort.

Download: https://2manyrobots.com/actions/Batch-Export-Fields-to-Text-File.zip

CarlinSmithPostNovember 9, 2025, 08:09
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Hot topicSimplest way to write selected metadata to file

I have been using this and variations on export sets - could you use advice on how to skip writing blank lines and only unique values. Example - if I want to export all unique conductors to a txt file one per line.

2MR2PostNovember 9, 2025, 08:25
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Hot topicSimplest way to write selected metadata to file

The Generic Text Exporter (a resource action) is far more feature rich for writing text files.

You can roll your own with two statements:

Build List with delimiter "\n" in named variable 'Unique Conductors' from field Conductor (Sorted) (case insensitive) string delimiter "\~"
Write Text File "\<location>" from named variable 'Unique Conductors', encoding UTF-8 (Lossless)

CarlinSmithPostNovember 9, 2025, 08:43
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Hot topicSimplest way to write selected metadata to file

Thanks for quick reply. I duplicated the statements above and when watching the text file it appears the entries are getting overwritten on each line versus going to new lines so end up with empty file.

2MR2PostNovember 9, 2025, 08:52
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Hot topicSimplest way to write selected metadata to file

The delimiter on the Build List statement has to be a newline sequence (\n). You might append a newline character to the list before you write the file, if you want the last line to be terminated.

I'll be in a car driving for most of the day ... so I'll check back to this later in the day.
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2MR2PostNovember 9, 2025, 09:04
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Hot topicSimplest way to write selected metadata to file

Sorry, our posts were crossing. I've uploaded and tested the following snippet:

https://2manyrobots.com/actions/List-of-Unique-Conductors-Snippet.zip

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