Copy Files using Mac Command Line
You may have a music folder structure that contains a mix of file types.
e.g. Folder Name
./source/Al Green/Back 2 Back Hits
Folder contents:
01 - Let's Stay Together (live).flac 01 - Let's Stay Together (live).wav 01 - Let's Stay Together (live).mp3 02 - You Ought to be With Me.flac 02 - You Ought to be With Me.wav 02 - You Ought to be With Me.mp3 . . folder.jpg
Now assume we want to separate the files into folders based on file types.
On a Mac computer (or Linux) we can use the rsync command line from a Terminal (Applications -> Utilities) as follows:
rsync --zarv --include="*/" --include="*.mp3" --include="*.jpg" --exclude="*" ./source ./MP3/
This will copy all mp3 and jpg files from the source folder to the MP3 folder.
Source Folder
Result in Destination
Note the previous command will copy the files leaving the copied files in the original folders.
If you want to move the files (just the MP3) into the new folder use the following command:
Caution - there is no undo - so test first on a sample folder!
rsync --zarv --include="*/" --include="*.mp3" --exclude="*" --remove-source-files ./source ./MP3/