How to organize a FLAC music library on your Mac
A well-organized library lasts for years and works with any player. A messy one forces you to fix split albums, missing artwork and repeated songs. These are the rules that work best for a FLAC collection.
1. Pick a folder structure and stick to it
The simplest is Artist / Album (Year) / 01 - Title.flac. What matters isn’t the exact pattern, but always using the same one. For double albums, use Disc 1 and Disc 2 subfolders inside the album, or a single folder with the disc number in the tags.
2. Tags matter more than file names
The player groups by tags, not by folders. The essentials are title, artist, album, album artist, track number, disc number, year and genre. Without an album artist, an album with guests or a compilation can show up split into several.
3. Albums with several editions, and compilations
- Keep each edition (original, remaster, deluxe) in its own folder, with the year in the name.
- For compilations, use the same album artist, such as “Various Artists”, so they group into a single album.
- If you distinguish the original year from the edition year, write the original in
ORIGINALDATE; Sonora uses that field and falls back toDATEif it’s missing.
4. Artwork
Save a cover.jpg image in each album folder. One of around 1200 pixels is enough.
5. Duplicates
Duplicates appear when you copy the same album from two sources, or keep a FLAC and an MP3 version. Sonora finds them under Tools ▸ Duplicates: songs with the same artist and title and a similar length (±3 s), with the highest-quality version at the top. You decide which one to keep.
6. Back up before touching anything
Before editing tags or moving folders in bulk, copy the library to another drive. Sonora also saves how the tags were before each change, and you can go back from the album’s History… button.
7. Check the library in the player
Add the folder with Folders ▸ Add Folder… and open Tools ▸ Needs info: it lists albums with no artist, year or artwork, or with untitled tracks. With Fill In Info… Sonora looks the album up on MusicBrainz, shows several editions and a table that matches your files to the proposed songs by length and title. It only writes to tracks that match, and only if you tick that option. Files that aren’t FLAC are not modified. When you move folders around, press Rescan (⌘⇧R).
Common problems
- An album shows up twice: the album artist is missing or the disc numbers don’t match.
- A single song appears as a separate album: it has a different album title in its tags.
- Artwork is missing: check “Needs info” and click “Fill In…”.
- I made a mistake while editing: open History… and restore the previous tags.
Try it with your library
Sonora is a native macOS player (Apple silicon, macOS 14 or later). Try it free for 14 days with every feature, no card and no sign-up.