Your Library

Projects, playlists and groups — how ShadowTag holds your files, and how to get them in.

Video: Building Your Library — importing files, groups, smart playlists, and Finder tag colors.

Projects

A project is a self-contained set of playlists and groups. Use projects to keep unrelated bodies of work apart — a sound library and a film job need not share a sidebar.

ShadowTag always has one project open. The title bar shows a pull-down naming it; click it to switch projects or create a new one. The same list appears under File > Projects, and File > Projects > New Project asks for a name and switches to the new project.

Each project keeps its own playlists, groups and column layouts. The default project cannot be deleted.

Moving Work Between Projects

Right-click a playlist or group in the sidebar and use Copy to Project or Move to Project. Each opens a submenu listing the other projects and the groups inside them, so you can choose exactly where the playlist lands. The submenu also starts with New Project, which creates the project, copies or moves the selection into it, and switches you to it. The project you are already in is not offered — use Duplicate for that.

You can also copy playlists, switch to another project and paste them there.

Playlists

A playlist is an ordered collection of audio files. Playlists store file references, metadata edits and column visibility preferences. They do not copy or move the original files.

Creating a Playlist

The File > New submenu gathers the playlist-creation commands:

• Playlist (⌘N) — Create an empty playlist. You can also right-click in the playlist panel and choose New Playlist.
• Playlist from Selection (⌘⌥⌃N) — Create a new playlist populated with the currently selected files.
• Playlist Folder (⌘⇧N) — Create a group to hold playlists; see Playlist Groups below.

Double-click a playlist name to rename it.

Dragging a single folder from Finder onto the playlist panel creates a new playlist from its contents. If the folder carries a Finder tag color, the new playlist's icon adopts that color.

Adding Files

• Drag and drop — Drag files or folders from Finder into the file list. Folders are scanned recursively for supported audio and video formats.
• File menu — Use File > Add Files to open a standard file picker.

Supported formats: WAV (including RF64 and BW64), Wave64, AIFF, AIFC, CAF, AU, MP3, AAC, M4A, M4B, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, Opus, MP4, MOV, M4V, MPEG-TS, Matroska and WebM (.mkv, .mka, .webm), MXF (with Apple's free Pro Video Formats package installed; read-only). .addAudio and .addLibrary files are recognized as well; rather than being read in place, they open an import step that brings their contents into a playlist.

Add to Playlist

When you add files with no playlist selected to receive them, or add the results of an export, the Add to Playlist dialog asks where they go. It shows a single hierarchical menu of every group and the playlists inside it, and lets you create a new group — or a new playlist inside an existing group — without leaving the dialog. Your last selection is remembered for next time.

Importing a Folder

File > Import > Folder (⌘⌥O) imports an entire folder hierarchy in one step. Two modes are available:

• Single playlist — All audio under the root is flattened into one playlist.
• Folders → Playlists (recommended) — Each direct subfolder becomes its own playlist inside a new group.

To import several folders at once, ⌘-click them in the picker. Each folder becomes its own group, and the whole set shares one progress window and one summary.

A preview shows what the import will create before you commit, drawn like the sidebar, with each playlist's file count. A folder with nothing to import is listed with no files found and isn't added. The import honors the configured Playlist Size Limit in Settings — files beyond the cap are skipped rather than allowed to grow a playlist past it.

Importing from Apple Music

File > Import > Your Music Library reads your Apple Music library and imports the playlists you choose. Folders in Music become groups in ShadowTag, preserving the structure you already have. macOS asks permission to read the Music library the first time; if you decline, the panel explains how to grant it later in System Settings.

Removing Files

Select files in the list and press Delete. This removes the references from the playlist only — the original files are not affected. To remove a file itself, use Move to Trash below.

Renaming, Duplicating and Trashing Files

The file list's contextual menu carries three commands that act on the files on disk rather than on playlist entries:

• Rename (⌘R) — Renames the file. It acts on the topmost selected row, and if the name is already taken the dialog says so and keeps what you typed rather than starting over.
• Duplicate (⌘D) — Writes a Finder-named copy beside each selected file and inserts it directly below its original. Unsaved edits travel to the copy, so a duplicate matches what you see on screen rather than what is currently on disk.
• Move to Trash (⌘⌫) — Moves the selected files to the Trash and drops their rows from this playlist. Trashing more than five files asks for confirmation first. Other playlists holding the same file keep their row, which then shows as missing — the Trash is reversible, and that membership only exists inside ShadowTag.

All three write to disk immediately and can be undone. Rename and Move to Trash offer to unlock a locked file first. The keyboard shortcuts apply while the file list has focus.

Missing Files

If a file referenced by a playlist can't be found when ShadowTag opens — because its volume isn't mounted, or the file has been moved or deleted — ShadowTag keeps the entry in the playlist and marks it as missing instead of silently dropping it. A warning indicator appears in the sidebar next to the affected playlist and in the file status column, making it easy to spot which files are unavailable. When the file becomes available again, the entry reconnects on its own.

When files have been moved or renamed, File › Relink Files (⌃⌘R) reconnects them. It is also in the sidebar's contextual menu, in the file list's contextual menu when a selected file is missing, and on the warning shown for a missing file. The window lists the missing files in the selected playlists; its In menu switches to This Project, This Playlist or Selected Files.

• Search — Choose the folder the files were moved to, or drop it on the window. Files are matched by path first, then by name, and each place a file turns up becomes a rule applied to the rest.
• Locate File — Point to one file yourself. Where you found it becomes a rule for the others too.

Each found file is checked against what ShadowTag recorded about the original — file type, duration, size and the like — and its row says what differs. Where a name matches more than one file, the row shows the best match or asks you to choose. Press Delete to skip a file. A file already in your library is merged into the existing entry rather than listed twice.

Relinking cannot be undone. It updates every playlist holding the file, and every other project that holds it too.

Show in Playlists

Show in Playlists, in the file list's contextual menu, lists every playlist that holds each selected file. Choose one and press Return, or double-click it, to open that playlist with the file selected. A file held in only one other playlist opens it straight away.

Reordering

Drag rows to reorder them within the playlist. Click any column header to sort by that column. Click again to reverse order.

You can also drag files between playlists — unsaved metadata edits are preserved during the move. While a drag is in progress, hovering over a playlist in the sidebar for a moment switches the table to that playlist (the standard macOS spring-load gesture), so you can move files between playlists in one motion.

Shuffle (⌘⇧P) randomly reorders the current playlist. The currently playing track is pinned to the top of the shuffled list, any active sort or filter is cleared, and the change is undoable.

Dragging Files Out

Files in a playlist can be dragged into any DAW, asset manager, or Finder window. The drag carries the file itself, with its embedded metadata.

Drag-out works in the free version of ShadowTag as well as ShadowTag Pro.

Playlist Groups

Groups are folders that contain playlists. Use them to organize related playlists — for example, by client, job, or genre.

Creating a Group

• Press ⌘⇧N or choose File > New > Playlist Folder.
• Right-click in the playlist panel and choose New Group.

Drag playlists into or out of groups to organize them. Groups can be collapsed to save space. Drag a group to reorder the top-level groups — the order is kept across launches and can be undone. A Sort Groups command orders the top-level groups for you.

Several Playlists Together

Select two or more playlists in the sidebar, with ⌘-click or ⇧-click, or select a group, and their files appear together in one table. It is titled with the number of playlists, or with the group's name. A file held in more than one of them appears once.

Tag and marker edits made here go to every playlist that holds the file, and undo restores them in every one. Files can't be added, removed, reordered or shuffled in this view, and the audio track choice is unavailable, since those belong to a single playlist. A line above the table says so.

To load only the first selected playlist instead, turn off Settings > General > Combine Selected Playlists.

Playlist History

View > Playlist History tracks recently-viewed playlists. Use ⌘[ and ⌘] to step backward and forward through your navigation history.

Named Workspaces

File > Workspaces lets you save and restore multiple named workspace snapshots. A workspace captures your window layout, panel visibility, column arrangement, transport settings and Audio Unit chain.

• Workspaces > Save As Preset — Save the current state under a name. Saving to an existing name replaces it after confirmation.
• Workspaces > Presets — Choose a saved workspace to restore.
• Workspaces > Delete Preset — Remove a saved workspace.
• Workspaces > Show in Finder — Reveal the workspace storage folder.

File > Save Workspace (⌘S) saves the default workspace, which is restored at launch.

Smart Playlists

A built-in set of dynamic playlists appears in the sidebar and automatically lists every file matching a condition across all groups:

• Edited — Files with pending metadata or audio edits.
• Rated — Files with a star rating set.
• Colored — Files with a color tag assigned.

The columns needed to interpret each smart playlist (Rating, Colors) are added and pinned automatically. Smart playlists are rule-based — they update automatically and don't accept dropped files, so their contents always match the rule.

Search

Press ⌘F to focus the search field. A search looks at the filename, every tag value including custom and UCS tags, BEXT fields, Finder tag names, and the name of a file's color. Hyphens and underscores are treated as spaces, so car door finds car_door_close.wav. iXML Core, User, ASWG and Location fields are searched too; XMP fields are not.

Matching is fuzzy and results are ranked by closeness, so a near miss or a partial spelling still surfaces rather than returning nothing.

Where to Search

The button beside the search field chooses which playlists a search looks in. Click it to open a list of your playlists, arranged by group:

• All Playlists — Every playlist in the project.
• This Playlist — Whatever the sidebar is showing, including a smart playlist, Search Results, or several playlists selected together. It follows the sidebar as you move around.
• Playlists and groups — Select any number, with ⌘ and ⇧ as in the sidebar. Choosing a group searches every playlist in it, including ones added to the group later. Select All and Select None sit under the filter field, and the list's header counts how many are chosen.

This Playlist can be combined with other playlists; All Playlists cannot. The button names what is chosen, such as This Playlist, Ambience +1.

The Find menu has the same choices: Search All Playlists (⌃⌘1), Search This Playlist (⌃⌘2), and Choose Playlists, which opens the list.

Where you search also decides how the search runs:

• The playlist you are looking at — Either This Playlist, or a choice of just the displayed playlist. The table narrows as you type.
• Anything wider — Results are gathered into Search Results. Because this can cover the whole library, it runs when you press Return rather than on each keystroke.

Advanced Search

Find > Advanced Search (⌃⌥⌘F) opens a panel under the search field for building a search out of rules. It is also the first item in the menu under the search field's magnifying glass. The panel can be dragged away to float on its own.

At the top is its own search field, which takes the same text you would type in the main one, and the same choice of where to search. Below that are the rules. Click Add Rule to start, then choose a field, a condition and a value for each: BPM is between 118 and 122, Rating is at least 3 stars, Date Modified is in the last 2 weeks. The field menu is arranged like the table's column menu, and lists only fields that can be searched.

• Add and remove — The + button on a row adds a rule below it, and − removes the row.
• Groups — ⌥-click + to add a group instead. A group's header chooses whether All, Any or None of the rules inside it must be true, and groups can nest.
• Live — The search runs a moment after each change, and at once when you press Return. A rule that isn't finished yet is left out until it is. The number of results shows at the bottom of the panel.

While the panel is open, the main search field is dimmed and shows what the panel is searching for; clicking it returns you to the panel. When you close the panel, the rules appear at the start of the main field as a single token, with any typed text after it. Click the token to reopen the panel on those rules. Press Delete once to select the token and again to remove it.

The panel can be used entirely from the keyboard. Tab moves through the fields and buttons in order. Space, Return or ↓ opens a menu, Space presses a button (⌥Space on + adds a group), and Esc closes the panel.

Searching by Playlist

The Playlist field, first in the field menu, matches files by the playlists they belong to. Its value opens the same list of playlists and groups as the search field's button. is in matches files in any of the chosen playlists, and is not in matches files in none of them. A chosen group includes the playlists added to it later.

It covers what the button beside the search field cannot: excluding playlists, or a playlist condition inside an Any or None group. A playlist deleted since the rule was made shows as Missing Playlist and matches nothing. Smart playlists and Search Results can't be chosen.

Presets and Recents

The Presets button at the top of the Advanced Search panel saves the whole search under a name: the text, the rules, and where it looks. Choosing a preset loads it and runs it.

The menu under the search field's magnifying glass lists your recent searches, rules and where they looked included. Choosing one runs it again. The same search run in two different places is listed twice.

Typing a Search

Anything the panel can build, you can also type in either search field. Field names are case-insensitive, and a name with spaces goes in quotes: "Date Modified" in last 2w.

Condition	Type
contains / does not contain	artist:arca / artist!:arca
is / is not	key == Cm / key != Cm
begins with / ends with	title ^= Door / title $= Close
is empty / is not empty	genre is empty / genre is not empty
greater or less than	bpm > 120, bpm <= 90
between	bpm == 118..122
in the last	modified in last 30d (d, w, mo, y)
in this	modified in this year
is any of	labels in (Red, Blue)
is true / is false	edited == true / edited == false

• Combining — Separate terms all have to match. OR matches either side, NOT or a leading - excludes, and parentheses group: kick (bpm > 120 OR genre:house) -loop. The keywords are recognized only in capitals, so a lowercase or is searched as a word.
• Units — Durations take s, m and h; sizes KB, MB and GB; frequencies k for thousands. 120 bpm and -14 lufs work without naming the field.
• Fields and text together — kick bpm == 120 narrows to files whose BPM is 120, then ranks them by how well they match kick. Note that : means contains, so bpm:12 also finds 120; use == for an exact number.
• Playlists — The Playlist field has no typed form, since two playlists can share a name. Use the panel, or the button beside the search field.

Search Results

A search wider than the playlist you are looking at puts its results in a special Search Results playlist at the top of the list, titled with what was searched for and where. It is replaced each time you run a new search, but otherwise behaves like any other playlist — you can navigate away, or quit and relaunch, and return to find the last results and selection still there. Clearing the search field empties it and returns you to the playlist you were in before.

A Find and Replace across This Project also puts the files it changed here, titled with the text it replaced.

To keep the results, create a new playlist and drag files from the Search Results playlist into it.

Files & Finder

A playlist gathers files that live all over your drives. These commands act on the files themselves, not their playlist entries. Renaming, duplicating and trashing files is covered under Playlists above.

Finder Tags

ShadowTag reads and writes macOS Finder tags. Tags assigned in the app appear immediately in Finder and Spotlight, and tags assigned in Finder show up in ShadowTag. The Tags tab in the Metadata panel holds the color swatches; the Colored smart playlist collects everything carrying one.

Custom Tag Colors

macOS itself offers seven label colors — gray, green, purple, blue, yellow, red and orange. ShadowTag is not limited to them: a custom color is stored as an eight-character RGBA hex value in a text-only Finder tag on the file, so the exact color travels with the file rather than living in ShadowTag's own data.

Ratings

Files carry a 0–5 star rating. It is a metadata tag rather than a Finder attribute, so with ShadowTag Pro it is written into the file across every supported format and travels with it rather than staying in the project. Set one from the Rating menu or with ⌥1 through ⌥5 — the digit matches the star count — and ⌥0 removes the rating. The Rated smart playlist collects every rated file.

Locking Files

Lock (⌥L) and Unlock (⇧⌥L), in the file list's contextual menu, set the same lock Finder shows as Locked in Get Info, so a file you are finished with cannot be overwritten by accident — by ShadowTag or by anything else.

Locked files are marked in the status column. When you save a locked file, ShadowTag tells you which file it is. Locking and unlocking can both be undone.

Files Changed on Disk

If a file is modified by another application while you hold unsaved edits for it, ShadowTag opens a floating window listing every affected file, with an On Disk column beside a Your Edit column so you can see what actually differs before choosing.

• Reload Selected — Take the version on disk for the files you have selected.
• Reload All — Take the version on disk for every file listed.
• Keep My Edits — Leave your unsaved edits in place. The window closes and the files stay as you have them.

Reloading discards the unsaved edits for the files it applies to, and the window says so before you commit. It stays open while you keep working, and you can dismiss it and bring it back from the menu. Loading a different playlist replaces what the window lists rather than opening a second one.

Undo

Undo (⌘Z) covers the work you do on playlists and their contents: adding and removing files, reordering and sorting, renaming, ratings and colors, and copying, pasting, duplicating or removing groups in the sidebar. The Edit menu names the action it will reverse.

Undo belongs to the playlist it was recorded in. An edit made in one playlist is not undone from another — switch back to the playlist where the change happened to reverse it.

Persistence

Playlists are saved to disk automatically as you work — edits, color changes, and changes to playlist structure are saved immediately. File > Save Workspace saves your window layout, panel visibility, and playback state.

Each project stores its playlists in its own database, kept alongside ShadowTag's other settings — never inside your audio files. A library from ShadowTag 1 has to be opened in ShadowTag 2.3.1 first, which converts it to this format. Later versions don't convert it; they say so at launch and leave the library untouched.

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