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July 20 2011 - 9:41 am

Installing AppleScripts Under OS X Lion

AppleScripts need to be installed in your [username]/Library/iTunes/Scripts/ folder. But, in case you hadn't noticed, the [username]/Library/ folder is hidden in OS X Lion. The theory is that since the ~/Library folder contains a lot of important configuration files Apple doesn't want to give users the opportunity to inadvertently screw anything up. For the most part, I suppose this is a good idea. Whatever. However, AppleScripts for iTunes--among other sorts of plug-ins--have to be installed in the ~/Library folder by the user*.

To access the ~/Library folder, you can do a couple of things:

  • The easiest method: Hold the Option key while clicking the Finder's "Go" menu and "Library" will appear in the drop down menu. Select it to bring the ~/Library/ folder frontmost. Then navigate to ~/Library/iTunes/Scripts/ and copy your iTunes scripts to this folder. (As usual: if no "Scripts" folder is there then create one.)
  • Geekier: Type "chflags nohidden Library" in Terminal while the prompt is at your home directory. This will make the ~/Library/ folder visible at all times.
  • *Alternative: Install scripts in the [startup disk]/Library/iTunes/Scripts/ folder (which will make scripts available to all users on your machine) rather than the user's [username]/Library/iTunes/Scripts/ folder. That Library folder is always visible and accessible in Lion.

If you need regular access, once the ~/Library/ folder is visible, drag it to the Finder sidebar or put an alias to it in the Finder's toolbar.

Update: You can download this AppleScript applet that will make your ~/Library visible, using the command mentioned above. It takes less than a second to run it.

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