You have 4 choices of export destination a) single file, b) library folders, c) separate files for each item, d) artist folders only
a) Single file
This is a great way to back up your music data that is not embedded in the music files themselves e.g. scraped artist and album information, and song playback history. You can also use it to transfer this data from one installation to another.
b) Library folders
The album.nfo will land in the album folder (if there is one, it is not compusory that msuic files are arranged in album folders) and the artist.nfo will land in an artist folder (named exactly as the artist is named plus part of the mbid if name is not unique) in the nominated Artist Information Folder. If you have not nominated an Artist Information Folder then this will prompt you to do so.
c) Separate files for each item
You specify destination folder and within that artist folders (named exactly as the artist is named plus part of the mbid if name is not unique) are created if they don't already exist. The artist.nfo will land in each artist folder and the album.nfo will go onto a folder with the album titile under the artist folder of the first album artist (could be more than one).
d) Artist folders only
This is a utility to create empty artist subfolders in the nominated Artist Information Folder. Several reasons a user may want to do this, one is a quick way to create subfolders with the correct names or to see what would be created if b) or c) was done.
Users have asked why doesn't it just do what it used to do (v17 and below) and take the common folder above all the album folders for albums by that artist as the artist folder? Well that approach is over simplistic and fatally flawed, it often resulted in odd art attached to the wrong artist and difficult to locate the cause. It also limited local art and NFO to only album artists not those that appear only on compilation albums or as guest appearences, and different artists with the same name could also not be accomdated. Finally is also imposed limited folder layouts on users, rather than allowing them to gather their music in a natural way for them, e.g. put the kids or party music separately from their main music etc.
Hence the introduction of the Artist Information Folder - a nominated folder with unique subfolders for all artists. It is easiest to place it separately from your music source folders, which can have any layout you like with many sources (and the same artists in several places). However if you have only one music folder you can nomiate that as the AIF but it has consequnces. It will use exact artist names as artist subfolders directly beneath the AIF, these may or may not match what you have.
It is common to have music in some kind of <artist>/<album> folder layout, which is what I assume you have. Perhaps with your collection it has been possible to have a unique folder for every albumartist that contains
all the music by that artist and
only that artist, that you have no artists with the same name, no collaboration albums, are only interested in local art for album artists, and have no desire to arrange your music files by some other criteria.
I would still suggest you consider having a separate Artist Information Folder from your music folders.
But long explanation over, let's see if I can find a way to get you want you want without too much pain.
You want album.nfo to go to the album folders (however you have named them) alongside the music files, use export b)
to library folders. This will demand you nominate an AIF, so enter one. If all your music is in correctly named artist subfolders under one folder then you could use that as AIF. If you want to see what folder names it expects then nominate somewhere else as a test and use d) and see what you get.
I guess the problem is that you understandably have continued using "Spearate files" export c) because that is the option you would have used before, rather than use to library folders and AIF. I really need to get a guide written one day.
