Import a folder from your computer

If your photos are already sorted into folders on your computer or a drive, you can bring the whole tree in at once and keep it.

Import the folder

1. Put the photos and videos in one folder, with subfolders arranged the way you like.
2. Open Imports from the sidebar and choose Folders.
3. Choose the folder, or drag it onto the box.
4. Check the summary, then start the import.

Keep the tab open while it runs. See Follow an import while it runs. Live Photos stay together.

Keep my folders

The Keep my folders switch is on by default. With it on, the folders inside the one you chose become Folders in Magpie, and each photo goes in the folder it came from. See Folders.

• The folder you choose is not made into a folder itself, only the folders inside it. Photos directly in it go in no folder.
• Folders can go up to 10 levels deep. If a photo is in a deeper folder, it goes in the folder at level 10 and nothing is left out. When this happens, the finished import tells you how many files were placed that way, with a few examples.
• If you switch it off, the photos still come in, but no folders are made.
• You need a role that can organize photos in the library. Without it, the photos are imported without folders and you are told so.
• A folder named for a year, such as 1994, can give a photo with no date of its own an approximate date. See Import photos from Google Drive for how that works.

Imported this folder before? Import the same files again to build the folders. No photo is added twice. A photo you took out of a folder, or a folder you deleted, comes back when you import the same files again.

The Upload from this device panel is different: it only adds photos and does not make folders. See Upload photos.