# How to Index New Footage Automatically with Watch Folders Point FrameQuery at the folders where you offload cards, leave it in the tray, and new clips are found, processed and searchable by morning. Setup and limits. - Published: 2026-11-03 - Author: Flynn Foley-Clarke - Category: Workflows - Canonical: https://www.framequery.com/blog/index-new-footage-automatically Cards get offloaded at the end of a shoot day, and the footage sits unsearchable until someone opens the app and presses Process. From FrameQuery 1.2.9 you can watch the folders where footage lands and leave the app in the system tray. New clips are found, processed and made searchable without the window open, and an alert tells you when they're ready. ## Choose the folders where footage lands On a new install, setup asks **Where does new footage land?** Pick the folders, drives or network shares you copy footage to after a shoot. Drives you unplug are fine: when one comes back, FrameQuery catches up on what changed while it was away. In an existing library, add the folder as a source in the Library, then turn on **Auto-analyze on scan** for it in the sidebar. Only sources with that switch on are processed automatically. The others are still scanned and listed, and you process their clips when you choose. For an ingest folder, **Also process what's already there** decides what happens to the backlog. Off means only footage that arrives from now on is processed; existing files are listed and you can process them any time. **Archive mode** on a source skips editor proxy files during scans, which keeps proxies out of the library when you watch a project folder. ## Let copies finish before anything is imported A clip that is still copying shouldn't be processed half-written. FrameQuery waits until a new file has stopped changing: 20 seconds on a local drive, 45 seconds on a network share. Watching works on three schedules: - **At launch**, every watched folder gets a catch-up scan for anything that arrived while the app was closed. - **Network shares** are rescanned every 15 minutes. - **Cloud folders**, such as Google Drive, are rescanned every 30 minutes. If a folder holds files FrameQuery can't read yet, you get one alert naming the formats. The rest of the folder is processed as usual. ## Keep it running overnight Three switches under Settings, **Running in the background**, do the work: - **Keep running when the window is closed.** Closing the window leaves FrameQuery in the system tray, still watching and processing. Quit it from the tray icon. - **Start when I sign in to my computer.** After a restart it opens straight to the tray. - **Keep the computer awake while processing.** This one is on by default. It stops the machine sleeping halfway through a batch; the screen can still turn off. The tray icon's menu shows what it is doing (**Watching 3 folders**, **Processing 12 videos**) and has **Pause scanning and processing for 1 hour** for when you need the machine back for a render. If FrameQuery closes or the computer restarts mid-batch, queued and running jobs resume on the next launch. Processing runs at low priority, so the computer stays usable while it works. On a laptop, plug it in before leaving a large batch overnight. ## Know when it's finished, or stuck The bell in the header collects everything that needs you, and while FrameQuery isn't in front the same alerts appear as system notifications: - **12 videos are ready to search** when a batch finishes, with a Search button. - **3 videos couldn't be processed**, with Open Jobs to see why and retry. - **Processing is waiting** when the drive or share with the footage can't be reached, the data drive is almost full, or FFmpeg isn't installed yet. Queued videos start again on their own. - **Reconnect** for a cloud folder whose account access has expired. - **You're signed out**: new footage is still found, but nothing is processed until you sign in. Repeats are folded into one alert that counts them, so a share that drops overnight doesn't bury the rest. **Notify when footage is ready** controls the batch-finished notification; problems are always shown. ## Budget your processing hours Automatic processing uses the same processing hours as pressing Process yourself. FrameQuery warns when hours run low and stops with **Processing has stopped** when they run out, listing how many videos are waiting. They start as soon as hours are added or your plan renews. For a large archive, leave **Also process what's already there** off and process the backlog in batches you choose. Watch folders then only spend hours on new shoots. The [pricing page](/pricing) lists the hours on each plan. ## An overnight setup that works 1. Offload each day's cards into one ingest folder, one subfolder per day or per card. 2. Add the ingest folder as a source with **Auto-analyze on scan** on. If you record sound separately, put the recorder files under the same folder; [automatic audio sync](/blog/dual-system-audio-sync-explained) attaches them to the camera clips. 3. Turn on **Keep running when the window is closed** and **Start when I sign in to my computer**. 4. Close the window and leave the machine on. In the morning the alert says how many clips are ready. Search dialogue, people or a described shot straight away; the [search guide](/guides/search) covers the query syntax. The [1.2.9 release notes](/blog/1.2.9) list the rest of what changed in this version. [Download FrameQuery](/welcome) for Windows or macOS on Apple Silicon.