Import a folder

A project is a folder on your disk that Vault preserves. Importing copies nothing and moves nothing: Vault records the folder’s path, the structure of its subfolders and, for each file, its size, modification date and SHA-256 fingerprint. This fingerprint, taken on the way in, is the reference against which any alteration will be measured.

Import a folder

1. Open Projects.
2. Click Import Folder….
3. Choose the folder, then Import.

A banner follows the import through three steps:

• Listing the folder: Vault walks the folder tree;
• SHA-256 fingerprints: it reads each file in full to compute its fingerprint;
• Recording: it writes the files to the database, in batches.

At the end, the Folder imported banner sums up the result: the number of files imported and, if any, the unreadable files with their reason. Click Dismiss to close it.

What Vault keeps for each file:

• its path in the project, its size, its SHA-256 fingerprint;
• for an image, when ImageIO can read it: its dimensions, colour profile and capture date.

A few worthless files are ignored: .DS_Store, Thumbs.db, .git, node_modules, ._… files and a volume’s system folders (.Spotlight-V100, .Trashes, .fseventsd…).

A folder with no file to preserve (empty, or made of symbolic links only) is refused: “This folder contains no file to preserve.” A project is never created empty: if no file could be read, or if you stop the import before the first files are recorded, the new project is removed.

The Obscura Vault library folder (its database, its backups) cannot be imported, nor can a folder that contains it or lies inside it.

A subfolder Vault is not allowed to read (or whose disk is gone) is never skipped silently: it is listed among the unreadable files of the banner, with its reason (“Unreadable folder”), and the import ends with errors. Make it readable, then rescan the project.

If a project with the same name already exists (for another folder), the new one gets the name followed by a number: “Mariage (2)”.

Stop an import

Stop interrupts the import. Files already recorded are kept; import the same folder again to resume where the import stopped. An import running for more than two minutes asks for confirmation before it stops.

View a project

The list on the left shows your projects and their number of files. Choose one to see:

• its folder path, number of files, volume and import date;
• the table of its files: File, Size, Dimensions, Color Profile, Captured (the time the camera showed, never converted to another time zone), SHA-256 (the first 16 characters; hover for the full fingerprint);
• the Imports section: the last five imports, their date, their outcome (finished, finished with errors, stopped, failed) and the number of files added.

Show in Finder opens the project’s folder.

When the folder changes: rescan

Vault watches your projects’ folders while it is open. When a file changes there, an orange dot appears next to the project and a banner says so: “Files in this folder have changed since the import. Rescan it to see which ones.” Nothing is re-imported without you.

Rescan — or importing the same folder again — performs an incremental import:

• new files are added with their fingerprint;
• unchanged files (same size, same date) are left as they are;
• a file whose size or date changed is read again: if its fingerprint is different, it is reported, and the original fingerprint is kept;
• files that disappeared from the folder are reported;
• files of a subfolder that became unreadable are reported as unreadable, not as missing.

What the rescan proves goes straight into the fixity journal, like an audit: a file whose fingerprint changed becomes Altered, a missing or unreadable file Unverifiable, a file read back identical Verified. The Dashboard and the Integrity screen show it without waiting for the next audit. A file whose date alone changed (same content) is no longer read again at the following rescans.

The Folder rescanned banner lists the modified and missing files (the first five of each list).

Vault never replaces the fingerprint taken at import with a new one. If you deliberately edited a file, it is a new original: save it under another name, and it will come in as a new file at the next rescan.

Moved folder or import by mistake

Vault recognises a project by its folder’s path. If you moved or renamed the folder (for instance to a new disk), the project shows “This project’s folder is not at this location…”: click Relocate Folder… and choose the folder at its new place. Vault keeps the fingerprints taken at import, checks that the chosen folder does hold files of the project, then rescans it.

The … menu next to Rescan also offers:

• Relocate Folder…;
• Remove from Library…: removes the project, its fingerprints and its integrity history from the library, after confirmation. The folder and its files are neither moved nor deleted, archives already created stay, and the removal is recorded in the journal.

Good to know

• The folder of a project on an external disk can only be read while the disk is connected. Disconnected, its files are “not verifiable” during an audit (see Understand the verdicts).
• The same folder is never two projects: Vault recognises a folder by its path, not by its name.
• Each import is recorded in the journal (“Folder imported”) and in the project’s preservation journal.