Watch Folder

Automation

Watch folder screenshot

Screenshot

What This Page Solves

Watch Folder is for recurring intake, not one-off imports.

Use it when:

• new meeting or media files land in predictable folders
• you want files queued automatically
• you want teams to spend less time on repetitive import work

When To Use It

Prefer Watch Folder when

• your workflow already has stable source folders
• recurring ingestion matters more than manual control per file
• you are building an overnight or daily transcription pipeline

Do not start here when

• you are still validating the workflow on sample files
• source folders are noisy, temporary, or mixed-purpose
• you need a one-off import rather than a standing pipeline

Recommended Workflow

1. First validate the workflow manually on a few files.
2. Create dedicated watch folders by project or source type.
3. Enable watch configs only after naming, export path, and failure handling are clear.
4. Review failures daily instead of manually importing every file.

Key Decisions

1. Choose clean source folders

Watch folders work best when they are:

• single-purpose
• easy to search
• not full of temporary or unrelated files

2. Separate pipeline design from backlog cleanup

The goal is not to dump every old file into one root. The goal is to make future intake predictable.

3. Tune concurrency conservatively

Watch tasks and manual tasks still share device resources. Aggressive concurrency can make both workflows worse.

Common Mistakes And Troubleshooting

• Watching raw download or temp folders directly Stage files into cleaner source folders first.
• Using one huge root for every project Split by project or month for easier scan and triage.
• Leaving failed tasks untouched for days A short daily failure pass is cheaper than a large weekly cleanup.

Read Next

• One-off local-file workflow: File Transcription
• URL-based intake: Link Transcription
• Review after processing: Note