Watch Folders

The Srarna desktop app allows you to "watch" a folder on your computer for any changes, creating a one-way background sync from folders on your computer to Srarna albums. This feature is designed to automate your photo management and backup.

By using the "Watch folders" option in the sidebar, you can specify which folders you want the desktop app to monitor for changes. The app will then automatically upload new files added to these folders to the corresponding Srarna album (it will also upload them initially). If a file is deleted locally, the corresponding Srarna file will be moved to Uncategorized.

Paired with the option to run Srarna automatically when your computer starts, this allows you to automate backups to Srarna's cloud.

Steps

1. Press the Watch folders button in the sidebar. This will open a dialog where you can add and remove watched folders.
2. To start watching a folder, press the Add folder button and select the folder on your computer that you want to monitor for changes. You can also drag and drop the folder here.
3. If the folder contains nested folders, you will see two options - Single album and Separate albums.
   • Single album will create a new Srarna album with the same name as the folder, and will sync all changes in the folder (and any nested folders) to this single album.
   • Separate albums will create separate albums for each nested folder, syncing changes in each nested folder individually.
   • For example, if you have a folder named Photos on your computer with nested folders New Year and Summer, in single album mode, the app will create a Srarna album named "Photos" and place all files from both New Year and Summer there. In separate album mode, the app will create two albums, "New Year" and "Summer", each containing their respective files.
   • In separate album mode, only nested folders that contain at least one file will result in the creation of a new album – empty folders or folders containing only other folders will be ignored.
4. After choosing any of the above options, the folder will be initially synced to Srarna's cloud and monitored for any changes. You can close the dialog and the sync will continue in the background.
5. When the app is syncing in the background, it will show a small progress status in the bottom right. You can expand it to see more details if needed.
6. You can stop watching any folder by clicking on the three dots next to the watch folder entry, and then selecting Stop watching.

For more details about this feature, check out the blog post announcing it.