Browse your recordings

A camera rarely writes one file per recording: next to a clip there is often a preview, a thumbnail or a GPS log, and a good habit puts copies of it on other drives. Media Organizer keeps all of that together, and the library shows one row per recording, with small icons for everything that goes with it.

One row per recording

Open a folder and each recording is listed once, by its main file: the video or photo itself. Its preview, thumbnail and logs are not listed as rows of their own; they are shown as icons after the name.

On a drive holding a copy the row is the copy that sits there, so every folder shows its own files, even when the original is on another drive.

To see every file as it is on the drive, choose View > Show all files.

The icons after a name

Icon	Means
A small screen	a low-resolution preview (proxy), such as a GoPro .LRV or a DJI .LRF
A picture	a thumbnail, such as a GoPro .THM
A map pin	a GPS or flight log, such as a DJI .SRT
A page	any other file that goes with the recording, such as clip information or editing notes
Two squares and a number	how many other drives or cards hold the same file

Hover over an icon to see its files, each on its own line with its drive and folder. The copies icon lists every other place the file is, each saying whether it has all its files or which kinds of file it is missing, for example WD2 / Trips/GX010042.MP4 · missing: LRV, SRT. It turns orange when a copy is missing a preview, thumbnail or log that another copy has.

In the Details view, a recording with files next to it has a small + before its name. Click it to list those files under the recording, with their size, date and the other columns; click the − to fold them away again.

The same icons appear under the name when you view thumbnails, and hovering over a thumbnail shows the file's overview: where it is, when it was filmed, how long it runs, its picture size, camera and size.

Opening a file

Double-click a file to play or view it in the app Windows uses for it. Right-click it for Open, Open with… to choose another app, and View metadata.

Files that lost their recording

A preview or log whose video is not in its folder, for example because only the video was copied to another drive, is listed on its own and marked main file missing. Choose View > Only files missing their main file to list just those, so you can find and fix them.

A camera preview whose video is gone from every drive, with nothing in your library recorded at the same moment, is marked recording lost: this proxy is all there is. Your copy rule then treats that preview as the recording and asks for as many copies of it as for a video. When the video turns up, for example when you scan the drive it is on, the preview goes back to being a preview.

A preview copied into the folder of its video joins that video's recording there, like a preview the camera made.

When the list shows only some files

Whenever the list shows less than the drive or folder you chose, a bar at the top of the list says why, starting with Filter:. That is the case for a search, the choices in Filters…, a drive's missing files, a scan or edit pack you opened from elsewhere, and Only files missing their main file. For example: Filter: “beach” · Untagged.

On the right of the bar, Clear search & filters always takes you back to every file of the drive or folder you are in. Hover over the bar's text for a tip on how to use the view.

The Details pane

Drag the divider on its left to make the Details pane wider or narrower; the picture at the top grows with it, and Media Organizer keeps the width, and the Library's, for the next time.

To watch a video, click Play on its picture or press Space in the list: it plays right there, 360 recordings with look-around, using the TLW 360 viewer that comes with Two Left Wheels 360. Space pauses and plays again, choosing another file stops it, and Open larger plays it in the viewer's own window, which can fill the screen. When the file's drive is not connected, a copy on a connected drive plays instead. Without Two Left Wheels 360, the video opens in Windows' own app.

Select one file with the Details pane open to see:

• In this recording: the files of the recording in this folder, one per line, each with what it is: the main file, a proxy, a sidecar. A converted or repaired file made from it in another folder is listed with where it is. Copies on other drives are listed under Copies, not here.
• Copies: every other place the same file is, whether it is a camera card, whether that copy has all its files or which ones it is missing, and whether the drive is connected.

Files that are no longer on their drive

When a scan reads a whole drive and no longer finds a file the library knows, the file stays listed, dimmed, as missing, and the drive shows 2 missing under its name in the Library. Click that to list just those files; Missing files in the filters does the same for any drive. The bar above the list then reads Filter: Missing files, and Clear search & filters shows the drive's other files again.

To clear them, select them and choose Remove from the library, next to Delete in the Edit menu and the right-click menu. It removes only the library's records of files that are no longer there, skips any selected file that is still on its drive, and changes nothing on any drive. The tags and edit pack memberships of those records go with them.

While only missing files are selected, the right-click menu offers just View metadata, Remove from the library and Properties, and the buttons for tags, recording fields and the camera are off; their tip says why. When a selection mixes missing files with files that are there, adding tags, recording fields, a camera or an edit pack, and reading metadata, apply to the files that are there, and the status line says how many missing files were left out.

How copies are recognised

A file on another drive with the same name, size and modified time is a copy, even one you made before you installed Media Organizer. Nothing is opened or compared byte by byte, and a copy you renamed is not recognised. See Companion files and exports for what goes with a recording.

Sort and arrange the columns

In the Details view, click anywhere on a column's header to sort by it, and again for the other order. Every column sorts. Sorted by camera, duration, resolution or a value such as Take, files without one come last, files with the same value stay in the order they were recorded, and numbers read as you would read them: take 2 before take 10.

Drag a header sideways to move its column; a line shows where it lands. Right-click the header row, or choose View > Columns, to tick the columns you want: untick one to hide it, tick it to bring it back where it was. Reset columns goes back to the usual set. Name always comes first. Media Organizer keeps your columns for the next time, separately for the main window and for a set of files opened in a window of its own. When the window is too narrow, the last columns are the first to go, so put the ones you need most first.

Shoot, Scene, Shot, Take and Roll

Select recordings and choose Recording fields… in the toolbar or right-click menu. Shoot, Scene, Shot, Take and Roll are text values, one of each per recording, so values such as 03, 12B and A007 keep their formatting. Shoot names the outing or job, such as Norway 2026; Roll names the card or roll the recording was made on, as on a film slate. They appear as columns after Camera and in the Details pane.

For each one choose Keep unchanged, Use this value, Clear value or Use module value. A correction takes precedence over camera metadata and survives rescanning. Clearing leaves the value empty; using the module value removes your correction. The editor shows the module value when one is available.

Changes apply to the selected recordings and their known associated files and catalogued copies. They change the library records only. Tags remain separate.

Camera bodies

Each file shows the camera body it was recorded with, by the name you gave it, such as Sorin's ZS200. A camera nobody has named yet shows its serial, or its model when it reports none. To change it for some files, select them and choose Camera body…: pick one of your bodies or type a new name. Leaving the box empty takes your choice off again. To rename a body on all its footage, use Settings › Camera bodies.

Reviewing a set of files

A count in a camera card's window, such as the files of one camera or the recordings being copied, opens those files in a window of its own: the same browser, with its columns, sorting, search and filters, limited to that set. Its columns start with the name, date, camera and the five recording values. There you can add and remove tags, set recording fields and the camera body; nothing on a drive changes from it. Each change applies at once, and Done closes the window.