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The media libraries

The media libraries gather your pictures, videos, audio files and documents from everywhere in your account, without you having to organize them. They are listed under Media in the panel on the left:

A media library is not a folder. It is a live list, built each time you open it from the information FileRun holds about your files. Your files stay in the folders you put them in, and nothing is copied or moved.

The libraries cover your own files only. A library searches inside your home folder. Files and folders that other users shared with you never appear in Photos, Videos, Audio or Documents, even though you can open them normally.

How a file gets into a library

Two things have to be true.

1. The file type belongs to that library. Each library is tied to a metadata file type:

Library File types
Documents PDF, plain text, and office documents
Photos image files, including camera raw formats
Videos video files
Audio audio files

Your administrator can change these lists in the control panel, under Files → Metadata → File types.

2. FileRun has read the file's metadata. This happens by itself for anything uploaded through FileRun, through WebDAV, through the API or through the sync and mobile apps. It runs shortly after the upload, not instantly, so a picture may take a moment to appear in Photos.

Files that were placed on the server in some other way — copied in over SSH, restored from a backup, written by another program — are not in any library until their metadata is read. To include them, right-click their folder, choose Information → Control panel, then run Index file metadata. An administrator can do the same for the whole server from the command line; see Metadata and Command line tools.

What each library offers

The libraries do not all offer the same views, because the information they can rely on differs.

View Documents Photos Videos Audio
Recently taken ✔ ✔
Last uploaded ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
By date ✔ ✔
Albums ✔
By artist ✔
By album ✔
By tag ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Recently taken

The newest pictures or videos by the date they were taken, read from the file itself — the Date taken field that cameras and phones write into the image. A photo taken last year and uploaded today appears here under last year.

Last uploaded

The newest files by the date they arrived in FileRun, whatever their own date says. This is the view to open after a large upload.

By date

Pictures and videos grouped by the year they were taken, then by month. Each year and each month shows how many files it holds. Inside a year there is also an [All] entry, which lists the whole year at once.

Albums

The photo albums you created. These are not built from metadata: an album is a collection that you fill yourself. See Collections.

By artist and By album

For audio files, the Artist and Album values read from the files' own tags. Each entry shows how many files carry that value.

By tag

The tags used on files of that kind, most used first. Opening one lists the files carrying it. See Organizing files.

The Photos layout

Picture lists are best read in the Photos layout, which lays images out at their real shape instead of in a grid of squares. Switch to it with the layout buttons on the toolbar; photo albums open in it by themselves.

For the pictures to be laid out at their true proportions, FileRun needs their width and height, which it reads together with the rest of the metadata.

When the libraries are not there

The Media section is missing entirely when your account has no home folder, when it cannot download files, or when the administrator has turned all four libraries off.

Each library is switched on separately in the control panel, under Files → Settings → Features, in the fieldset Media library features. The four checkboxes are Documents, Photos, Videos and Audio. All four are on in a new installation.