How to Organize Your Video Library on Your Computer

You’ve been wanting to get your toes wet with video editing for a while. So, you pick up a camera and start filming videos like crazy. After each filming session, you move the clips over to your computer.

When you sit down at your desk to begin editing, you realize that you didn’t organize your video library at all. You have no idea where to begin because you didn’t label a single bit of your content. Don’t panic!

This is a rookie mistake that many budding editors make. It will take some time, but there are ways to fix it and stay organized in the future. Keep reading to learn more.

Make Use of Tags, Keywords, and Folders

The first rule of good video management is to use folders. Grab a bunch of similar clips and group them together in a single place. After that, label the folder so you know what’s in it.

You can also attach tags to the files in the folder. This will make it even easier to find what you’re looking for. All you have to do is type the tags into your search bar on your computer.

Adding tags is pretty simple too. Right-click on the file and select “Properties” in the drop-down menu. From there, click on the “Details” tab.

In the description box, you should see a small section that reads “tabs.” Click on the empty box and type in the words that accurately describe the file.

External Hard Drives Are Your Friend

Video files aren’t small by any means. There may come a time when you have too many on your computer. If you don’t want to bog your device down, you’ll have to move some of your files to another location.

That’s where external hard drives come in. They can hold a large number of videos, so you can keep your computer free from clutter.

It’s also a good way to back up your files. It gives you a copy in the event someone snatches your laptop or your computer breaks. We’ll warn you that external hard drives can be expensive, but they’re more than worth it.

Get Rid of Duplicates

It’s not hard to move multiple video files to your computer. It happens to everyone. Unless you take the time to search through your computer for these duplicates, they’ll just sit there cluttering things up.

You can search for them on a normal basis and delete them. Go into your computer system, see what’s taking up memory, and delete the problem files.

There are also programs that you can download that will handle the job for you. They may cost you money, but having them saves tons of time.

Make Regular Updates

If you’re working on a huge project, there’s a good chance that you’re going to be uploading videos like crazy. It won’t be long before you run out of room and things start to get cluttered.

That’s why updating is important. Cycle out your old content and archive it somewhere else. This will give you the space you need to upload new content.

We recommend taking a minute to sort through your folders every day to get rid of this old content as well as check for duplicate video files and get rid of your low-quality clips.

Back-up Everything

Imagine being halfway through a video project when your computer decides to crash. All of your hard work is gone in a flash. Well, it would be if you didn’t back up your content.

Backing up your videos is almost as important as keeping them organized. We recommend setting everything to backup to Dropbox or the Cloud automatically.

Again you can also purchase an external hard drive and keep all your projects and video clips on that. Once you get a new computer, all you have to do is move everything onto it and start where you left off.

Move Videos off Your Phone and Camera

Your computer isn’t the only thing that can get cluttered. If you’re filming with a camera or phone, video files will quickly eat up space. There may even come a time when you can no longer film additional content because there’s no room left.

To stop this from happening, you want to move your video files to your computer as soon as you’re done filming. From there, you can sort the content into folders and use some of the other organization tips we’ve been over so far.

Use Video Descriptions

On top of using tags, you can also add descriptions for all your videos. Writing these out makes it much easier to navigate through your files.

By reading your notes, you’ll be able to see if it’s the video that you want without having to actually watch a single second of the clip.

Invest in Video Library Software

You’re a busy person. You don’t have time to stay on top of video management, and you don’t have the money to hire another person to do it for you. That’s understandable.

What you can do instead is invest in a good video file organizer. Buying a program may cost you a pretty penny, but it will do many of the processes we’ve talked about.

Keep Your Video Library Neat and Tidy

The hardest part of video editing is keeping your clips neat. If you’re uploading files day in and day out, it won’t take long for things to get out of hand.

The good thing is that it’s not too hard to organize your video library. As long as you use tags, write up a description, and keep your clips in a folder, you should have no problem sorting through your content.

If you need additional help with keeping your computer files in check, we’ve got you covered. Check out the Tech section of our blog daily for more articles like this one.