Removing Input Files
Once sifting has completed, you can opt to have Silent Sifter remove sifted files from their original input location. How this works, which files it works on, and which inputs you choose is up to you.
You should be extremely careful when using these settings, because they are not reversible. Before using these settings, you should sift some files and ensure your configuration meets your expectations, then you can apply these settings once you are comfortable.
By default, Silent Sifter will never touch your input files. You can override this default behavior as you see fit on each input location. So if you want files automatically removed on one input, and never to be touched on another input, you can do that.
You can enable these settings on input folders (including Dropbox and Google Drive), and input Cameras only.
Here is how it works:
- At the end of a sift operation, every file is flagged with a status (i.e. Copied, Duplicate, Filtered, Failed, etc) which is what you see in the History screen for each file after a sift.
- If the file is flagged with a file status of Copied or Duplicate, then Silent Sifter will check your preference for whether, and how to remove the files with that status.
- Based on your preference, Silent Sifter will then either ask you whether it should remove the files, or immediately remove the files.
- You have several removal behavior options to choose from for each file status
- Never remove
- Ask me to move to _Sifted folder
- Always move to _Sifted folder
- Ask me to delete
- Always delete
Keep in mind that these options apply only to files marked as ‘Copied’ or ‘Duplicate’. If you filter files out, they will not be affected. If files fail to copy for one reason or another, they will not be affected.
Once you have multiple output locations, things become more complex. In these scenarios, the file is flagged with the lowest status possible. That means that if a file was copied to one output and failed to copy to another output, it will be marked as a Failure, and will not be removed.
The result if this logic is that only files that were copied to ALL outputs in the sift operation will be marked as Copied and run the removal behavior for copies. Similarly, files that are either Copied OR Duplicates across ALL outputs in the sift operation will be marked as Duplicate, and will run the removal behavior for duplicates.
There is another option you can configure, which allows you to remove empty folders from the input folder after the files have been removed. Once the original files have been moved or deleted, you may end up with some empty folders. In the event you want to keep the folder structure intact, you can do that. In the vent you want all of the empty folders cleaned up, you can do that as well.
Examples:
- You can setup an input to have duplicates always deleted after sifting, and to ask you whether to delete the copied files.
- You can setup an input to have copied files moved to the _Sifted folder, and duplicates deleted.
- You can have one input delete copied files immediately, and have another input never touch the input files.
- You can have one input retain it’s original folder structure, and have another input clear out all empty folders.
That is the summary, but there are more details contained in the sections below.
Removing After Copied
Input folders and cameras have a setting called ‘Remove after copied’ which tells Silent Sifter how to handle input files that are marked as ‘Copied’ from this input
You have several options for this setting:
- Never remove
- Ask me to move to _Sifted folder
- Always move to _Sifted folder
- Ask me to delete
- Always delete
Files are marked as ‘Copied’ if during the sift operation they were copied to every output in the sift operation.
Note that this means that if you disable some outputs, or perform a partial sift, then the input files will be marked as copied if they were copied to all of the outputs in the current sift – which does not include the disabled outputs or outputs ignored during a partial sift.
Silent Sifter performs a limited validation of every copy operation, and only marks the file as ‘Copied’ if the file passes the validation. Specifically, OSX must report that the file was copied successfully, and then the original file’s size is compared to the copied file’s size, in order to ensure that the entire file was copied. Otherwise, the file is marked as a failure.
Removing If Duplicate
Input folders and cameras have a setting called ‘Remove if duplicate’ which tells Silent Sifter how to handle input files that are marked as ‘Duplicate’ from this input
You have several options for this setting:
- Never remove
- Ask me to move to _Sifted folder
- Always move to _Sifted folder
- Ask me to delete
- Always delete
Files are marked as ‘Duplicate’ if during the sift operation the file was a duplicate in every output, or copied to some outputs and a duplicate in others.
Note that this means that if you disable some outputs, or perform a partial sift, then the input files will be marked as duplicate if they were copied/duplicate to all of the outputs in the current sift – which does not include the disabled outputs or outputs ignored during a partial sift.
Removing Empty Folders
Input folders and cameras have a setting called ‘Remove empty folders’ which tells Silent Sifter how to handle empty folders in the input location after files are removed from the input location
You two several options for this setting:
- Never delete
- Always delete
Note that only completely empty folders will be removed; empty folders will not be removed if there are hidden files in the folder. The only hidden file that is ignored is .DS_Store, which is created by OSX automatically.
Note that this option is only applied after removal of sifted files from the input. If you no files are removed from the input, then all empty folders will be left intact, even if the setting is ‘Always delete’.
Empty folders are moved to the recycle bin if possible.
Moving to the _Sifted Folder
If you choose to have files moved to the _Sifted folder after sifting, then a new folder, called ‘_Sifted’, will be created in your input location. This folder will hold all files that are moved after a sift operation.
Each sift operation will have it’s own date and timestamped folder within _Sifted, to show you what files were sifted.
Within each sift operation’s folder, files will be grouped by file status (i.e. ‘Copied’, ‘Duplicate In Output’)
Within the _Sifted folder structure (_Sifted/Sift operation/File Status), the files will retain their original file structure.
Note that all files in the _Sifted folder are ignored by Silent Sifter during the sifting process.
You are free to delete the _Sifted folder or it’s contents at any time. Silent Sifter will recreate the folders on the next sift if necessary.
About deleting
If you chose to have files deleted after sifting, then Silent Sifter will attempt to move the files to the recycle bin.
Files will be moved to the recycle bin if possible, but in some cases within OSX this is not possible, and the files may be immediately deleted. One example of this is if the input location is contained on external media that does not support a recycle bin.
Files are grouped into a timestamped sift folder, and then that folder is moved to the recycle bin.
As always with OSX, the disk space is not available until you empty the recycle bin.
Using with AutoSift
Note that when you are using these removal options with AutoSift, they will be executed in the same way as if you manually sifted the files, with one exception:
If your settings require Silent Sifter to ask you before it removes any files, during an AutoSift operation, files which require your approval prior to removing will not be removed. It will not present a prompt, and will simply skip removing any files that require your approval.
Using with Cameras
Camera inputs allow you to remove files after sifting as well, but have a few slight difference in how they behave compared to Folders.
One difference is with the _Sifted folder. If you choose to have files moved to the _Sifted folder for a camera input, the _Sifted folder will be created in the camera’s import folder within Silent Sifter’s Temp folders. You can access the _Sifted folder for the camera by opening the advanced configuration screen for the camera, and pressing the ‘Open _Sifted’ button in the toolbar, which will open a finder window at the _Sifted folder for the camera. You can access all of the camera _Sifted folders by opening the Temp directory itself from the Silent Sifter Help menu at the top of the screen.
Another difference is that if you choose to use the _Sifted folder, then files will be copied to the _Sifted folder, and the files will remain on the camera device itself.
the final difference is that if you choose to delete the files from the camera, then the files will be deleted from the camera, and also moved to the recycle bin (if possible).