Sources

A source is one place where your files live. Today Shutterfold reads the sources on your Mac. Cloud connect is in development: you will sign in to each cloud, and Shutterfold pulls your files into storage you own.

When Shutterfold opens, it lists the sources it found under Found on this Mac. Click one to add it. To add any other folder or drive, click Add a folder or drive, or drop folders on the window.

Each source has a name, and the report uses these names. To change one, double-click it. For example, rename Apple Photos to iPhone. Each name must be different.

Apple Photos and iCloud Photos

Apple gives other apps no way to read iCloud Photos from the cloud. So iCloud photos come in through the Photos library on your Mac. Shutterfold finds the Photos libraries in your Pictures folder and adds the first one on its own. Photos from your iPhone are here when iCloud Photos is on. To read the library, Shutterfold needs Full Disk Access. See Full Disk Access and the Photos library.

iCloud Drive

This is the folder that iCloud keeps on your Mac. If Shutterfold says iCloud Drive is off on this Mac, open System Settings, click your name, then iCloud, and turn on iCloud Drive. Then add it again.

Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox and Box

With cloud connect, you will sign in to OneDrive, Dropbox and Box from the app, and Shutterfold pulls your files. This is in development.

Today, the Mac apps for these clouds keep a folder on your Mac. Shutterfold reads that folder. It does not ask you to sign in. Install the cloud app and sign in there, and the folder shows under Found on this Mac. A work or school account shows with its name, such as OneDrive Riverside School.

Files that are only in the cloud are counted and never downloaded. See files that are only in the cloud.

The old Google Drive

The old Google Drive app (Drive File Stream) downloads each file when an app reads it. Shutterfold cannot scan it without downloading everything, so it refuses it. Update Google Drive, then add its new folder.

Google Photos

Google gives other apps no way to read a whole Google Photos library. Instead, Google sends you a full copy of it, called a Google Takeout export.

With cloud connect, you connect Google, and Google sends the copy to a cloud you connect, such as Dropbox, OneDrive, Box or Google Drive. Shutterfold pulls it in from there. This is in development.

Today, you can add the copy by hand:

1. Go to takeout.google.com. Choose only Google Photos, then create the export.
2. Download every zip file that Google sends.
3. Open the zip files. Keep the folder called Takeout.
4. In Shutterfold, add the Takeout folder.

Shutterfold reads the unzipped folder. Reading the zip files without opening them comes later. Takeout puts a copy of a photo in every album it is in, so the report shows doubles inside Takeout. That is expected.

This Mac

Your home folder is one source, named after your Mac. It has your Desktop, Documents, Downloads and the rest. It leaves out the Library and Applications folders, code projects and software. See what it skips.

Folders and drives

You can add any folder, any external drive and any network drive. Connected drives show under Found on this Mac.

If Shutterfold says it cannot find a folder, the folder moved or the drive is not connected. Connect the drive and add the folder again.

When Shutterfold refuses a source

A file in two sources would look like a copy of itself. So Shutterfold does not scan two sources that hold the same files. It names the problem, and you fix it in the list.

• Is inside. One source is in another, for example a Takeout folder in Downloads while your home folder is also a source. Remove one of them, or move the Takeout folder to a drive.
• Is added twice. Remove one.
• Two sources are called the same name. Rename one of them.
• Is a file. A source is a folder. Add the folder that the file is in.