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I'm looking for an easy way to quickly go through a bunch of files, mostly videos and images and sort them in a set of standard folders. Currently I open the videos/images in VLC see what they're about and drag/drop 'em into folders. This is incredibly tedious work, but I really should get it done already. Annoying bits are in large part due to the dragging and dropping, also because the alphabetical sort order in the Finder and VLC is different and the file names get replaced by video titles in the VLC playlist etc.

Ideally I would want an application that show me the content (ideally skipping x% into the video to skip intros etc) and lets me sort it with a single key (press 1 and it goes into folder x, press 2 etc.) or click the folder and the file is moved into it, ignoring all filename-already-exists nonsense (just rename it and be quiet). Using drag/drop is just to annoying, slow and error prone.

To be clear, I'm not looking for automated sorting, I can't use it because I want to sort on video/image content.

I was thinking about writing an applescript for this but I wanted to know if anyone knew of existing software to do this. Searching for ways to sort items all result in automated sorting based on file properties.

Thanks.

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  • Can't you just use QuickLook to look at the content?
    – nohillside ♦
    Commented Jun 21, 2015 at 19:18
  • I deal with same challenge and use custom sorting by inserting a number in front of file name. 1C...22C for comedy. 1A...55A for action and so on.
    – Ruskes
    Commented Jun 21, 2015 at 19:39
  • @patrix♦: Partially, but quicklook tends to be pretty slow for me, several seconds before it even begins playing, also doesn't support part of the formats the videos are in (old wmv's etc). Also not sure how that would fix my problem, which is sorting data not viewing it.
    – bitterpill
    Commented Jun 21, 2015 at 19:40
  • @Buscar웃SD: Still really slow and tedious: look at file in VLC, find it in the finder, select file, [enter][up][number][space]), run auto sorting afterwards.
    – bitterpill
    Commented Jun 21, 2015 at 19:46

2 Answers 2

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I thought I might like to have something like this too, so I threw together an app that does this. Feel free to try it out! Warning though: I have one video where the skip value doesn't work. I'm not sure why it only has an issue with this one video... Just a heads up. It works 99% of the time though!

Push 1 to place the video or image being shown in sort folder 1, and 2 to place it in sort folder 2. Also make sure to select a folder source with the content! This should be able to play anything that VLC can play, which is to say, pretty much everything. I don't have access to a code signing certificate at the moment, so you'll have to right click on the application from within the Finder and click "Open". After that you'll be good to go!

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  • only works for videos tho? the @bitterpill also said for images as well.
    – MrU
    Commented Jun 23, 2015 at 2:50
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    Whoops! Totally missed that. The images part was so easy, I completely forgot to implement it. Rofl...
    – William T Froggard
    Commented Jun 23, 2015 at 2:51
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    Lmfao, even funnier, the VLC API handles images just fine without me making any modifications, and just ignores the video-specific code. Guess that's that then! :p
    – William T Froggard
    Commented Jun 23, 2015 at 2:52
  • Made a few modifications, enabled full-screen support, fixed a crash. Should be pretty stable at this point.
    – William T Froggard
    Commented Jun 23, 2015 at 3:45
  • @bitterpill ayyyeee!!! use this! it works now, and probably much much more better than looking for the file! It's a bit slow at loading up the files compared to VLC, however the feature of using pressing 1 or 2 to sort is excellento! +1 to the answer now!
    – MrU
    Commented Jun 24, 2015 at 0:44
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Just a suggestion,

VLC Media Player also supports showing picture and video files as well, so maybe select all and open them up in VLC media player?

Then open the playlist on VLC Command + Alt + P and click on Title to sort alphabetically

Then do the same on Finder, use View > as list or Command + 1 and click on Name

Then show the Finder (with all your files) and VLC side by side and go through the files on VLC. (N for next, P for previous file on VLC)

Drag and drop as you need.

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  • this is the manual way, however I recommend Froggard's solution!
    – MrU
    Commented Jun 24, 2015 at 0:45
  • This is the exact same way that I mentioned in my question and found to be terrible. But thanks anyway?
    – bitterpill
    Commented Jun 24, 2015 at 15:01

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