First Import
This walkthrough takes you from an empty library to browsing your first clips. The whole process takes a couple of minutes for a typical SD card.
1. Index Your First Drive
Before you can import anything, Clipthesis needs to know about at least one drive.
- Click Drives in the sidebar
- Click Index Drive and select a folder — this is usually the root of an SD card, a camera folder, or an external SSD
- Clipthesis scans the folder recursively for video files (
.mov,.mp4,.mxf, and other common formats)
During the index it:
- Registers the folder as a drive
- Calculates a content hash for each file (for duplicate detection)
- Extracts metadata (codec, resolution, duration, date filmed)
- Generates thumbnails and scrub frames via FFmpeg
A progress modal shows the current file and overall count. When it finishes, the clips appear in your Library automatically — no separate import step needed.
TIP
Indexing is the quickest way to get started. It catalogues files where they already are, without copying anything. Use Import later when you want to copy files from a source (e.g. camera card) to a destination drive.
2. Browse Your Library
Head to the Library page. Your clips appear in a scrollable grid with thumbnails, filenames, and duration overlays.
From here you can:
- Click a clip to open the detail view with full playback
- Hover to scrub through preview frames
- Select multiple clips to tag or send to Resolve in bulk
3. Import New Footage (Optional)
When you shoot new footage and want to copy it off a camera card:
- Click Import in the sidebar
- Select a source folder (the camera card)
- Pick a destination (your working drive or project folder)
- Optionally add tags or add to a collection before starting
- Click Import — files are copied, hashed, and processed automatically
See Importing for the full guide.
Next Steps
Learn how to navigate and play back clips in Library Basics.