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Link external folders into the gallery without moving files

A linked directory brings an existing folder into the gallery exactly where it is. Examples are a design archive on an external drive, a Downloads folder, or another app’s screenshot folder. SuperCapture indexes the files so you can browse and search them next to your captures. It never moves, copies, renames or writes to them.

Section titled “Link a folder”
  1. In the gallery sidebar, open the FOLDERS section menu and choose Link External Folder…, or click the link button in the section header.
  2. Pick the folder.

The folder appears under FOLDERS. SuperCapture starts watching it right away and then scans it in the background, including subfolders. A file added during that first scan is still picked up.

Some folders can’t be linked, and the app tells you why:

Folder Why it’s refused
Inside your save folder It’s already indexed
Contains your save folder It would index your library twice. Link a folder outside it instead
Already linked Nothing to add
Inside, or containing, another linked folder Links can’t overlap. Unlink the other one first
Doesn’t exist Nothing to index

What SuperCapture writes, and where

Section titled “What SuperCapture writes, and where”

Your original files are only ever read. SuperCapture’s own data for linked items lives under your save folder, not in the linked folder:

  • Index entries in supercapture.db
  • Thumbnails, in _ext_{hash} folders inside the save folder’s hidden .supercapture/ directory. Each _ext_ folder has a small source.json naming the folder it belongs to.
  • A video or audio project for linked recordings, also under _ext_, so you can edit them without touching the original
  • The list of linked folders, in .supercapture/linked-directories.json, so a lost database doesn’t forget your links

Staying in sync

Section titled “Staying in sync”

While the app is running, each linked folder has a file-system watcher, so files that are added, deleted or renamed show up without a manual refresh. As a backstop:

  • At launch, every linked folder gets a catch-up scan.
  • Every hour, the app re-attaches folders that came back online and fully rescans any folder not scanned in the last 12 hours.
  • After a watcher error (which can mean missed events), the folder is rescanned in full.

Every scan also prunes the index: if a file is gone, its tile goes too. If the whole folder is missing, for example on an unmounted external drive, its items are left alone until the drive comes back.

In the App Store version, SuperCapture saves the permission you grant in the folder picker, so a linked folder stays readable after relaunch.

Deleting and unlinking

Section titled “Deleting and unlinking”

Permanently deleting a linked item from the gallery removes its index entry and cached thumbnail. The original file is never deleted.

To stop indexing a folder, choose Unlink on its sidebar row. Unlinking:

  1. Stops watching the folder
  2. Removes its items from the index
  3. Deletes the _ext_ video and audio projects created for it
  4. Removes it from linked-directories.json

The files in the folder are not touched. Thumbnails are left in place in case you link the folder again.

Section titled “Related”