Organizing your files

Use Organize → Organize files to put files into their intended folders. Organizing needs the full version.

Choose where the files come from

Open Source in the ribbon's Locations group. Choose Current scan to organize the files left after reviewing your duplicate and similar results. Only files included in that scan can be assigned. A documents-only scan gives you documents to organize. Files excluded from the scan, or added afterwards, do not appear as new source files in this mode.

Choose Free-form to browse folders and organize their files without a scan. You can use this mode while a scan is open too. Switching between the two keeps each mode's pending job separate.

This source choice is separate from Mode, which controls whether you review a plan or use Live move.

Your pinned folders appear as a list at the top of the left pane. Use the pin beside a folder to add or remove its shortcut. Removing every pin leaves this list empty. Below the divider, expand This PC, Libraries or Network to browse your locations. Network contains the network locations you have added. Both panes carry a header band ("Source folders", "Destination folders"); the + is a bordered button so it stays visible in Light, Dark and with any accent colour.

Choose part of the breadcrumb above the centre pane to return to a parent folder. Large folders load in sections as you scroll. Load more folders lets you request the next section of a folder tree.

In Free-form, a locked or inaccessible item can still appear in the listing with its selection box disabled. Point to its name for the reason. Other folders in the same location remain available.

Checking files or folders keeps the current listing in place. To see files added in Free-form, choose Browse files, or leave the folder and return.

Tile view uses the tile size you chose on Files, Images or Videos. Each folder is a tile of its own. The box on a tile is labelled Selected; on a folder it shows a third state when only some of what is inside is selected. Ctrl+Plus and Ctrl+Minus change the tile size here too. Organize opens on its list until you choose tiles. See Lists and tiles.

Use the controls at the bottom right of the centre pane to choose List view, Tile view or Preview. In Preview, select a file to read or view it before assigning it. Files without a supported viewer show a thumbnail or file icon instead. The Text view (M) button above the preview switches a file between its original and its text; see Original and Text. Use Previous and Next to move between files.

Queue files for a destination

Moving removes files from their original locations. Adding files to a ZIP also removes the originals after the ZIP is written and checked. Undo and Redo change planning edits; they do not reverse completed actions.

  1. Open Organize files and choose Current scan or Free-form under Source.
  2. Browse your source locations on the left. Select files or folders in Source files in the centre.
  3. Use + on the left of a destination folder in the right pane to assign the selected files. You can assign directly from the tree without pinning. Pin a destination to keep its shortcut at the top of the pane. Use Recycle Bin to queue files for recycling instead.
  4. Check Assignments below the panes. Assignments are grouped by destination. The × beside an assignment returns its unexecuted files to your available source choices.
  5. Choose Existing files and Existing folders in the ribbon's Rules group.

Choose a destination to set where the next assignment goes. View destination files lets you inspect its existing contents. Return with Browse files to continue checking source files.

The tick box in the header of the file list selects every file in the folder, or clears them when they are all selected. Preview and Details stay highlighted while they are on; choose either again to turn it off. An empty folder, an empty Assignments pane and an empty plan each say so instead of showing a bare table.

In Preview, + assigns only the file you are viewing, then shows the next available file. In the list and tile views, + assigns your selected files and folders.

Choose Hide assignments in the ribbon to give the file panes more room. Show assignments brings the queue back without changing its contents. Drag the horizontal divider above Assignments to resize the pane, or focus it and use Up and Down. Trawler remembers the pane's height and visibility.

The status bar shows the folder you are looking at, how many items it lists, and how many files are assigned. While you review a plan, it shows the space the plan requires and the issues to resolve in place of the item count. A refusal such as "no plan yet" appears there too, and a running job shows how many files it has done out of the total.

The … menu beside a pinned destination or one of its subfolders offers Add subfolder and Add ZIP archive. These are drafts: adding one does not create it on disk. You can rename or remove an empty draft before it is created.

Review before anything moves

Leave Mode on Plan (dry run) and choose Generate plan. The Move plan shows each destination and action. Generating the plan does not move your files.

Look at a file

Select a file and choose Fullscreen or Preview in the Selected file group of the ribbon. Enter and a double-click do the same on the list and the tiles. Details shows the file's size, dates and other properties in a panel beside the list. It is the same panel, and the same shown-or-hidden choice, as on the Files screen.

If a file in the plan would land on a name that already exists, right-click its row and choose Compare with the existing file. You can also select the row and press C, double-click it, or choose Compare in the ribbon. The incoming file and the file already there appear side by side. Nothing is kept or discarded here, so the Keep and Discard buttons are dimmed. Press Esc or Back to return to the plan. A row with no file in the way has no comparison.

Click an issue to jump to the action it is about. Uncheck actions you want to exclude. Unchecking a folder excludes its subtree. Choose Recalculate after changing the review choices. Resolve the listed issues before executing; an unreachable destination or a changed source needs attention.

Existing files offers Skip, Overwrite, and Rename. Overwrite replaces an existing destination file. Existing folders offers Merge, Skip, and Rename. Review the resulting names and paths before continuing.

Choose Execute selected actions when the plan is ready. The confirmation discloses protected locations touched by your explicit choices. Protection does not overrule an individual file you ticked yourself.

The confirmation lists what will happen: how many files are moved (the originals are removed from their folders), added to a ZIP (the originals are removed after the ZIP is written and checked), sent to the Recycle Bin, and how many will replace a file already at the destination. A kind with nothing in it is left out.

While the plan runs, the workspace is replaced by a progress view with the percentage, a bar, the number of files done out of the total and the file just finished. Cancel is at the bottom of that view as well as in the ribbon. When the run ends the same view shows how many actions were completed, skipped, failed and cancelled. Open log opens the folder with the application logs, and Back to Organize returns to the workspace. Undo and Redo are switched off once the run has started; they only ever changed planning edits. In the plan view, Back to files returns to choosing files.

Live move changes the primary command to Move now. It builds the same plan and asks for confirmation before executing. Use Plan (dry run) when you want to inspect or adjust the action list first.

Stop, save, or return later

Cancel stops further work. Completed actions remain completed; cancelling does not move them back. Check each outcome before removing either copy after a failure. A warning that both copies remain means you need to inspect both locations.

Save job keeps your planning choices and outcomes. A Current scan job belongs to the scan it was created from. Free-form jobs are kept separately. Choose the matching source mode, a saved job and Open job to inspect it again. Completed actions cannot replay; you can queue another batch of remaining files.

The first ten displayed pinned destinations have number-pad shortcuts 0–9. The number-pad decimal key queues selected files for Recycle Bin. Num Lock must be on. If you have no number pad, Ctrl+Shift+0–9 (the number row) assign to the same ten destinations. Space selects or clears the file or tile you are on, and Ctrl+A selects everything in the listed folder. Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y undo and redo planning edits when you are not typing into a field.