Help · Events
Events sorts photos into named folders by when they were taken — Ceremony, Reception, Day 2 — instead of by calendar date. This page explains each control, why the times are in UTC, and what happens to files that fall outside every event.
Copy leaves the source untouched and builds the event folders at the destination. Move takes the files out of the source and is undoable. Before either runs, the Preview lists every file with the folder it is going to.
Files that match no event stay exactly where they are, unless you choose to collect them in an Unmatched folder. Your list of events is kept in FolioSort's own settings, not in your folders, so it is still there next time.
Source Folder · Include Subfolders · Destination Folder
The card or folder with the shoot, whether to go into its sub-folders, and where the event folders are created.
Photos · Videos · Thumbnails · Scan
Which kinds of file take part, whether to draw thumbnails in the list (slower on very large folders), and Scan, which reads every capture time. Nothing is written by scanning.
Add Event · Event name · Time range (UTC)
An event is a name and a time range, and becomes a folder: Destination/Smith Wedding/. A
photo belongs to it when its capture time is inside the range — the start included, the end not, so two
events that meet at 17:00 never both claim the same photo.
Add Sub-event · Sub-event name
Parts of an event, each with its own range inside the event's: Getting Ready,
Ceremony, Reception. Photos go into Smith Wedding/Ceremony/. A sub-event
outside its parent's range is flagged — This sub-event falls outside its parent event's time
range — and the run waits until it is fixed. Photos inside the event but in no sub-event go into
the event's own folder.
Why the times are in UTC
Photos are matched on the timestamp stored in their EXIF data, and the screen compares in UTC so no time-zone arithmetic is applied to the photos. The dependable check is the Preview: find a photo you know belongs to the ceremony and see which folder it lands in. If everything is shifted by the same number of hours, move the ranges by that amount.
Include files with no capture date
On by default: screenshots, exports and downloads, which carry no EXIF date, are placed by their file date. Turn it off and only photos with an EXIF capture date take part — the better choice for a shelf of scanned prints, whose file dates are the day they were scanned.
Auto-group · Start a new event after
Builds the events for you: it replaces the list with one event per burst of shooting, starting a new one whenever the gap between two photos is longer than the time you pick — from 1 minute to 3 days, 1 hour by default. Rename them and adjust the times afterwards. Use a short gap for a single day, a long one for a holiday.
SUGGESTED EVENTS · Add EventElite
After a scan FolioSort looks for trips and occasions in the photos and lists them, named after the place when GPS is available and after the month when it is not. A new suggestion starts after a long break without photos (36 hours by default, adjustable) or a jump of more than about 120 km; groups of fewer than 10 photos are ignored. Suggestions are shown to everyone. Add Event turns one into an ordinary, editable event, widened to whole hours so the first and last photos are inside it — nothing moves until you organize.
Copy · Move
Copy keeps the originals where they were; Move takes them out of the source and is undoable. Copy is the right choice straight off a card you have not backed up yet.
Move unmatched to “Unmatched” folder
Off: files outside every event stay in the source, shown in the preview as (stays in source). On: they are collected in an Unmatched folder at the destination, so the source is left empty.
PREVIEW · Unmatched · Organize
Every file with the folder it will go to, and the number that match no event. Review the unmatched ones before starting — they are usually the photos just before or after a range. If Organize is greyed out, its tooltip says why: Fix the event time ranges first, or No files match the defined events.
Duplicate File Found
If a file of the same name is already in the destination folder you are asked what to do — Skip, Rename, Replace or Replace if Larger — with Apply to all remaining duplicates. Replace sends the existing file to the Trash rather than deleting it.
Undo last operation
The curved arrow in the toolbar. Puts every file of the last run back where it came from and removes the folders the run created, if they are empty.
Which plan
Events is a Pro screen: you can scan, build events and see the full preview on the free plan, and a license is asked for when you organize. Accepting a suggested event needs Elite.
FAQ
On the Events screen, scan the card or folder, then add an event for the day and a sub-event for each part — Ceremony from one time to another, Reception after it. Each photo goes into Event/Sub-event according to its capture time. The Preview lists every file with its folder before anything is copied, so you can adjust the times until the boundary photos land where they belong.
Because times are matched against the timestamp stored in the photos' EXIF data, and the screen compares them as UTC so there is no time-zone arithmetic on the photo's side. The practical check is the Preview: find a photo you know belongs to the first part and see which folder it lands in. If everything is off by the same number of hours, shift the ranges by that offset.
By default they stay where they are in the source and are listed as Unmatched in the preview. Tick Move unmatched to Unmatched folder to have them collected in a folder of that name at the destination instead.