Make sure you’ve completed installation and signed in to your
organization before starting this guide.
Plug in a hard drive
Connect a hard drive to your Mac using USB, Thunderbolt, or any other connection your drive supports. 1Archive detects mounted drives automatically.Once the drive mounts, switch to 1Archive. You’ll see it appear in the Drives section of the left sidebar. Each drive is listed with its name, capacity, and available space.
Start a scan
Click on the drive you just connected to open its detail view. Then click Scan in the top-right corner.1Archive shows you an estimated scan time based on the drive’s size and file count. You can also enable Create Thumbnails before the scan starts. That option generates preview images for photos and videos and makes your library much more browsable later. Thumbnail generation does take additional time, so for a quick first run you can skip it and generate thumbnails separately afterward.Click Scan to begin. A progress bar tracks the scan as it runs. For a 2 TB drive with typical media content, expect the scan to take a few minutes.
Browse your files
When the scan finishes, click the drive in the sidebar to see all indexed files. The file list shows filenames, sizes, and dates. You can sort and filter by file type, date, or size.Click any file to open a preview panel on the right side of the screen. The panel shows metadata (file path, size, creation date, format) and a thumbnail if one was generated during the scan.
Add drive details
Give your drive a meaningful name so your team can identify it at a glance. Click the ⋯ (more options) button on the drive card and select Drive Info to open the drive details sidebar.Here you can set a custom name, add a description or notes, and see a summary of the drive’s contents. Good drive names, like “NYC Shoot March 2024” or “Archive Backup 4”, make your catalog much easier to navigate as your library grows.
Search your library
Click the Search bar at the top of the window (or press the keyboard shortcut shown in the interface) and type a query. 1Archive searches across all indexed drives simultaneously, even if those drives are not currently connected.There are three ways to search:
- Filename search: Type part of a file or folder name. Results appear instantly as you type.
- AI image search: Describe what you’re looking for in plain language (for example, “outdoor interview with mountains” or “close-up of hands on keyboard”). 1Archive uses AI to match your description to image and video content.
- Transcript search: For video and audio files that have been transcribed, search by spoken words or phrases. Results link directly to the moment in the file where the phrase appears.
Create your first Collection
Once you’ve found files you want to group together, select them and click Add to Collection. Give the Collection a name (for example, “Client Deliverables Q1” or “B-Roll Selects”).Collections let you organize files from any number of drives into a single view. You can share a Collection with your team or generate a public web link that anyone can browse without a 1Archive account.To share a Collection, open it from the Collections section in the sidebar, click Share, and copy the link.
What happens when you unplug the drive?
1Archive keeps your full catalog (thumbnails, metadata, and search index) even after you disconnect a drive. You can still search for files, view their metadata, and browse the indexed content. The only thing you can’t do with a disconnected drive is open the original file itself. This makes 1Archive useful for archiving decisions: you can search your entire historical library without needing every drive plugged in at once.Next steps
Connect more drives
Add and manage multiple drives to build a complete catalog.
Search in depth
Learn all the search modes and filter options available.
Collections
Organize files and share curated sets with your team or clients.
Invite your team
Add teammates to your organization so everyone shares the same catalog.