I use Finder folders and search. If I ever decided to make a catalog, I most likely would use a spreadsheet.
Good question. I haven’t downloaded a huge number of videos, so I can manage them using sensibly organized folders in the Finder. I like keeping things simple, where possible. That said, I would be interested in hearing about video organization tools that people have found useful.
Not a very helpful reply I suspect, but 95% of the videos I download are data for research articles I’m working on. So they go into a subfolder of the folder devoted to that article.
Those that are not associated with articles, just general interest, usually hang out in a Movies folder in the Downloads folder. I organize the Downloads folder with Hazel. So I have a Movies folder, PDF folder, Documents folder, etc. for stuff that doesn’t get moved elsewhere. For example, PDFs will most likely get imported into Bookends and moved to its iCloud folder.
Most that I download are temporary – like just wanting a copy for later viewing (possibly offline) or viewing without worrying about buffering issues. Sometimes I download a video just to extract a small portion (a clip) for other uses. So organization isn’t really an issue.
The stuff I do keep longterm I put on my Plex server into whatever category is appropriate.
They go where they’re needed. My research led videos go into DEVONthink, quite often after compression by Handbrake. For teaching I actually re-upload to Vimeo, the better to control the experience and to ensure future access, as well as to remove advertisements. These end up embedded in Notion pages which I use for teaching. The few entertainment videos go into my raid.
As regards organisation i treat like other files. There’s no iTunes or Plex like approach. I re-title them according to my needs and use DEVONthink’s groups.
Sometimes I use the macOS alias function - create a folder on a topic/project and drag videos and other files to it as aliases. This is quite flexible as the one file can be in several alias folders (e.g. for different projects)..
For media videos I still use iTunes on an old iMac. It has multiple fields for cataloging videos (but admittedly I only tend to use genre and favourites - except for Store purchases). As above, I use iTunes Playlists to manage categories. I suppose similar features are available in the latest macOS but I will keep my system going for as long as possible ![]()
BTW, for many years I have stored videos on external drive and set iTunes to not copy files to the local drive. iTunes happily makes these videos available via Homesharing.
I primarily download music videos - often old live recordings. I just store them in a Music Videos folder and name them appropriately (Artist name, song title etc). Never have an issue finding them.
Good follow up question @ace !
I download very few but when I do they’re just plunked into the Movies folder and renamed. If I want to watch them again, they’re easy to find there with Finder or LaunchBar or GraphicConverter (the latter will QuickLook files that Finder won’t on my Mac).
A differently-organized family member uses Downie to, ahem, borrow, short videos on Instagram YTube et al, puts them in folders associated with her professional presentations (with credit to author), and can remember where to find them in future.
As an aside, Downie will also work with audio files. I took a link to one on YTube in an RSS reader, gave it to Downie and it downloaded straight away!
Folders in iCloud. Some at obvious paths like ../Manuals/ other I document where they are stored in notes in Drafts.app. I am working on making a local AI with permanent memory based on my documentation. My hope is that I can build something that can help me find things even when I only remember vague things. I am in the brainstorm / plan stage now. I have not involved Claude yet.