greycard

User guide

Archives and backup

An archive is a library root that holds the long-term copy of your shoots, such as a NAS or a large external drive. Once a root is marked as an archive, greycard can copy a shoot to it, bring a shoot back from it, keep the two copies' edits in step, and clear your rejects off it. Use this when you shoot to a laptop and keep everything on a bigger drive. If all your work lives in one place, you don't need it. Roots themselves are covered in Folders and the library.

Marking a root as an archive

With the grid up, right-click the root's row under ROOTS (Control+ click on a Mac) and choose Use as an archive. A small cloud appears beside its count.

Choose it again to unmark it. Nothing on disk moves either way.

An archive's own view works like any root's. You can browse, rate, cull, edit and delete there.

Back up

Back up copies the frames that are not on the archive yet, with their sidecars.

  1. Open the folder, or select the frames, you want to back up. This works from a root, a folder in it, or a folder outside the library, but not from All roots.
  2. Click the cloud button in the grid's header, or right-click a frame and choose Back up to Archive... (your archive's name). With two archives, pick one from the menu.
  3. The sheet looks at what is already there, then says what it will copy and how big it is.
  4. Check the folder under To this folder: and press the button, such as Back up 120 frames.

The header acts on the open folder and every folder under it, or on the selection when more than one frame is selected. The menu acts on the selection.

What gets copied

  • A frame already on the archive is not copied again, even under another folder or another name there. greycard recognizes it by its content.
  • If the copy there has an older edit, only the sidecar is updated. If both copies were edited, the edits are joined (see below).
  • A file of the same name that is a different picture is left alone, and the sheet names it.
  • rejects folders are left out. Tick Include the rejects folder to copy them too.

Each file is read back and checked after it is copied. Back up never writes over or deletes a picture on the archive.

The copy runs in the background, with a bar and Cancel at the foot of the window. Cancel stops after the frame in hand. If the archive stops answering for a few seconds, the copy stops after its current frame and the status line says so. Run Back up again later; it skips what already arrived.

The header's count

Once a folder has been backed up, the header's button shows what has changed since, such as "3 frames not on Archive" or "All on Archive". Click it to back up the rest.

"Not known" in the count means greycard could not tell without reading the whole file. The Back up sheet checks those fully.

The Delete sheet also says whether the frames you are about to delete are on an archive: "All 340 are on Archive", or "3 of these are on no archive".

Where a shoot goes on the archive

The first time, the folder under To this folder: mirrors your root: the archive, then the root's name, then the shoot's path under the root. Change it to fit how your archive is laid out. It must be inside the archive.

greycard remembers the folder you chose for that shoot. The next shoot from the same root starts beside it. For example, after you back up Skye to Archive/2026/Skye, the next shoot Harris starts at Archive/2026/Harris.

Bring back

Bring back copies frames from the archive to a local root, for when you want to work on an old shoot again or you deleted it from the laptop.

  1. Open the shoot in the archive's view (its row under ROOTS, then the folder in the tree), or select frames there.
  2. Click Bring back... in the header, or right-click and choose Bring back to and a local root.
  3. Check the folder and confirm.

If the shoot was backed up from this computer, the folder is the one it came from, and the sheet says "Where it was backed up from". If not, greycard suggests a folder under the root and asks you to check it.

A frame that is already here is not copied. Its sidecar is updated or joined as with Back up. The same checks, bar and Cancel apply.

One frame in two places

A frame on your laptop and its copy on the archive are treated as one frame.

  • All roots lists it once, from the local copy. If the local copy is gone or its drive is offline, it is listed from the archive.
  • Every time you save an edit, rating or flag, greycard also writes it to the archive's copy, in the background.
  • If the archive is offline, the status line counts what is waiting, such as "3 edits waiting for Archive". They are written when it answers again. Click the note to try now.
  • If you edited both copies separately, on two computers for example, greycard joins them instead of picking one. The more recent edit is the one you see, and both histories are kept, so the other is a click away in History. The join is a step called "Reconciled with the copy on" and the other computer's name. Ratings, flags and labels each keep their most recent change.
  • If a frame's drive goes offline while it is open, greycard can carry on from the archive's copy, and the status line says so. When you quit, the last edit you made there is written to the archive's copy before greycard closes, waiting a few seconds at most for the archive to answer. If the archive is away too, that edit has nowhere to go and is lost.

If a frame has two copies on the archive and greycard can't tell which is its own, the note adds "can't tell which copy is its own". Back up that frame's folder once, so greycard knows where it goes.

Remove rejects from an archive

A shoot is often backed up before it is culled, so the archive keeps frames you later rejected. Remove rejects from Archive... finds the copies of the open folder's rejects on the archive.

It is in the grid's header under the Rejects menu, and in the CULLING section. It works on one folder at a time: pick one in the tree, with With subfolders off.

The sheet lists each reject beside its copy on the archive, then offers:

  • Move to rejects on Archive: moves the copies into a rejects folder beside them on the archive. This is the default, and Enter presses it. Nothing is deleted.
  • Delete from Archive: deletes the copies, to the trash where the archive has one. It is red and only a click presses it. If the trash has failed there before, Delete from Archive permanently is offered beside it, and can't be undone.

Copies greycard can't be sure of are listed as unverified and left alone.

If the archive is offline, the sheet works from what greycard last saw. A move is queued and runs when the archive answers again. A delete is never queued: ask again when the archive is back.

To clear an archive's own rejects folders, open the archive's view and use Delete rejects folder... there.

Going back to an older version

Once greycard 0.4 has opened your library, an older version refuses to open the library and leaves it as it is. Your raws and sidecars are not affected.