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Watch Folders: Automatic Video Compression on Autopilot

March 20, 2026 • VideoRecompress Studio Team

Videos keep arriving from security cameras, screen recordings or drone dumps. A Watch Folder compresses each new one the moment it lands, with the preset you chose.

What a watch folder does with each new file

  1. 1A video lands

    A new file appears in the watched folder.

  2. 2It waits until the file is stable

    The folder is scanned every 30 seconds. A file must be unchanged for 10 seconds, so a copy still in progress is skipped.

  3. 3It encodes

    Your preset runs, on the GPU when the PC has a supported one.

  4. 4It checks the result

    The new file is verified. If it came out bigger than the original, the original streams are kept.

  5. 5It saves

    The result goes to your output folder. The original is never deleted, and each file is processed once.

Set up once: add a folder, pick a preset, click Start.

Set up once

  1. Open Watch Folders It is in the sidebar.
  2. Add a folder Pick the directory to monitor.
  3. Choose a preset For example Security Camera Archive, Phone Video Archive or Maximum Savings.
  4. Click Start Every new video in that folder is now compressed automatically.

How it decides a file is ready

30 sbetween scans of the folder
1×each file is processed once, never twice
StableThe app waits until a file stops growing, so half-copied or still-recording files are skipped.

Options

  • Preset Any built-in or custom preset.
  • Include subfolders Optionally watch nested directories too.
  • Auto-start on launch Watching resumes when the app starts.
  • Custom output folder Save compressed files elsewhere, or next to the originals.

Where it helps

  • Security cameras

    Point a Watch Folder at the recording directory with the Security Camera Archive preset (H.265, CRF 28) and reclaim space automatically.

  • Content creators

    Drop raw files into a watched folder after a session and move on to editing.

  • Shared network folders

    Network drives work through reliable polling, so files from every contributor are processed.

  • Drone and action cameras

    Compress everything in the import folder after copying from the SD card.

Live status

Each Watch Folder shows whether it is watching, scanning or processing, plus the number of processed files, any errors and the space saved per batch.

Get started

Watch Folders are in VideoRecompress Studio. Set up your first automated workflow in a minute.

Download the latest version