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Bulk Actions

Select and operate on multiple clips at once. Archive, download, or delete many clips efficiently.

Selecting Multiple Clips​

Checkbox Selection​

Each clip card has a checkbox that appears on hover:

  1. Hover over a clip to reveal the checkbox (top-right corner)
  2. Click the checkbox to select or deselect
  3. Hold Shift and click a second checkbox to select the entire range between the two
  4. Use the Select All checkbox in the toolbar to select all visible clips

Selected clips show a ring highlight and a checkmark indicator.

Bulk actions toolbar

Marquee Selection​

Click and drag on the empty space between clip cards to draw a selection rectangle. Any clip that the rectangle touches gets selected -- just like selecting files in Finder or Explorer.

  1. Click on the empty space in the gallery grid (between or after cards)
  2. Drag to draw a selection rectangle
  3. Release to confirm the selection

Modifier keys:

  • Plain drag: Replaces the current selection with the marquee selection
  • Shift + drag: Adds the marquee selection to any existing selection

Marquee selection works in both the normal gallery view and folder mode.

Selection Indicator​

When clips are selected:

  • A count appears showing "N selected"
  • A bulk action bar slides up at the bottom of the window
  • A Cancel button lets you clear the selection (or press Esc)

Available Bulk Actions​

Copy​

Copy all selected clips as files to the system clipboard:

  1. Select clips
  2. Click Copy in the action bar (or press C)
  3. All selected clips are placed on the system clipboard as file references

You can also press Cmd/Ctrl + C as an alternative.

Platform Support

Copy as files is supported on macOS (via NSPasteboard) and Windows (via PowerShell). On Linux, this action is not available.

Tag​

Apply or remove tags from all selected clips:

  1. Select clips
  2. Click Tag in the action bar (or press T)
  3. Check or uncheck tags in the popover
  4. Create a new tag and apply it immediately from the same popover

Tag tree exclusivity is enforced per clip -- adding a tag from one tree automatically removes any existing tag in the same tree. See Tags for details on tree exclusivity.

Compare​

Compare two images side by side:

  1. Select exactly two image clips
  2. The Compare button appears in the action bar
  3. Click to open the comparison modal

This button only appears when exactly two clips with image/* content types are selected.

Archive​

Move all selected clips to the archive:

  1. Select clips
  2. Click Archive in the action bar (or press E)
  3. All selected clips move to Archive

When you are viewing the Archive, this button changes to Restore and moves selected clips back to the main gallery.

Bulk Restore Bug

The bulk archive operation currently always sets clips to archived (is_archived = 1) regardless of context. Clicking Restore in the archive view re-archives the selected clips instead of restoring them. Use single-clip restore via the context menu as a workaround.

Download as ZIP​

Export all selected clips as a single ZIP file:

  1. Select clips
  2. Click Download in the action bar (or press Cmd/Ctrl + D)
  3. Choose a save location in the native file dialog
  4. A ZIP file is created containing all clip contents

The default filename is clips_YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.zip. Inside the archive:

  • Clips with an original filename are stored as {id}_{originalname} (e.g. 42_photo.png)
  • Clips without a filename are stored as clip_{id}.{ext}, where the extension is derived from the MIME type

Set Expiration​

Apply an expiration to all selected clips:

  1. Select clips
  2. Click Set Expiration in the action bar (or press X)
  3. Choose a preset from the popover (15m, 1h, 6h, 24h, 7d)
  4. The expiration timer starts immediately for all selected clips

See Auto-Delete for details on how expiration works.

Clear Expiry​

Remove expiration from all selected clips:

  1. Select clips that have active expirations
  2. Click Clear Expiry in the action bar
  3. All selected clips revert to no expiry

The Clear Expiry button only appears when at least one selected clip has an active expiration timer.

Delete​

Remove all selected clips permanently:

  1. Select clips
  2. Click Delete in the action bar (or press D)
  3. Confirm the deletion
  4. All selected clips are permanently removed
Permanent Deletion

Bulk delete cannot be undone. Make sure you've selected the right clips before confirming.

Keyboard Shortcuts​

When clips are selected, these shortcuts are available:

ShortcutAction
CCopy selected as files
Cmd/Ctrl + CCopy selected as files
DDelete selected
EArchive / Restore selected
TOpen tag popover
XSet expiration
Cmd/Ctrl + DDownload selected as ZIP
EscClear selection

Tips​

  • Click and drag on empty space to marquee-select multiple clips at once
  • Use Shift-click to select a range of consecutive clips quickly
  • Double-check your selection before deleting -- delete is permanent
  • Consider archiving instead of deleting if you might need clips later
  • For large exports, ZIP creation may take a moment