Bulk-import existing files and folders
Bring years of network-share files into Content Central with Catalog Manager — the two import paths, exactly what the import does and deliberately doesn't do (no OCR, no field values from folder names), and the follow-up passes that finish the job.
Before you begin
- Access to the Content Central server (Catalog Manager runs there)
- The files reachable from the server by a stable path
At the end of this guide, an existing folder tree — the old network share, the scans folder from the last system — is inside a Content Central catalog, and you'll know exactly what the import did and didn't do to it, because the didn'ts are what surprise people.
Path A — a new catalog around existing folders
When the files should become their own catalog, let the wizard build both:
In Catalog Manager (on the server), click New..., check Use Wizard..., and click OK. The New Catalog Wizard walks four steps:
Catalog Name — plus the Index Location (where this catalog's search index will live) and a description.
Folders to Catalog (includes sub-folders) — Add Folder... for each root to import. The parenthetical is a promise: recursion isn't optional, everything underneath comes along.
Update Catalog Schedule — worth pausing on: Enable update schedule makes this a continuing arrangement, re-scanning the folders every N or at a set time. Files that keep landing on the old share keep flowing into the catalog — a genuine bridge during a gradual migration.
The summary page, with Add documents now checked, queues the import when you Finish.
Path B — into a catalog you already have
Select the catalog in Catalog Manager's list, choose Add docs to selected catalog in the action drop-down at the bottom, and click Go. (The folders scanned are the ones on the catalog's Folders page — Modify... adds more.)
Either path answers the same way: "The catalog should update shortly. Check the Windows Event Log for completion status." The work happens in the background service; a big share takes as long as it takes, and the Event Log is where completion shows.
What the import actually does — and deliberately doesn't
| It does | It doesn't |
|---|---|
| Walk every folder recursively and add each file as a document | Move or rename anything — files stay exactly where they are |
| File everything under the catalog's default document type | Assign types per folder — reclassify afterward where it matters |
| Take the file's name as the document name | Derive field values from folder names — a document imported from \Acme Corp\2024\ knows nothing of Acme or 2024 |
| Pull matching metadata from inside Office-style files (embedded document properties that share a field's name) | Run OCR — scanned images arrive without searchable text |
| Skip files it has already imported — re-running is safe | Detect duplicates by content — the same file in two folders imports twice |
Dates are stamped at import time, not preserved from the file. And the catalog's Advanced Catalog Settings offer Include filters / Exclude filters (wildcards like *.pdf; exclude wins) when only part of the tree should come in.
The follow-up passes
Two finishing operations exist precisely because the import declines to do them — both are deliberate, support-assisted maintenance actions run from the same Catalog Manager action menu, and both require an authorization code from Ademero support:
- Make Searchable — OCR the imported images into searchable documents: Make already-captured documents text-searchable.
- Refile — apply folder and file building patterns to what was imported, once fields have values worth building from.
Success check: after the Event Log reports completion, browse the catalog in the Folder Browser — the old tree's structure, mirrored, every file present as a document under the default type. Then search for text you know is inside a scanned page and don't find it — that's your reminder of which follow-up pass comes next.