# 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.

Product: content-central · Versions: 7.x · Audience: system-administrator · Time: 60 minutes to set up; the import itself runs unattended · Last verified: 2026-09-05

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/content-central/capture/bulk-import-existing-files-and-folders

**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:

1. In **Catalog Manager** (on the server), click **New...**, check **Use Wizard...**, and click OK. The **New Catalog Wizard** walks four steps:

2. **Catalog Name** — plus the **Index Location** (where this catalog's search index will live) and a description.

3. **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.

4. **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.

5. 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](/content-central/search-and-find/make-already-captured-documents-text-searchable).
- **Refile** — apply [folder and file building](/content-central/administration/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.

## What's next

- [Set up your first catalog, fields, and document types](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/set-up-catalogs-fields-and-document-types)
- [How documents get into Content Central](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/capture/how-documents-get-into-content-central)