Automatic Folder Upload: Video Work You Can Hand Off to a Watch Folder, Even on a Free Account

If you make video every week, you know the routine. Record or export, open a browser, sign in, find the upload button, pick the file, keep the tab open until it is done, copy the link, paste it somewhere. None of it is hard. It is just the same ten minutes, again and again, and it always lands at the moment you would rather be doing something else.

DCAST Mini Uploader is a free desktop app for Windows and Linux that does that middle part for you. You point it at a folder; every new video that appears in that folder is uploaded to your DCAST library automatically, and you take the link from the app when you need it. It works with a free DCAST account, so you can automate a surprising amount of routine work without paying anything and without opening a browser.

How a watch folder works

The idea is simple: one folder on your disk becomes the entrance to your video library.

• You add a folder in the app and choose a few rules for it: which file types to take, the minimum file size, the highest resolution DCAST should prepare, and what to do with the file after the upload (keep it, move it into an archive folder, or delete it).
• When a new video lands in the folder, the app waits until the file has been completely written, then queues it and uploads it in the background.
• The upload goes in pieces. If the connection drops or the computer restarts, it continues from where it stopped instead of from zero.
• When the first version of the video is ready to play, the link works. DCAST keeps improving the quality in the background after that, on the same link.
• In the app's list you copy the link or send it by email, WhatsApp or Telegram, and you can set who may watch each video: Public, Unlisted (anyone with the link) or Private (only you).

The app lives in the system tray and can start together with your computer. As long as the computer is on and the app is running, the folder keeps working.

Four everyday jobs a watch folder can take off your hands

Videographers: the render becomes a link

You queue the export before going to bed; the export lands in the watched folder; in the morning the video is in your library and the link for the client is ready to send. This is the scenario the app was built around, and we wrote a separate guide for it: render overnight, send the client a link in the morning.

Teachers, tutors and course creators: every lesson recording goes up by itself

If you record lessons with OBS Studio or another recorder, set its recording folder as a watch folder. When a recording stops, the file goes to your library and you can send the link to the group the same evening, without a separate upload session on Sunday night.

One tip: some recorders produce two files for one recording, for example an .mkv and, after an automatic remux, an .mp4. They are different files, so both would be uploaded. Keep only one of those extensions in the folder's settings.

Churches and community groups: the service recording reaches people who could not come

The computer that records the service saves the recording to a folder; the app uploads it after the service, and the link can go to the website or the group chat for those who could not attend. Nobody has to stay behind after the service to upload the file by hand.

Teams that explain things on screen: screen recordings without the upload step

Screen recordings for a client, a colleague or a support answer are usually needed right now. Save them into a watched folder and the link is ready in the app shortly after you stop recording. Put the videos you only share privately on Unlisted, so they are reachable by link and not listed anywhere.

Moving a library: hundreds of files without babysitting a browser

When you leave another video platform, the hard part is not the decision but the uploading. Download your files, drop them into a watched folder and let the app work through them one after another. It starts them one at a time with a short pause between starts, and how many run in parallel depends on your plan and on the free processing capacity at that moment, so a big folder does not flood anything. A library of that size usually needs more than the free plan's 10 GB; if you are moving from another platform, see how we help you move.

Where a watch folder is the wrong tool

To save you a test that ends in disappointment, here is what the app does not do today:

• No Mac version. The app is available for Windows and Linux.
• No subfolders. Only files directly inside a watched folder are uploaded. Programs that save every recording into its own new subfolder need their save location changed first.
• No import from links or cloud drives. The app uploads files that are on your computer. A video in Google Drive or Dropbox has to be synced or downloaded into the folder first.
• Not a backup of your disk. The app uploads video files to a video library that plays them; it is not a copy of your raw footage. If you choose "Delete" as the after-upload action, the local file is removed after the upload, so keep that option for folders where the file on disk is not your only copy.
• Not for continuous camera recordings. Security cameras that write a new file every few minutes would fill any video library quickly, and that is not what DCAST is built for.

What you get on a free account

• The app itself is free, with no trial and no time limit.
• A 10 GB video library on the free plan, with uploaded videos playing at up to 720p.
• Video uploads do not use the live-streaming hours included in the free plan; uploaded video is limited by storage space only.
• A link for every video that opens in any browser, the visibility choice per video, and an embed code on dcast.tv for putting the video on your own site.

When you outgrow that, paid plans add space and resolution: 1080p on STAR, 4K on PRO, and libraries measured in hundreds of gigabytes and terabytes. Compare them on the pricing page.

How to start in five minutes

1. Download the app from the DCAST Mini Uploader page and create an account in it (or sign in with email, Google or Facebook).
2. Create an empty folder for the videos you want uploaded.
3. Add it in the app with + Add folder and pick the rules.
4. Drop one short test video into the folder and watch it appear in the list.
5. Copy its link and open it on your phone.

The step-by-step guide with every setting explained, including what happens with duplicates, errors and restarts, is here: how to set up a watch folder in DCAST Mini Uploader.