Set Up Your Tubeup Base Folder

Choose a base folder so Tubeup scans and registers your videos automatically, matches thumbnails by filename, and moves published files out of the way.

Updated July 20, 2026 4 min readbeginner

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The base folder is the directory Tubeup watches. Point the app at it once and every video you drop inside gets scanned and registered instantly, with any matching thumbnail attached automatically. Getting this one setting right is what turns bulk uploading into a drag-and-forget habit.

Before you begin

Tubeup installed and activated on Windows or macOS
A folder on a local drive containing the videos you want to publish

Why the base folder matters

Most upload tools ask you to select files every time you publish. Tubeup inverts that: the folder is the queue. You export a video from your editor straight into the base folder, and the next time Tubeup scans, that video is already in the batch with a row of its own.

That has two consequences worth planning around. First, anything you put in the folder becomes a candidate for upload, so it should not double as a scratch directory for half-finished renders. Second, Tubeup manages the folder for you after upload, moving published files out so raw and published videos do not mix. You do not have to clean up manually, and you should not fight the app by moving files around mid-batch.

Configure the folder

Create a dedicated folder

Make a new folder specifically for Tubeup on a local drive with enough free space. Do not reuse your editing project folder or a folder that syncs to cloud storage, because sync clients rename, lock, and temporarily remove files in ways that confuse any tool watching a directory.

Point Tubeup at it

Open Settings and find the base folder option, then browse to the folder you just created and confirm. Tubeup scans immediately.

Drop your videos in

Copy or export your video files into the folder. Every file Tubeup recognizes is registered and appears in the app, ready for metadata generation and upload.

Add thumbnails with matching filenames

Put each thumbnail image in the same folder and give it the same base filename as its video. When the names match, Tubeup detects the pairing and attaches the image automatically, so you never pick thumbnails one at a time.

Verify the batch

Look through the list in the app and confirm the video count matches what you expect and that thumbnails show up on the right rows. Fix any filename mismatches now, before you generate metadata.

Upload and let Tubeup tidy up

Start the upload. As videos finish, Tubeup moves the published files out of the intake folder automatically, leaving only the videos still waiting to go out.

Name your files the way you want to think about them, not the way your camera does. A folder full of DJI_0472.mp4 is hard to review, and a descriptive filename also gives the AI metadata generator a useful starting signal.

Choosing a folder layout

A single base folder is enough for most people, and it is the simplest thing that works. Export, generate, upload, done.

If you run several YouTube channels, keep channel batches separate rather than interleaved. Prepare one channel's videos in the folder, upload them, let Tubeup move them out, and only then stage the next channel's files. Because Tubeup clears published files as it goes, the folder naturally empties between batches and you avoid the classic mistake of publishing a video to the wrong channel.

If you are working through a back catalog of hundreds of videos, stage them in tranches instead of dropping everything at once. A batch you can review on one screen is a batch you will actually review.

Avoid pointing the base folder at a network drive, an external drive that disconnects, or a synced cloud folder. Uploads read from disk while they run, and a path that disappears mid-batch is the most common cause of avoidable upload failures.

After the scan

Once your files are registered, the rest of the workflow runs on top of them. Generating metadata with Gemini covers the whole batch in one action, and per-video settings such as playlist, visibility, and publish date attach to the rows the scan created. If you have not connected Gemini yet, do that before you generate anything, using the Gemini API key setup guide.

Next steps

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Cross-platform desktop app that bulk-uploads videos to YouTube with AI-generated metadata, scheduling, and multi-channel support.

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