I used to have complete anarchy in my Downloads folder, but I've since reformed my ways and now my Downloads folder is clean and my Videos and Documents folders are complete anarchy instead.
Organizing is one thing but it's better to reduce your brainpower-spending regardless of what you do.
On Windows? Custom iconed folders and explorer bookmarks go a long way. Better than relying on Quick Access or whatever.
On desktop Linux? Tools like fd and zoxide (z) save you as long as your directory names are consistent. Sticking to names-like-this reduces guesswork and you can skip around in seconds. (Saved me many a due date.)
On Android, consult Indiana Jones. Your files are a treasure -- they're staying hidden
Android at least has this neat app named TagSpaces... but yeah I really hate how the entire filesystem is basically Windows' "Documents" folder: Various apps just dump things wherever the heck they please!
Edit: Thanks for mentioning those really cool Linux tools!!
These days, a shallow folder system. I have an electronica folder, and a Blanck Mass folder that definitely would go in there but that is full enough to stand on it's own. Actual taxonomic organisation would take way too many clicks, but flat organisation can result in trouble finding things, and just looks like you're a slob. (Although I'm guilty of having unsorted hoarder folders for things I only needed once, too)
There's probably a rule of thumb for optimal fanout on each GUI folder, related to our visual processing. Hmm. I wonder if there's a way to make the tree self-balancing as well.
100% of everything is on the desktop. No borders no boundaries to divide the working class programs against themselves
Before even looking, I could tell you were from .ml. Stand strong, comrade!
I try but don't always succeed. In my main laptop, I have all misc files in the downloads folder, photos in photos, documents(pdfs, writer, math) and videos/movies in videos.
on my main desktop it's total anarchy
I don't keep anything relevant on my machine. It's just a way to access data hosted somewhere more safe. Also files and folders are terrible ways to organize anything, even remotely like Google Drive or similar stuff. It's Microsoft's and Apple's brainrot outliving the 90s. We should move forward.
If not in folders, how would you suggest we organize data on computers so that it's easily findable without needing keyword searches all the time? Because I can guarantee that I'm not the only one who would remember the keyword for a specific song or government document right until the moment when I need it and then I will forget what any of the set keywords/tgs were or be so vague with the tags that it feels like searching for something specific on pinterest
It goes to the Desktop, when the Desktop is full I delete everything that looks unimportant 👍
thanks, I hate it
this is me, but i make another new folder and put everything in the new folder cause i don't feel like looking to see if it could be important, i'll do it later maybe
Your question made me curious, so I counted: the subdirectories in my home directory reach a maximum of 26 levels deep.
You gotta up those numbers!
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Yes.
I use plex so it files have to complay with the minimum plex naming conventions:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/
I’ve struggled with digital organizing for decades. I tried tons of strategies from other people. There’s lots of good ideas, but ultimately you have to find something that works for you. I take some ideas from other systems and tweak them in ways that make sense for me.
I heavily rely on the default indexing of my OS. KDE is great, but most OSes have pretty good file searching tools. Just make sure to label files or at least folders in ways that are searchable.
Backups are super important (3 copies, 2 different types of media, 1 copy off site). I like to structure my data in a way that is easy to back up. I have a folder called “ephemeral” for stuff that I don’t care to back up so I don’t waste precious space. But i also try to have way more space than i need. I have a 4TB ssd on my main laptop and am planning on upgrading to 8TB soon. I have two different ZFS RAID3 arrays on my server where I copy data too. I started using syncthing to keep different types of media backed up between multiple computers. That way I can decide which computer is connected to which data set. Then I take regular backups of the sever to external drives and rotate those backup off site monthly.
I like to have a folder called “archive” where i put things that I want to hold on to, but will probably never need regular access too.
I also have a sensitive data folder for things that need to be on encrypted drives like financial statements, social security, passwords, ssh keys. Keeping it together helps me from forgetting it on an unencrypted drive. I had a laptop stolen once and it sucked not knowing what they may have pulled from it.
I have a media folder that contains folders for basic file types like documents, pictures, books, music, etc. The ephemeral folder has the same folder structure, but contains files that i don’t care if they disappear or get deleted. It is annoying to keep up with this though. But investing in storage space buys me time to not deal with it.
It will never be perfect so I learned how to stop worrying and love the search.
Ideally:
Reality:
This is the one that hit home for me.
Depends on what it is. Currently, on my laptop, I have music organized by group followed by album if I have ripped a CD for backup in case my CD stops working. Got a lot of blanks, just in case, for free.
Downloads isn't organized. Pictures are slightly organized, with images for background in a folder and a few other folders. Most everything in documents is in a folder inside the documents folder or a subfolder in the subfolders.
Desktop has folder has mostly the important things in it, like folder for appimages, emulators, other programs and related files that require their own folder, and a few miscellaneous files. Organization is something I have prioritized a lot more on my laptop to ensure I don't end up having a situation like with my desktop where it's a shitshow.
As for phone, I'm doing a lot better with organization because I set up a new phone I got maybe a month or less ago and have been doing good to organize. Just need to go into my SD card and fix some things up that haven't been organized for a long time, since my 2nd smartphone, back from ~2015-16. Mostly just music. Got over 500 audio files stored on an SD card, so you can imagine how insane it is to try and organize, especially if you feel daunted by that task like me.
Downloads folder is a free-for-all; things get properly sorted when they’re moved onto the NAS - there is a seperate network drive for Multimedia (videos), Applications, Photos, etc. Each of those are then usually nested by Alphabetical folder.
NAS. Most things sit in downloads indefinitely, and I'll randomly decide the folder is gross and unmanageable and put things into appropriate folders. Usually Documents gets the most sub-categories, with various significant life docs sorted by category and year. Pictures gets random art I made in a folder, pictures, memes and funny shit, etc also get their own folders.
Media downloads go straight to the NAS where they're organized by Format/Category/Series/Name. As in Video/Movies/John wick/John wick 1. TV gets a season level in there.
2tb external hard drive, and another 2tb drive that has a copy of everything.
If it's important, or if you love your stuff, then always keep a backup.
I personally do three 5TB ext. drives, and only two drives may be at the same location at any given time. I'm also making sure only to use drives whose S.M.A.R.T. can be read without removing their enclosure.
Not sure who thought it'd be a good idea to make an external drive where S.M.A.R.T. cannot be read through whatever interface it uses.
I'm also making sure only to use drives whose S.M.A.R.T. can be read without removing their enclosure.
That's a good call, which drives have you found that support this?
I haven't found a definite favorite yet, but I've bought a few Western Digital external HDDs which have all supported S.M.A.R.T. over USB. I'm currently using their WDBU6Y0050BBK devices. They don't have the best reviews, but mine have worked just fine over the past year.
Contrary, I've had two Seagate external HDDs in the past, none of which supported S.M.A.R.T. over USB, and they died after about 10 years of sparse use (powered on for backup at least once a year).
I guess one could find what USB chip the WDs use and then compare with other drives, but no one writes such stuff in their product information. >:(
My PC has a secondary HDD that has my files. Movies, books, comics, TV shows, random stuff, etc. It's more or less organized in their own folders.
Organize?
File trees 100 folders deep but entirely in Downloads of course
everything randomly distributed between ~/dl and ~/tmp (i dont even remember why i have both), and then i use lr to find stuff (alias lr='ls -lrth'). or find.
I have an organised Documents folder, Pictures folder, Videos folder etc synced between my devices with Syncthing. Downloads is just for temporary things I download from the web, but I never delete anything from there, so it just builds up. I keep a backup on an external 2TB SSD
Well whenever I want to keep track of an important document, I put AAA or 000 in front of the title. And then I make several copies. And then I make multiple folders intending to organize things. And then I wind up with 30 separate docs folders yet all my documents end up in the general My Documents, Downloads, or Desktop folders instead.
At this point, with the sheer amount of data, I've structured things based on individual drives. All of my devices have the onboard SSD. Call me old fashioned, but I still partition that one into two drives, one containing the Windows stuff and the essential 3rd party software, and a second partition which contains games, downloaded media, miscellaneous software, generally the stuff I use more frequently, but isn't vital. It's also where I store all downloads to keep the Windows partition clean and separate.
As for my external drives, I have one which I keep stuffed with game installs, and a second one which serves as my media library drive - music, movies, etc.
In terms of folder structures, I either use the default ones which come with Steam, for instance, or I keep it as simple as humanly possible (eg. Music > Artist > Album). Downloads are lumped in a single folder, wherein I may make subfolders for mass downloads of mods and such. Otherwise, Search & pray! With indexing turned off, because I like to hurt myself!
My organising system has a dual nature: it is either highly structured or a mess.
Information, such as documents, notes, spreadsheets, and images, is carefully organised into well-defined directories, no more than four or five levels deep. The destination directory is chosen at the time of download.
Anything that I expect to use more than once, even if only a few times, is dumped into a directory called GMS (Games, Movies, Software), which resides on a separate disk partition.
Everything else ends up in the Downloads directory, which is truncated every three months.
Sidebar on GMS directory
GMS originally stood for Games, Music, Software. But I stopped managing my own music since switching to Spotify and now Apple Music. I rarely watched movies on my computer back in 00s; my cable TV fulfilled those needs then.
I used to manage the contents of GMS few times a year, but I have stopped doing that now since my usage of this folder has dropped by a lot since the early 2010s.
The decreased use might be explained by my increased use of package managers, Steam and GOG, and streaming services.
However, another factor could be that I now avoid situations where I would need to download anything via my browser, unless absolutely necessary. Perhaps due to lower tolerance towards such practices or reduced patience with age.
Omg now they're trying to profile where you keep your shit so their hackers can find your porn stash more efficiently. Don't tell them Pike!
or have file trees 100 folders deep?
I'm felling personally attacked.
I have multiple folders of the form "desktop crap MM-DD-YY"
I wonder how common it is to make folders named “desktop crap” as I have several and some are over 20 years old
D: Downloads
Then the folders -
Films
TV programs
Software
Anything more than 5 dir deep is overly complex.
All movies are thrown into one folder called movies, every show is in its own folder with a season per folder. Jellyfin deals with that.
Music is stored by artist and thrown into the music folder.
Documents are sorted by year and purpose but are all in one folder called documents.
Books are in e-books, audiobooks are in audiobooks folders by author.
It’s a MESS right now.
My main computer has two partitions: Windows 10 LTSB and Windows 10 premium. I have to use Premium now due to NVidia’s drivers not working on LTSB for like… years. So I boot into my secondary, smaller partition. But I’m still installing games to my first partition. Also there’s some left over games from my LTSB install. I want to install LTSC IoT for longer support, but I’m lazy and all it does right now is play games.
So everything used to go to my 1TB HDD, but then I bought a second 4TB HDD, so now things go to that. And I back stuff up to my like, five 1-4GB external hard drives. Also there’s a Pi running OMV in the living room with a 5GH external, for media. That one’s kinda messed up right now, things are glitchy when I stream from it, so I need to reinstall everything.
Then my partner’s computer has a couple terabytes of SSD space and a single 4TB HDD. Much easier. P
File trees 100 folders deep lol. I keep all stuff synced across my machines, no actual backup though...
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