Importing and copying to disk

Importing in place, Copy to disk first, verification, what happens if something interrupts it, iPhone and supported formats.

Press Import at the top left, or ⌘O. The source can be a folder, an SD card or an external drive; you can also drag files in from Finder.

• By default your files stay where they are. Merceq doesn’t move or copy them; it only adds them to the catalog.
• Copy to disk first: choose this to copy a card to another drive. You can copy only, or copy and then import.
• Merceq asks where the copies should go and makes a dated folder there, for example 2026-10-03 DCIM. The whole card is copied: the videos plus their audio, XML and small preview files.
• Each file gets its real name only after its copy has been compared with the original. When the copy is done, an ASC MHL record is written into the folder. If the card already has an ascmhl history, it is kept, never overwritten.
• If something interrupts it: pull the card and Merceq waits, then carries on where it stopped when you put it back. If the app closes, Merceq asks on the next launch whether to continue. Your Mac stays awake while a transfer runs.
• To import from an iPhone, turn on Link in Plugins. Videos from a phone are always copied to a drive and checked by size and duration. Nothing is deleted from the phone.
• Supported formats: mp4, mov, m4v, avi, mkv, mts, m2ts, mpg, mpeg, wmv, flv, webm, 3gp, insv, braw, r3d, mxf. Files Merceq can’t open are listed by name in the import summary.
• Incoming videos: pick folders to watch in Settings. When new videos arrive there, the toolbar tells you how many; none are added until you say so.