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Add and navigate sources

Last updated November 10, 2026

A source is a drive, folder, or Dropbox account you’ve given Grain Photo access to. This guide explains what adding one does, how the sidebar is organized, and what changes when a drive is disconnected.

Adding a source leaves your files in place

Grain Photo reads photos and videos where they already are. Adding a source doesn’t move, copy, or rename anything. Your folder structure stays as it is in Finder, and the files are still yours to open from any other app.

What Grain Photo keeps is its own index and previews, stored on your Mac. That’s what makes a folder browsable and searchable without touching the originals. Your files and privacy describes exactly what’s stored.

You decide what Grain Photo reads. Click a drive under Sources to add the whole drive, or click a folder to open it and add just that folder. Your Mac’s own disk, Macintosh HD, asks you to pick folders, so one click never adds your whole Mac. To pick several folders on a drive, Control-click it and choose Select Folders…. Getting started walks through the choice.

To add more folders or turn folders off later, use File > Source Settings…. Each folder has a switch. Turning a folder off removes it from your library in Grain Photo; the files stay where they are.

Browse folders in the source tree

The sidebar has four parts.

  • All Media shows everything from your connected sources in one gallery, with Images, Videos and People beneath it.
  • Favorites holds the sources, folders, collections and searches you pin.
  • Collections lists the selections you’ve saved.
  • Sources lists each drive and Dropbox, with their folders beneath them.

Click the arrow beside a source to expand it. Click a folder’s name to open it. The folder’s name appears at the top of the window; click it to see the Search Index and Visual Analysis status for that folder.

A source and a folder inside it are two views of the same files, not two copies. Opening a drive shows everything you’ve added on it. Opening one of its folders narrows the gallery to that folder and its subfolders.

Grain Photo keeps a history of the views you open. Press ⌘[ to go back and ⌘] to go forward, or use the arrows in the toolbar.

To find out where a photo lives, Control-click it. The menu offers Show in folder “[folder name]”, Show in “[drive name]”, and Show in All Media. Each one opens that view with the photo selected.

All Media and searching within a source

Where you are in the sidebar sets where a search looks. Select All Media to search across every connected source. Select a drive or folder to search only within it.

While a search is active, click the title at the top of the window to see its scope. From there you choose which sources the search covers: All Media, or any set of your sources.

Filters apply on top of the current view and search. See Search for photos for query examples and Getting started for the Filters panel.

When a drive is disconnected

An added drive stays in the source tree when you unplug it. A small dot on its icon marks it as offline, and its folders remain listed.

Select the drive to browse it. Grain Photo shows the cached previews it has, so you can still look through a shoot and check what’s there. A preview is not the original, though. Show in Finder, Open With, and Export Original… need the actual file, so reconnect the drive before using them.

By default, All Media and searches leave disconnected sources out, so results reflect what you can open right now. Choose View > Include Disconnected Sources to bring them back into All Media and search. Unplugged drives are marked Disconnected in the search scope. This setting stays on until you turn it off.

If Grain Photo has lost access to a source that is connected, a Restore source access… button appears in the title bar. Click it and confirm the same folder to pick up where you left off.

Connect your Dropbox account

Dropbox appears in the source tree alongside your drives. To connect it, open File > Source Settings… and turn on Dropbox. Grain Photo opens Dropbox in your browser so you can sign in and allow access. Your Dropbox folders are included by default, and you can turn off any you don’t want.

Grain Photo reads from your own Dropbox account and keeps previews on your Mac. The files stay in Dropbox. Opening an original or exporting it fetches that file from Dropbox when it’s needed. Control-click a Dropbox photo and choose Open on Dropbox.com… to see it there.