Most Dash customers have a large number of files on local or network drives that they want to import into their Dash account. As it would take too long to upload these using a web browser, we have a file import feature to make this process as painless as possible.
Google Drive
💡 Our Google Drive integration lets you import folders and files directly from your Google Drive account. You can use their desktop app to transfer local files to Google Drive and then import straight into Dash.
Dropbox
💡 Our Dropbox integration lets you import folders and files directly from your Dropbox account. You can use their desktop app to transfer local files to Dropbox and then import straight to your Dash!
One Drive, Sharepoint and other Cloud Storage
If your assets are in a cloud service such as One Drive, read this article to learn how to import these assets straight into Dash.
Import via Amazon S3 bucket
If you don’t have access to a cloud storage account, the steps below explain how to upload your local or network files to a cloud storage location (an Amazon S3 bucket) and then import them from there into Dash.
ℹ️ This is a slightly technical process. You may prefer to utilise Google Drive's desktop uploader (see above) as a temporary means of importing.
Step 1: Prepare your files locally
Dash's 'import from S3' feature will automatically create folders within Dash to match the directory structure containing the imported files. You can easily re-organise assets once they are in Dash, but if you want to create a specific folder structure during the import, now's a good time to get your assets arranged.
💡 Now is a great time to prepare a metadata file if you also want to import metadata to these assets once they are in Dash.
Step 2: Prepare an Amazon S3 bucket
Follow these steps to create a 'bucket' in Amazon S3 (Amazon's business cloud storage solution that Dash uses). Alternatively, if you have your own bucket you can use that.
If you don't have an Amazon Web Services account, we can create a bucket for you - just get in touch and we'll be happy to help.
Once your bucket is created, you will need to know the Access Key ID, Secret Access Key and bucket name.
Step 3: Upload the files to the S3 bucket
Follow these steps to upload files into your s3 bucket from your desktop computer.
💡 We recommend you create a top-level folder in the upload client called "Import", and drag all files under that folder, as this keeps the imported files in one place in Dash, which you can then organise at your leisure.
Step 4: Import the files from the S3 bucket into Dash
In your Dash account, go to Admin > Import > File import.
Enter the required information:
The bucket name
The Access Key ID
The Secret Access Key
Leave the path field empty unless you have specifically located your import files in a sub-folder of the S3 bucket. (Note: If you do enter a folder path, all assets from that folder level in S3 will be imported to the top level in your Dash)
If your bucket is in a region other than eu-west-1, open up the Advanced options and enter the correct region.
Step 5 (optional): Import asset metadata
Now you have imported your files, you might want to update their metadata in bulk as well. See this article to learn how to do a metadata import.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are any files not imported during an S3 import?
We don't import the following files:
Hidden files, i.e. those with a filename starting with a "."
Windows thumbnail database files, i.e. those with a filename "Thumbs.db"
What does "folder items skipped" in the import summary mean?
Many S3 clients include folders as individual objects that contribute to the total 'objects' being imported. However, folders aren't actually imported as distinct objects - a folder is just metadata in Dash and S3. So, we show the folder skipped so that you can see the count of actual files that have been imported.