How to Set Up Auto-Indexing for Your Design File Library on Mac
Arun Gopidas
The hardest part of keeping a file library searchable isn't the initial setup — it's staying current. You index your drives once, search works great, and then three months later you're missing files because new projects were saved after the last scan.
Auto-indexing solves this. You set it up once and reverscan keeps your library current in the background, without you thinking about it. Here's how to do it properly.
How reverscan's Indexing Works (Two Distinct Phases)
Before getting into setup, it helps to understand what's actually happening — because there are two different operations that often get conflated.
Indexing (first-time scan)
When you add a new drive or folder, reverscan walks the entire directory tree, discovers every supported file, extracts text content, and builds an index. This is the heavy lift. For a home folder it typically takes under a minute. For a large external drive with thousands of design files it may take longer.
You only do a full index scan once per drive. After that, only changed and new files are processed.
Syncing (ongoing updates)
After the initial index, reverscan runs sync passes on a schedule. A sync checks every known file to see if it's been modified, finds any new files that have been added to indexed locations, and updates the index accordingly. Sync is fast — it only processes what's changed.
Auto-indexing refers to the sync schedule. You're configuring how often reverscan checks for new and changed files.
Setting Up: Step by Step
Step 1 — Add your drives and folders
Open reverscan. In the Drives tab, add everything you want searchable:
+ Index Entire Computer — adds your home folder as "This Mac." This covers Desktop, Documents, Downloads, and any other folders in your home directory that aren't in the system skip list.
+ Index Drive / Folder — adds an external drive or a specific folder. Use this for external SSDs, USB drives, project-specific folders outside your home directory, or any other location.
Add all drives and folders now. You can always add more later, and indexing a new location doesn't affect the existing index.
[SCREENSHOT: reverscan Drives tab with multiple drive cards visible — This Mac, two external drives]
Step 2 — Let the initial index run
After adding a location, the initial scan starts automatically. You'll see a progress indicator on the drive card: file count, bytes processed, and the current file being indexed.
You can keep working while this runs. The indexer uses background threads and doesn't interrupt foreground activity. If you close the reverscan window, indexing continues — reverscan runs as a menu bar agent.
Step 3 — Run Deep Scan on each drive
Deep Scan is the OCR pass — it reads inside PSD, Affinity, XD, InDesign, and Figma files by rendering them to images and running Apple Vision on the result. It's slower than normal indexing (OCR is compute-intensive) but only needs to run once.
From the Drives tab, click Deep Scan on each drive card after the initial index completes. reverscan processes files in 3 parallel threads to balance speed against system load. You can keep working — it runs in the background.
After Deep Scan completes, new files added on subsequent syncs are picked up on the regular index pass. Deep Scan only re-runs on files that have changed since it last ran — you don't need to repeat the full scan.
[SCREENSHOT: drive card showing Deep Scan button and the green radar icon indicating Deep Scan complete]
Step 4 — Configure auto-sync frequency
Go to Settings and find the Auto Scan section. Toggle auto-scan on and choose your sync frequency:
Frequency | Best for |
|---|---|
Every minute | Actively changing project folders you search constantly |
Every 30 minutes | Busy studios with frequent file saves |
Every hour | Standard active project drives |
Every 6 hours | Drives with moderate activity |
Every day | Project archive drives |
Every week | Long-term archives you access occasionally |
Every month | Deep historical archives rarely touched |
The default is every week — appropriate for most home folders and project drives. You can set different sync frequencies for different drives if needed.
[SCREENSHOT: reverscan Settings tab showing the Auto Scan toggle and frequency selector]
Try it free → Download reverscan and set up your auto-indexing in under five minutes.
How Auto-Sync Stays Out of Your Way
reverscan is a menu bar app. When you close the main window, it doesn't quit — it continues running as a background agent with no Dock icon, no app switcher entry. The menu bar icon is the only visible sign it's running.
Auto-sync fires on schedule from this background state. If you're mid-indexing when the window closes, indexing continues. If a scheduled sync is due while you're working, it runs silently. No interruptions, no notifications unless you open the app.
You can also trigger a manual sync at any time. Open reverscan, go to the Drives tab, and click Sync Now on any drive card. This runs immediately regardless of the sync schedule.
Pausing and Resuming Syncs per Drive
Sometimes you don't want a particular drive to sync automatically. An archive drive you only update once a quarter doesn't need weekly syncs — each one is wasted compute.
Each drive card has a Pause button. Pausing a drive stops it from being included in scheduled auto-syncs. The existing index is untouched — the drive remains fully searchable, it just won't pick up new changes until you resume or manually sync.
This is also automatically applied to external drives when they're reconnected after being unplugged. reverscan pauses external drives on reconnect so you stay in control of when they sync.
What Auto-Sync Picks Up
On each sync pass, reverscan checks:
New files — any file with a supported extension that wasn't in the previous index
Modified files — files whose content has changed since the last index (detected via modification time and blake3 content hashing)
Deleted files — files no longer present on disk are removed from the index
Files that have been modified are re-indexed from scratch — text is re-extracted, new content replaces old. Files that were modified but haven't changed in actual content (a timestamp-only change from a backup tool, for example) are detected via content hash and skipped — saving time without losing accuracy.
Keeping External Drives Current
For external drives, the sync only runs when the drive is connected. If you have an archive drive that's usually unplugged, the contents remain in the index and searchable — they just won't update until you plug the drive in and run a sync.
A practical workflow for archive drives:
Plug in the drive
Reverscan detects it and marks it as live
Resume auto-sync on the drive card if paused
Run Sync Now to catch up immediately, or wait for the next scheduled sync
Unplug when done — the updated index persists
Frequently Asked Questions
Does auto-sync work when my Mac is asleep?
No. reverscan's sync loop runs every 30 seconds while the app is active, but macOS suspends background processes during sleep. Sync resumes when the Mac wakes. If you want syncs to happen overnight, keep the Mac awake (disable sleep in Energy Saver settings) or accept that syncs will catch up when you next use the machine.
Does running auto-sync slow down my Mac?
Regular syncs are lightweight — they stat existing files and extract content only for new or changed files. During active syncing you may see brief CPU spikes when text is being extracted in parallel, but normal design work isn't disrupted.
What if a sync runs while I'm indexing a drive manually?
Auto-sync is blocked while a manual indexing session is in progress. The scheduler detects the active indexer and skips until it finishes.
Can I set different frequencies for different drives?
The current frequency setting applies globally to all auto-synced drives. Drives you want to sync less frequently can be paused and manually synced when needed.
What happens if I add 50,000 files overnight?
The next sync will pick them all up — it discovers new files using Spotlight's mdfind for speed, then falls back to a filesystem walk if mdfind isn't available. Large batches of new files are handled the same as the initial index: text is extracted in parallel and written in batched transactions.
Index once. Sync automatically. Search everything. Download reverscan free and your file library will never go stale again.