Folders are the building blocks of organization in your Wistia account. All uploaded media primarily live in folders and can be referenced in Channels, presented during a Live Event, used as a looping video thumbnail, and more.

The Content Library houses all media in your account and is broken down into the following sections: "Folders", "Favorites", "Media", and "Archived".

All media in your account are organized into folders. All of the folder’s contents are listed in the “Media” tab. On the left-side menu of the folder, you’ll also see the following options: "Analytics", "Export all media", and "Delete Folder".

To create a new folder, head to your Content Library page, then click “New” and select “Folder” from the dropdown menu. You’ll be redirected to the new folder to edit its title and description and upload media.

You can also create a new folder when uploading content. In the Content Library, click “New” and select “Upload Media.” After you’ve selected the media you’d like to upload, click “Create a new folder”.

By default, newly created folders are titled “Untitled Folder”. To edit the title, hover over it with your mouse and click the pencil icon. Edit the title text, and click “Save” once you’re done.

Changing a folder title or description will not affect any existing links or embed codes.

To add a description to your folder, hover over the folder title and click the pencil icon that appears. Add your description text to the second field in the form and click “Save” when you’re ready.

You can type plain text into the description field, or you can use (limited) Markdown to style the text or add links to your description. Click “See more tips” for a detailed Markdown guide.

Use subfolders to organize media into smaller sections within a folder. Subfolders can be expanded or collapsed on the folder page to more easily navigate folders containing many items.

Click the “+” icon on the folder page, or click “Add” and select “Add new subfolder” from the drop-down menu to create a new subfolder.

To give the subfolder a title, hover over the title text, select the “Edit” button, update the text to the title of your choice, and then press “Enter”.

Drag and drop media into the subfolder, or use the Move & Copy modal to add media to the subfolder in bulk.

Click into the subfolder and copy the URL from your browser to generate a direct link to the subfolder (e.g., https://mkc.wistia.com/folders/bypfyc8vp0/subfolders/i3qmsp2cgs).

Use the "Change view" option to customize the layout of media and subfolders on your screen.

To adjust the current folder layout, click the “Change view” icon on the folder page.

In an “Inline” view, your subfolders will display inline within your folder. You can collapse and expand them to see the contents of each subfolder inline with all the folder content. Click on the subfolder’s title to open it in a separate window.

In the “Grouped” view, your subfolders will display at the top of your folder:

Add high-priority folders and Channels to your “Favorites” page by hovering over the title and clicking the star icon.

You can filter your Content Library to see a full list of all the media, including video and audio files, in your account.

The Media tab has several options to filter content:

You can also sort the page by Last Updated, Name (A-Z), Name (Z-A), First Created, Last Created, First Updated, and Last Updated.

Before you can use any of Wistia’s cool features, you have to upload media! Open an existing folder (or create a new one). Within that folder, click “Add” and select your desired upload option.

You can also upload media directly from the Content Library. Click “New” and then select “Upload Media” from the dropdown menu. Check out our uploading guide for more information.

Your media's title and description will not only help you locate files in your account but will also help boost your media SEO.

By default, the title will reflect the name of the file you uploaded, but you can change it at any time. Changing the media title or description won’t affect embed codes or links.

To edit a media title, hover and click on the title on the media page, or hover and click on the pencil icon in the folder list. Press the "Enter" key or click anywhere outside of the title field to save your changes.

Scroll to the bottom of the media page and click "Edit" to add a description to your media. Use a description to share additional context or link viewers to your homepage or another media. The description will also be passed to services like Facebook (see more on our Social Sharing page).

You can type plain text in the description field or use Markdown to style the text and put images or links into your description. Bear in mind that line breaks will be visible in the description on the media page, but will not appear in the media’s description in a Channel.

If your media has a transcript, we'll also suggest an optional AI-generated title and description to use.

For more information on how to use Markdown in your media descriptions, head on over to the Markdown Styling page!

The “Info” tab at the bottom of your media page will list some important information about the file, including:

Archiving media is a helpful option to organize media that you're not currently embedding or sharing publicly. This option allows you to store media in your account in an inactive state while still being able to view them and their analytics.

To archive a media, hover over the title and click the checkbox that appears to the left. Check off as many media as you’d like and click “Archive” in the bulk actions menu at the bottom of the page.

We'll display any embedded locations and prompt you to confirm your decision. before the media is archived.

To access your archived media, open the “Archived” tab in your Content Library.

To restore archived media, hover over the desired media and click the checkbox that appears to the left. Alternatively, you can select all archived media using the checkbox next to the media count.

The bulk actions bar will present options to restore, download, or delete the selected media. Once restored, the media will retain its original URL and reappear in any existing embed locations.

To delete a media from the media page, click “Delete” on the left sidebar.

To delete a media file from a folder page, open the ellipsis menu to the right of the play count, or select the checkbox to the left of the thumbnail and click “Delete”.

Before you confirm your decision, we'll notify you of any embedded locations that have been viewed in the last 90 days or Channels that contain the media.

Use the search bar at the top of your account to locate any media, folder, Channel, or Live event. The search bar is visible on just about every page in your account.

If you don’t see what you’re looking for in the content preview, press “Enter” or click to see all of the search results for your query, and filter from there.

After clicking to view all of the search results, you can filter the content based on specific criteria or view any users that come up with your search. You can filter by:

In the list of results, you can see media type, name, when it was last updated, when it was created, and the total number of plays for each one.

User results show their role, name, and when they were created.

Channels are a great way to share content in a format where media will play one after the other, and are a great way to create a deep media engagement experience.

To create a new Channel, head to your Content Library and click “New” and select the "Channel" option. Visit the Wistia Channels overview to learn how to customize and share your Channel.

To download media in your Wistia account, head to your desired media's page. You will see an option to download the media file.

Click "Download" to see all the download options for your media. In the download modal, there are "Video," "Thumbnail," and "Transcript" tabs (if the media has a transcript).

In the "Video" tab, you can choose to download the MP4 or uncompressed version of the video. If you choose to download the MP4, you can select the resolution you'd like as well and check off to include available captions.

If you have dubbed versions of your video, you can download a separate dubbed file in a specific language.

In the "Thumbnail" tab, you can download a copy of the current Thumbnail, as well as the Storyboard. You can also decide if you'd like to include the play button. Click the copy icon to copy the image directly.

From the "Transcript" tab, select which language you'd like to download (you'll need to download each language separately if you have multiple) and choose your desired file format:

You can download the entire contents of a folder on the folder’s landing page. Head to any folder within Wistia and you’ll see an option to “Export All Media”. Clicking this will allow you to export all of the original media files within the folder as a .zip file. There is a 4GB limit on the size of the .zip file.

Navigate to your account's Content Library. Access Media Section: Once in the content library, locate and click on the "Media" section. Then select the checkbox next to the total number of media at the top of the page.

After selecting all the files, the bulk actions toolbar will appear at the bottom of your window. Within the bulk actions toolbar, find and click on the "Download" option. When your files are ready for download, you’ll receive a notification and a link to download in the Activity Tray. A copy of the .zip containing your files will also be mailed to your inbox.

By default, Account Owners and Managers are the only users with access to download media.

By default, contacts invited into Wistia are not permitted to download your media files, but they can be granted this permission. A contact’s ability to download files is controlled via permissions at the folder level. Refer to the Users & Permissions page for more information.

You can also allow any visitors to download your media via the Share buttons. More on that here.

The Move & Copy tool helps you reorganize your content, transfer media between folders and Channels, and duplicate media for testing. Read on for all of the instructions for moving and copying your media.

Moving media is good for keeping your account tidy.

To move media between folders and/or Channels, hover over your desired media and click the checkbox that appears to the left. This will open up the Move & Copy panel at the bottom of the page.

You can select “Move to” or “Copy to,” which will allow you to move or copy media to any folder or Channel in your account.

Moving media between folders and/or Channels within your account won’t change their embed codes or URLs.

If you are an Account Owner or Manager on multiple accounts and use the same email address to sign into them, you can move media to other accounts. This will also work if you’re a Collaborator who’s been given Admin permissions for a folder.

If you’re moving media that have analytics, however, the analytics will not transfer between accounts.

You will not need to re-embed your media if you move them from one account to another. The embed code does not reference the account itself, and the media will maintain their hashed IDs (the ten-character code that’s associated with your media — something like abcde12345).

Copying is good for creating multiple instances of a media with different customizations, or for zeroing out analytics for a certain media (i.e. you make a copy and then re-embed). When you make a copy of a media, while the content is the same, this is completely brand new and separate from the original file. As a result, the copy will not include analytics from the original media, but will instead have its own analytics that start from scratch.

To copy a media, hover over it and click the checkbox that appears to the left. This will open up a panel at the bottom of the page where you can select “Copy to.”

Once you’ve clicked “Copy to,” a modal will open where you can select your desired folder or Channel to copy into.

To copy a folder, from the Content Library page, scroll to the folder you want to copy. Hover over the folder. Two icons will appear to the right of the title - a trash bin to delete, and a copy icon. Click that icon to create a duplicate of the folder.

Once you’ve selected the appropriate folder or Channel, confirm your action by clicking “Copy x items.”

The Set Folder Defaults tool is a handy way to apply customizations to multiple media. Folder defaults can be applied to all current or future media in a folder. The following settings will be applied via Set Folder Defaults:

Calls to Action, Chapters, Captions, Annotation Links, and thumbnails will not be included in folder defaults, as these are typically specific to individual media.

Quickly update multiple player colors at once from a Folder, Channel, or the All Media tab.

To apply a color to multiple players in bulk:

If you’d like to update your video with a small tweak or a completely new media, you can use the Replace Media feature in the ellipsis menu on a media page. Any existing embed codes will remain intact once replaced. Check out the replace media page for more information.