Media Library
Chapter 10: Media Library
The sidebar is great when you're hunting for one recent recording in a list of a dozen. But once your collection grows past a hundred items—or you need to clean up a year's worth of screenshots, or export a stack of meetings to a colleague—the narrow sidebar starts to feel cramped. That's why SeaMeet v2.1.2 introduced the Media Library: a full-window media browser that gives every recording and screenshot room to breathe.
This chapter walks you through opening the Media Library, switching between grid and list views, filtering and sorting, multi-selecting, and running batch actions like export and delete.
What the Media Library Is (and When to Use It)
Think of the Media Library as the gallery view for your recordings—similar to how Photos on your phone shows you a wall of thumbnails instead of a list. The sidebar is still there for quick access while you're recording or playing back; the Media Library is where you go when you want to browse, organize, or operate on many files at once.
Use the sidebar when you're actively recording, picking the next recording to play, or only acting on a single file.
Use the Media Library when you want to see thumbnails, filter by file type or date range, batch-delete test recordings, export many files at once, or scroll through a wider surface.
Both views read from the same underlying recording list, so anything you delete or rename in one shows up in the other.
Opening the Media Library
The Media Library lives in the main view area—the same panel that normally hosts the player.
To open it:
- Look at the SeaMeet sidebar
- Find the Media Library entry near the top of the navigation
- Click it
The right panel transforms into the Media Library, replacing the player. To go back to playing a specific file, just click any media card and SeaMeet returns you to the regular player view with that recording loaded.
💡 Pro Tip: The sidebar recording list and the Media Library aren't competitors—they're partners. Use the sidebar for "find and play one thing" and the Media Library for "browse and manage many things."
Layout Tour
Here's what the Media Library looks like in grid view with a few items selected:
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ MEDIA LIBRARY │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────┐ ┌──────┐ │
│ │ 🔍 Search media files... │ │ ⬆ │ │ ↻ │ │
│ └──────────────────────────────────────────┘ └──────┘ └──────┘ │
│ Import Refresh │
│ │
│ [📁 All] [🎤 Audio] [🎥 Video] [📸 Screenshots] │
│ │
│ [Date ↓ ▾] [▦ Grid] [☰ List] │
│ │
│ Showing 24 of 137 files │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │
│ │ ✓ ┌────┐ │ │ ┌────┐ │ │ ✓ ┌────┐ │ │ ┌────┐ │ │
│ │ │ 📸 │ │ │ │ 🎥 │ │ │ │ 🎤 │ │ │ │ 🎥 │ │ │
│ │ └────┘ │ │ └────┘ │ │ └────┘ │ │ └────┘ │ │
│ │ Q3 Plan │ │ Client │ │ Standup │ │ Demo Day │ │
│ │ Today │ │ 47:32 Zoom│ │ 12:04 Mic │ │ 1:02 Teams│ │
│ └───────────┘ └───────────┘ └───────────┘ └───────────┘ │
│ │
│ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │
│ │ ┌────┐ │ │ ✓ ┌────┐ │ │ ┌────┐ │ │ ┌────┐ │ │
│ │ │ 🎥 │ │ │ │ 📸 │ │ │ │ 🎤 │ │ │ │ 🎤 │ │ │
│ │ └────┘ │ │ └────┘ │ │ └────┘ │ │ └────┘ │ │
│ └───────────┘ └───────────┘ └───────────┘ └───────────┘ │
│ │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 3 selected [Select All] [Clear selection] [⬆ Export] [🗑 Del] │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The Media Library breaks down into four horizontal bands:
- Search row — fuzzy search box on the left, Import and Refresh buttons on the right
- Filter row — file-type chips on the left, sort dropdown and view toggle on the right
- Stats row — appears only when filters are active (e.g. "Showing 24 of 137 files")
- Grid/list area — the main scrolling region of media cards
When you select one or more items, a fifth band slides in at the bottom: the batch actions bar. We'll get to that shortly.
Switching Between Grid and List Views
The view toggle lives at the top-right of the filter row.
Grid view (▦) — the default. Cards are larger and arranged in rows, with thumbnails for screenshots and video frames. Best for browsing visual content where you want to recognize a recording by what it looks like.
List view (☰) — compact rows with name, type, source, duration, file size, and date in tidy columns. Best for scanning many recordings quickly when names are how you identify them.
Click either icon to switch. SeaMeet remembers your choice for the rest of the session.
GRID VIEW LIST VIEW
┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ [thumb] │ │ [thumb] │ │ ☐ 🎥 Client Call Zoom 47:32│
│ Title │ │ Title │ │ ☐ 🎤 Standup Mic 12:04 │
│ meta │ │ meta │ │ ☐ 📸 Q3 Plan - - │
└──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘
⚠️ Note: Thumbnails only appear in grid view, and only for screenshots and video recordings. Audio recordings always show a type icon instead—there's nothing visual to preview.
Filters
Filters cut your library down to just the slice you care about. They stack: combining a file-type chip with a date range and search text all narrow the results together.
File-Type Chips
The chip row sits just under the search box:
- All — show everything (the default)
- Audio — voice memos, microphone recordings, system audio without video
- Video — screen recordings, window captures, region captures
- Screenshots — single-frame screen captures
Click a chip to activate it; click All to reset.
Date Range
Available ranges are All, Today (last 24 hours), This week (7 days), This month (30 days), and This year (365 days). Date filtering uses the file's modified time first, falling back to the recording's timestamp if modified time isn't available—so freshly imported files don't disappear from "today."
Search
The search box at the top is a fuzzy search, not a strict substring match. Typing q3 plan matches "Q3 Planning Meeting" even though there's a space in your query. Typing cli matches "Client Call" because the letters appear in order. Search looks across recording name, timestamp text, type, source label, and app name (Zoom, Teams, Chrome, etc.). Results re-rank in real time as you type—the same fuzzy scorer the sidebar uses (see Chapter 9 for ranking details).
Clearing Filters
When filters are active and produce zero results, an empty state appears with a Clear filters button. Otherwise, click All to reset the file type, retype to clear the search, and switch date range back to All to remove date filtering.
The stats row ("Showing 24 of 137 files") only appears when a filter is hiding something, so it doubles as a "filters are on" indicator.
Sort Options
The sort dropdown sits next to the view toggle. You can sort by:
| Field | What it sorts by |
|---|---|
| Date | When the recording was modified or created |
| Name | Alphabetical (locale-aware, so accented characters sort correctly) |
| Duration | Length of the recording in milliseconds |
| Size | File size on disk |
Each option supports both directions—↓ (descending) for newest/largest/longest first, ↑ (ascending) for oldest/smallest/shortest first. Pick the combination from the dropdown.
The default is Date ↓ (newest first), which matches the sidebar.
💡 Pro Tip: When you're hunting for space hogs, sort by Size ↓ and the biggest files float to the top. A 4 GB hour-long 1080p recording you forgot about can be reclaimed in two clicks.
Selecting Recordings
Selection follows the same conventions as Finder, Explorer, and most file managers.
Click to Select
- Plain click on a card with nothing selected: opens the recording (returns to player view)
- Plain click on a card when other cards are selected: toggles this card in/out of the selection
- Click the checkbox circle in the card's corner: always toggles selection, even when the rest of the card would open the recording
The checkbox circle appears on hover and stays visible once at least one card is selected.
Shift-Click for Ranges
Shift-clicking selects a contiguous range from the last item you clicked to the one you just clicked—the fastest way to grab "everything between these two recordings." Click the first recording, hold Shift, click the last, and everything between (in the current sort order) is selected. So if you've sorted by Size, a shift-click range is "all files between these two by size."
Ctrl/Cmd-Click for Individual Toggles
Hold Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or Cmd (macOS) and click to toggle a single card without disturbing the others. Useful for cherry-picking eight items scattered across the grid.
Keyboard Shortcuts
- Ctrl+A / Cmd+A — select all currently visible (filtered) recordings
- Escape — clear the selection
Shortcuts only fire when the Media Library has focus, and they're suppressed while you're typing in the search box, so Cmd+A in search still selects your search text.
⚠️ Note: Selecting All only selects what's currently visible—the filtered set, not the full library. This is on purpose: it lets you say "show me all screenshots from last week" and then select all without sweeping in your archive of meetings.
Batch Actions
Once you have at least one card selected, the batch actions bar slides in at the bottom of the window:
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 3 selected [Select All] [Clear selection] [⬆ Export] [🗑] │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The left side shows the count and quick links for Select All and Clear selection. The right side hosts the two batch actions.
Batch Delete
Click the Delete button to remove all selected files. SeaMeet pops a confirmation dialog—"Delete 3 files?"—because deletes are permanent. Click OK to proceed.
Partial-failure resilience: if one file fails to delete (maybe it's locked by another app or already gone), SeaMeet keeps going and removes everything else. You get a notification telling you what succeeded and what didn't, rather than the entire operation aborting mid-way. This was a deliberate v2.1.2 hardening—the previous behavior would leave you with a half-finished cleanup and no clear picture of where it stopped.
⚠️ Note: Deleting in SeaMeet deletes the actual files on disk. There's no Recycle Bin recovery from inside the app. If a file matters, export it first.
Batch Export
Click Export to copy the selected files to a destination folder of your choice. SeaMeet shows a native folder picker—pick a target, click OK, and the files copy. When it's done, you'll see one of: "Exported 5 files" (all succeeded), "Exported 4 of 5 files (1 failed)" (partial), "Failed to export 5 files" (all failed), or nothing at all if you cancel the picker (selection stays intact so you can retry).
If your selection mixes disk-backed recordings (the normal case) with blob-only entries (rare—usually in-memory recordings that haven't been saved yet), SeaMeet exports the disk-backed batch through native file copy and falls back to browser download for the blob-only ones. Both kinds count toward the totals.
💡 Pro Tip: Batch export is the right tool for handing a packet of recordings to a colleague. Filter by date range to "this week," select all, export to a single folder, then zip and send.
Drag-Out and Drag-Into-Notes
The Media Library participates in SeaMeet's drag-and-drop integration that landed alongside it in v2.1.2.
Dragging a media card into a note — open a note in another panel or window, then drag a card from the Media Library directly into the note editor. SeaMeet inserts a media embed (![[file]]) at the drop position, so the note now plays the recording inline. Same handler as dragging from the sidebar.
Dragging out to other apps — the cards are draggable file references, so in many cases you can drop them on a folder in Explorer/Finder, an email composer, or a chat app that accepts file drops. Compatibility depends on the receiving app; if the receiver doesn't accept the drag, fall back to Save As on the card or use batch export.
Search Inside the Media Library
The search box uses SeaMeet's shared fuzzy scorer—the same one that powers sidebar search as of v2.1.2. That means out-of-order letter matches still find results (mtg pln finds "Q3 Planning Meeting"), matches at word boundaries rank higher, consecutive-character matches rank highest, and camelCase boundaries count as word boundaries (so af finds myAwesomeFile).
For the full story on how fuzzy ranking works, see Chapter 9: Your Recording Library—anything you learn about sidebar search applies here, and vice versa.
Troubleshooting
"I select files but the batch actions bar doesn't appear"
The bar only shows when at least one card is selected. Check that the selection circle on a card actually shows a checkmark; if not, click the checkbox circle directly rather than the card body. If the bar still doesn't appear, press Escape, click another tab, come back, and try again. As a last resort, restart SeaMeet.
"Batch export silently exported fewer files than I selected"
In v2.1.2 and later, this should report itself: you'll get a "Exported N of M files" notification when some files fail. If something still slips through, check the destination folder for partial writes, file permissions (picking a system folder you don't own causes silent skips on some platforms), and disk space. Pick a writable, roomy folder (your Desktop or Documents) and try again.
"My filtered view is empty even though I know I have recordings"
Three filters can hide your recordings: the file-type chip (you might be filtered to Screenshots when you wanted Audio), the date range (an "old" filter like Today hides anything older), and the search box (a stale search term filters everything else out). Click Clear filters in the empty-state button, or click All on the chip row and clear search. The stats row ("Showing 0 of 137") signals that filters are at fault, not missing data.
Quick Reference
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ MEDIA LIBRARY QUICK REFERENCE │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ OPENING: │
│ • Click "Media Library" in the sidebar navigation │
│ │
│ VIEW MODES: │
│ • ▦ Grid view — thumbnails for screenshots and video │
│ • ☰ List view — compact columns, denser scan │
│ │
│ FILTERS: │
│ • All / Audio / Video / Screenshots chips │
│ • Date range: All / Today / Week / Month / Year │
│ • Fuzzy search across name, type, source, app │
│ │
│ SORTING: │
│ • Date / Name / Duration / Size, ascending or descending │
│ • Default: Date ↓ (newest first) │
│ │
│ SELECTION: │
│ • Click checkbox circle: toggle one │
│ • Shift+click: select contiguous range │
│ • Ctrl/Cmd+click: toggle one without clearing │
│ • Ctrl/Cmd+A: select all visible (filtered) items │
│ • Esc: clear selection │
│ │
│ BATCH ACTIONS (visible when selection > 0): │
│ • Export — copy selected files to a folder of your choice │
│ • Delete — permanently remove selected files (with confirm) │
│ • Both continue past individual failures and report results │
│ │
│ PER-CARD ACTIONS (visible on hover when nothing is selected): │
│ • 📂 Show in folder │
│ • ⬇ Save As (single-file download) │
│ • 🗑 Delete │
│ │
│ DRAG AND DROP: │
│ • Drag card into a note: inserts media embed │
│ • Drag out to file manager / email: copies file reference │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Last updated: 2026-06-04
Part of the SeaMeet User Manual
Previous: Chapter 9 - Your Recording Library
Next: Chapter 11 - Playback Features
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