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Ask HN: Do we need a better file managent solution?

9 points by gervwyk ↗ HN
The files on my computer are a complete mess, except for my code repositories, of course. Most files end up in the downloads folder, never to be touched again. Often, I find it easier to dive into my email to look for a file attachment than to search through my downloads folder. Can you relate?

This problem becomes even more difficult when folders are shared between company employees and are actively used. We build internal tools for customers, and I've yet to come across a team where their MS Teams, OneDrive, or Google Drive is organized to the point where people can easily find what they're looking for. How many companies lose valuable assets, in the form of files and folders, simply due to poor naming conventions or because files are stored with too little metadata? Furthermore, there are no rules to enforce the addition of metadata upon saving a file.

This feels like a problem worth solving, integrating file storage with structured data and rules to ensure businesses don't lose their assets. And you can find something someone else uploaded, even if you don't know exactly where to look.

Please tell me companies like Box or Sharepoint or similar have long ago solved this problem, and I can simply become a satisfied customer?

11 comments

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Jason_Protell
It sounds like you need to sort through your downloads folder. I can relate.

Have you tried reaching out to Box / Microsoft and asking about mandatory metadata? Now I'm curious.

I use "Everything" ( https://www.voidtools.com/ ) if I ever need to find lost files.

gervwyk
Feels like someone needs to slap a validation form on top of some "protected" folders so that people are forced to follow the rules of the folder, and add the required metadata to uploaded files, so that things can be located or discovered etc.
sqwrell
We use "Everything" also. Works great and lighting fast
epirogov
Nextcloud has tags for files and folders, but you need to explore files from browser and configure source folders. In Linux then some native solutions available: Nepomuk kde, locatedb. For documents semantic search should work without manual tagging.
gervwyk
Thanks I’ll check out these options. The search is usually very disappointing.. Is it just me?
epirogov
Finally, after save docx, pdf etc. I found only waking way for my workspace is in converting all these in text. Then search started to work. Apache Tika is a big monster for same effectivity, because I only need to find an answer I already received in the past.
gervwyk
I feel like folders needs to be more advanced for business. For starters I just want to tag stuff with different fields.

It can get way more advanced, like I’d want to hook it up to the CRM, and create a rule for which files kinds is required per customer. Then, be able to see which files are missing for example.

Or just create a rule that if someone wants to upload a certain kind of file they must fill out some metadata.

Or just forward email the file straight into the right folder.

Or create a auto reminder to load a file and then by attaching it in the reply, it is loaded.

The more I brainstorm this the more it seems like zappier and folders needs very tight integration.

Someone
I think this a social problem. You can’t solve those through technical means.

Enforce tagging rules hard enough, and people will either find a new “Downloads” folder that does not slow them down in reaching short term goals or stop sharing files altogether.

The best you probably can do is making technology that makes it easier for users to make files findable in the future.

Employers could also explicitly reward employees who properly archive and tag their data.

That may eventually change the culture of a company or parts of it. I think that accounting departments tend to be better in this, for example.

easytiger
Filing used to be an essential skill for success. By having a good filing system you offload mental bandwidth otherwise used to track your heap of stuff.

If you/your company can't commit to a standard then that's the issue.

gervwyk
Well said.
easytiger
It's actually a core bit to the "Getting Things Done" book