Uploading files, and what processing means

Getting a file into your library takes two steps, and only the first one needs you. This page explains both, because the second one is where the questions come from.

Everything here happens in Vault → Content. The screen itself is covered in The content library.

The three stages

Uploading. The file leaves your computer. This is the part with a percentage.
Processing. Protocol converts a video into several playback qualities so it streams properly for a client on a phone on mobile data as well as for one on a laptop.
Ready. The file is finished and everything about it is available.

Most files skip straight from stage 1 to stage 3. Processing is essentially about video, because a video is the only thing that needs converting.

Uploading

Upload in the header opens the drop zone. Drag files onto it, or click it to pick them from your device. It takes images, videos, audio and documents, and it takes several at once.

Whatever folder you have open is where they land, and the dialog says so underneath its title so you can check before you drop 40 clips into the wrong place.

Once files are in the queue the drop zone shrinks but stays, because adding more is usually the next thing you do.

Uploading 3 files 1 done · 1 in progress · 1 failed

Drop more files to add them to the queue

  <div style="border-radius:9px; background:#f8f9fb; padding:10px 11px">
    <div style="display:flex; align-items:center; gap:9px">
      <span style="flex:1; font-size:12.5px; color:#2b313c">front-squat.mp4</span>
      <span style="font-size:11.5px; color:#5b6472">Uploading 62%</span>
      <span style="color:#aab3bf; font-size:13px">&times;</span>
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    <div style="margin-top:8px; height:4px; border-radius:2px; background:#e4e8ed"><div style="width:62%; height:4px; border-radius:2px; background:#7c8aa0"></div></div>
    <div style="margin-top:5px; font-size:10.5px; color:#9aa3af">24 MB</div>
  </div>

  <div style="border-radius:9px; background:#f8f9fb; padding:10px 11px">
    <div style="display:flex; align-items:center; gap:9px">
      <span style="flex:1; font-size:12.5px; color:#2b313c">hip-hinge-cue.mov</span>
      <span style="font-size:11.5px; color:#5b6472">Processing video</span>
    </div>
    <div style="margin-top:8px; height:4px; border-radius:2px; background:#e4e8ed"><div style="width:38%; height:4px; border-radius:2px; background:#7c8aa0"></div></div>
    <div style="margin-top:5px; font-size:10.5px; color:#9aa3af">Transcoding, the original plays until this finishes</div>
  </div>

  <div style="border-radius:9px; background:#fdf3f1; border:1px solid #f0d6cf; padding:10px 11px">
    <div style="display:flex; align-items:center; gap:9px">
      <span style="flex:1; font-size:12.5px; color:#2b313c">rear-delt.mp4</span>
      <span style="font-size:11.5px; color:#b4452f">Failed</span>
      <span class="wbtn" style="font-size:10.5px; padding:2px 9px">Retry</span>
      <span style="color:#aab3bf; font-size:13px">&times;</span>
    </div>
    <div style="margin-top:6px; font-size:11px; color:#6b7480">Upload failed with status 500</div>
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<div class="wactions"><span class="wbtn primary">Done</span></div>

The upload queue. Each file carries its own state: bytes moving with a cancel cross, processing with a note that the original already plays, and a failure with its reason and a Retry.

You can use a file while it is still processing

This is the useful part. A video that says Processing is already in your library, already attached to whatever you attach it to, and already plays. It plays at the quality you uploaded until the converted versions are ready, and then quietly switches to those.

So a clip you uploaded 30 seconds ago can go straight into a program. There is nothing to wait for and nothing to come back and finish.

You will see the state in two places: a small Processing badge on the file’s card in the library, and a chip reading Processing, playing original quality when you open it. Neither is a warning. They are there so that a video which looks slightly softer than you expect has a visible reason.

If processing fails outright, the file still keeps its original and still plays. The preview says so.

The upload can be cancelled, the processing cannot

While bytes are still moving there is a cross on the row that stops that file, and the dialog will not close until the uploads in it have finished or been cancelled, because closing it would abandon them halfway.

Once the file has landed, that is it: the conversion runs to completion. There is no cancel on a processing row and closing the dialog does not stop it. That is deliberate rather than missing. The file is already safely stored, the work is happening on our side rather than on your connection, and stopping it halfway would leave a file that plays today and has no converted versions ever.

If you did not want the file at all, let it finish and then delete it.

When a file fails

A failed row turns red, names the reason, and offers Retry, which starts that one file again without touching the rest of the queue. Dismiss it with the cross if you would rather deal with it later.

Retrying is usually the right first move. Most failures are a dropped connection rather than anything wrong with the file.

Import from Google Drive

If your clips already live in Google Drive, Import brings them across without a download and a re-upload in between. The first time, Protocol asks you to connect your Google account and brings you back to the same screen.

You then browse your Drive inside the dialog, folder by folder, tick the files you want, and import them into the folder you have open in your library. The footer counts what you picked and how large it is.

It copies, it does not sync. This is the one thing to be clear about. An imported file becomes an independent copy in your library. Editing or replacing the original in Drive afterwards does not change the copy here, and deleting it in Drive does not remove it here. If you change something in Drive and want the new version, import it again.

Google’s own formats cannot be imported. A Google Doc, Sheet or Slide is not a file with bytes in it, so there is nothing to take a copy of. Those appear in the list greyed out and marked Not importable, rather than being hidden, so you can see that Protocol found them and why it will not take them. To bring one across, export it from Drive as a PDF or Word file first, then import that.

Two things people ask that have honest answers

How much storage am I using? The library shows how many files you have, not how many gigabytes. There is no storage meter and no quota to run out of, so the number that would sit next to a limit does not exist.

How large a file can I upload? There is no configured size limit on a library upload. In practice your connection is the limit: a very large video simply takes a while, and the queue shows you a percentage rather than an estimated finishing time, because what we know is how much has gone, not how fast the rest will go.

Next: Sharing a file →