You organized your footage carefully at ingest — by date, by camera, by scene. Then you try to import the folder as bins in DaVinci Resolve, drag it into the Media Pool, and every clip lands in one flat bin, subfolders gone, as if the organization never existed. It didn't disappear — it just got dropped in the wrong spot.
The short version: on the Media page, right-click the parent folder in the Media Storage browser and choose the option that adds the folder and its subfolders to the Media Pool as bins. Adding the files from inside the folder instead gives you one flat bin.
Method 1: the right-click option
- Open the Media page and find the parent folder in the Media Storage browser (the panel that shows your drives and folders).
- Right-click the parent folder, not the clips inside it.
- Pick the menu item that adds the folder and its subfolders to the Media Pool and creates bins. Training material for Resolve 17 describes it as Add Folder and Subfolders into Media Pool (Create Bins); the exact wording can differ between versions.
- Resolve builds a bin for the folder with a nested bin for each subfolder, and each bin holds the clips from the matching folder on disk.
Method 2: drag the folder onto the bin list
You can also drag the parent folder from Finder (or the Media Storage browser) onto the bin list on the left of the Media page rather than into the clip area. The bin list is where Resolve keeps folders; the clip area shows media. Behavior has varied between Resolve versions, so try it on a small test folder first. If you end up with a flat bin, use Method 1.
What bins are, and what they aren't
Bins are a virtual structure inside your Resolve project. Creating them doesn't move or copy anything on disk: the files stay where they are, and the bins just mirror the folder layout. Deleting a bin from the Media Pool doesn't delete the footage from your drive.
We couldn't check this against Blackmagic's own manual for the current version while writing; the steps come from training material and user guides for Resolve 17 and later. If the menu wording on your version is different, the Resolve Reference Manual is the authority.
Why DaVinci Resolve puts everything in one bin
Resolve treats what you drop as a list of files unless you tell it otherwise. Drop the clips (or a folder's contents) into the clip area and you get one bin of media. Only the folder-level command, or a drop onto the bin list, builds a bin for each folder. If your import came out flat, you didn't do anything wrong, you used the other path.
After you import folders as bins: new footage and automation
Bins made this way mirror a folder on disk at the moment you import. When more clips are added later, Resolve 19.1 and later can pull them in with Resync Media Files, and the rest of the options, including scripting, are compared in how to import footage into DaVinci Resolve automatically.
Why the folder structure at ingest matters here
This only pays off if the folder you're importing was organized well in the first place. A project folder split by date and camera at the moment of ingest turns into a clean, already-sorted bin tree in one step; a flat dump of four thousand identically named files turns into a flat, unsorted bin no matter where you drop it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I import a folder into DaVinci Resolve and keep the subfolders as bins?
On the Media page, right-click the parent folder in the Media Storage browser and choose the option that adds the folder and its subfolders to the Media Pool as bins. Resolve creates one bin per folder, nested like the folders on disk.
Why does DaVinci Resolve put all my clips in one bin?
Adding the clips themselves, or dropping them into the clip area, creates a single flat bin. Only the folder-level command (or dropping the folder onto the bin list) builds a bin for each subfolder.
Does creating bins move or copy my files?
No. Bins are a virtual structure inside the Resolve project. The files stay where they are, and deleting a bin doesn't delete footage from your drive.
Can I add new clips to those bins later?
Yes. Resolve 19.1 and later has Resync Media Files, which rescans a bin's folder and adds the files that are missing.