Everything you need to know about organising your video library with SiftVid. Can't find the answer? Email support@siftvid.com.
No. The free web app is entirely local-first. Your video files, thumbnails, tags, and search index stay in your browser's storage on your own machine. Nothing is sent to our servers unless you explicitly use the paid cloud backup feature.
SiftVid reads every filename in your selected folder and extracts meaningful tokens: names, tags, dates, and categories. It builds a fuzzy-search index in your browser. Type any keyword and matching results appear instantly. The search is typo-tolerant and supports Boolean operators — use + to require a term and - to exclude one (for example: +ceremony -cutaway).
SiftVid plays any format your browser supports natively — MP4 (H.264, H.265), WebM (VP8/VP9/AV1), MKV, MOV, and AVI. For the search index, SiftVid only needs to read your filenames, so it can index any file format regardless of whether the browser can play it.
We've tested libraries of 100,000+ files without stability issues. Indexing 30,000 videos typically takes under 5 seconds on a modern laptop. With the premium cached index, subsequent loads are under 1 second for any library size.
While a video is playing, press A to set a start point and B to set an end point. The player then loops that segment continuously. Press either key again to reset. It's useful for reviewing a specific play, technique, or shot repeatedly without scrubbing.
No. SiftVid is strictly single-user. One account, one person. There is no in-app sharing mechanism. If you share credentials, we may detect concurrent sessions on multiple devices and suspend the account. A team tier is being considered — if you need it, email support@siftvid.com to add your interest to the demand count.
Browsers restrict access to system-level directories (Downloads, Desktop, Program Files, etc.) for security. Move your video collection to a regular folder in your home directory — for example, Documents/Videos — and select that instead. This takes about 60 seconds to set up once.
Yes, and there is no catch. The free tier gives you full local search, tagging, A-B loop, favorites, locking, sort, and the random discovery feature — everything you need to organise and find videos in your local library. The free tier does not require a credit card and does not expire. The paid tiers add encrypted cloud backup and cloud-cached indexing for faster startup on large libraries.
Go to your account profile, scroll to the Subscription section, and click Cancel. Your paid features remain active until the end of the billing period. After that, your account reverts to the free tier and your local library is unaffected. Cloud backup data is retained for 30 days before deletion.
If you subscribed within the last 14 days and are not satisfied, email support@siftvid.com and we will refund your most recent payment. After 14 days, refunds are at our discretion but we treat every request fairly.
In a private AWS S3 bucket in the US-East-1 region, encrypted client-side before upload with a key derived from your password. SiftVid staff cannot decrypt or view your content — the encryption happens in your browser before any data leaves your machine.
Because encryption is end-to-end and the key is derived from your password, there is no server-side recovery. If you lose the password, the cloud data cannot be decrypted. Your local library is not affected — it lives on your machine and does not require a password. We recommend keeping your encryption passphrase in a password manager.
Email support@siftvid.com. We reply within four hours on business days (usually 30 minutes).