App to join all the recorded videos automatically from 1 folder

[peepeep]

@carverofchoice

This is awesome that you just created this yourself and shared it with everyone!!!

Hear hear!
 

[AnnWithAPlan]

I tried this out with a couple of videos and it was fast. It said the file was saved, but didnt tell me where it was saved to and can’t find it. The popup msg didn’t give me enough time to click on it to view it after the save. I have an app that a lot of people use but it’s not that fast. I’ll keep looking for it.

[IEatBeans]

Once you click the save button it should go to your downloads folder on your computer. If on your iPhone it will have a little banner at the bottom once you hit save and that banner should have a blue link/button on the right, that lets you choose to save it to files or open in downloads or something.

[AnnWithAPlan]

Ok thanks. I had tried it a 2nd time amd it didn’t give me an option of where to save it to. When I clicked on the download option from the bottom corner of the video screen, it only showed 3 or 4 options of apps to view it with that weren’t related to viewing videos. I’ll keep trying.

[IEatBeans]

Try clicking open in downloads, then when it takes you to the files app click the first one and it should let you play it. I think from there you can save to camera roll.

Annoying but that’s IOS. I will look into making that easier.

One question, do you use an adapter for the SD card or how do you plug it into your phone?

[AnnWithAPlan]

I used the app through my Android phone. Found two videos to stitch. I can click save or download but it won’t show me any usable apps to open it with. I clicked on the pop up and looked at the file contents and it said it has no extension and couldn’t be opened.

[IEatBeans]

Interesting. Do you know if your android phone can open .mov files? I will play with it.

[AnnWithAPlan]

I’ll check.

[AnnWithAPlan]

I downloaded vlc (I think its called). I have a version of it on my desktop. Anyway, when I stitch the videos, the file is saved without an extension. I was able to find it when I went into my files folder and then added .mov to it. And then my gallery had it listed. It worked anyway, haha. Thanks.

Catius Flavius sprays the door during a thunderstorm.

[Antonius]

Goofy cat:

[carverofchoice]

My buddy looks like an angel

[AnnWithAPlan]

[lberry515]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! We just experienced a 11 hour Northern Lights event. Of course, I didn’t have a timelapse going. I was going crazy trying to figure out how to download and merge - totally not script savvy. This worked GREAT!

[teredactle]

I’ve decided to revisit this, because to this day there hasn’t been any working script for Windows that will do a whole day folder to 1 file. So here it is, simple use and simple instructions.

Copy your DAY folder (20250104) from the SD card to your computer, create a joinAI.BAT file with the following info. You can them move/copy this bat file to each day folder, and then run it from that day folder using a command prompt.

@echo off
:: Recursively find all video files and write them to video_files.txt
for /r %%i in (*.mp4 *.avi *.mkv) do echo file '%%i' >> video_files.txt

:: Join the videos using FFmpeg
echo Joining videos...
c:\ffmpeg.exe -f concat -safe 0 -i video_files.txt -c copy output_video.mkv

:: you can call out the FFMPEG.EXE to point to where it is on your system

That
is
It!

thanks Chat GPT
hope this helps, I’ve tested it on several day folders and no issues

---

Here was my question to ChatGPT and the result, but the above that I posted is all you need do get 1 single file for the day.

how to automate with a script in windows 10, joining all video files in a folder structure with many subfolders?

ChatGPT said:

To automate the process of joining all video files from a folder structure with many subfolders in Windows 10, you can use a batch script. This script will handle gathering all the video files, sorting them, and using FFmpeg to concatenate them.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to automate this with a script in Windows 10:

Step 1: Install FFmpeg

Make sure FFmpeg is installed and accessible from your command line.

1. Download FFmpeg from the official site: Download FFmpeg
2. Extract the archive and place the FFmpeg folder in a directory (e.g., C:\ffmpeg).
3. Add C:\ffmpeg\bin to your system’s PATH variable:

• Right-click This PC > Properties > Advanced System Settings > Environment Variables.
• Under System variables, find Path and click Edit.
• Add C:\ffmpeg\bin to the list (separate entries by a semicolon).

Step 2: Create the Batch Script

Create a batch file to automate the process. Follow these steps:

1. Open Notepad and paste the following code:

batch

Copy code

@echo off
:: Set the root directory where your videos are located
set root_dir=C:\path\to\your\videos
cd /d %root_dir%

:: Create a file to list all video files in the directory structure
del video_files.txt 2>nul
echo Creating video file list...

:: Recursively find all video files and write them to video_files.txt
for /r %%i in (*.mp4 *.avi *.mkv) do echo file '%%i' >> video_files.txt

:: Sort the video files list (optional, if filenames include date/time information)
sort video_files.txt /o sorted_video_files.txt

:: Create the input file for FFmpeg (with sorted list of video files)
echo Generating input file for FFmpeg...
del input_files.txt 2>nul
for /f "tokens=*" %%a in (sorted_video_files.txt) do echo file '%%a' >> input_files.txt

:: Join the videos using FFmpeg
echo Joining videos...
ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i input_files.txt -c copy output_video.mp4

echo Video files have been joined into output_video.mp4
pause

Explanation of the Script:

• set root_dir=C:\path\to\your\videos: Set the root directory where your video files are located. Change the path to the root folder containing your videos.
• for /r %%i in (*.mp4 *.avi *.mkv) do echo file '%%i' >> video_files.txt: This command recursively finds all .mp4, .avi, and .mkv files in the folder and its subfolders, writing their paths into video_files.txt.
• sort video_files.txt /o sorted_video_files.txt: Optionally sorts the file list. This works if your filenames have chronological info (e.g., timestamps in the names).
• for /f "tokens=*" %%a in (sorted_video_files.txt) do echo file '%%a' >> input_files.txt: Generates the input_files.txt that FFmpeg will use for concatenation.
• ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i input_files.txt -c copy output_video.mp4: FFmpeg command to concatenate the videos without re-encoding (fast). The output is output_video.mp4.

Step 3: Save and Run the Script

1. Save the script as join_videos.bat (make sure you select “All files” in the Save as type dropdown in Notepad).
2. Double-click the join_videos.bat script to run it.

Step 4: Watch the Process

The script will:

• Find all video files in your folder and subfolders.
• Sort them (if filenames have timestamps or numbers that imply order).
• Create the list for FFmpeg.
• Use FFmpeg to merge the videos into a single file (output_video.mp4).

Optional Adjustments:

• File types: Modify *.mp4 *.avi *.mkv to include other formats like .mov or .flv if needed.
• Re-encoding: If you want to re-encode the videos (e.g., if the formats are incompatible), replace -c copy with -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -strict experimental to re-encode the output.

Summary

This script will automate the process of finding all videos in your folder structure, sorting them (if needed), and then joining them together into a single video using FFmpeg. It’s an efficient solution to handle large amounts of video files distributed in multiple subfolders.