reel-sync 2.4.0

Fully-local sync tool for the Sony ICD-UX570 voice recorder

REEL

A fully-local, automatic sync tool for the Sony ICD-UX570 — and any USB drive. Plug something in and Reel pulls everything new onto your PC, names it cleanly, and files it where it belongs. Re-plug the same stick and nothing copies twice. A clean terminal, a progress bar, done.

Everything stays on your machine. Your devices are never wiped. The library is just folders — open it in Explorer any time.

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What it does

• Detects what you plug in. The recorder (by label or its REC_FILE folder), and any removable USB drive — sticks, camera cards, anything that mounts.
• Knows what it's looking at. A REC_FILE folder → voice recorder; DCIM or mostly photos → camera; mostly audio → music stick; anything else → a generic drive.
• Copies only what's new. Every file is fingerprinted; already-synced files are skipped. Each device keeps its own dedup index, so re-plugging never duplicates.
• One library, sorted right. Everything lands in the same Reel/ folder:
  • The recorder's audio → smart categories (Interviews / Songs / Memes / Podcasts / Voice Notes), by source folder, filename keyword, or length.
  • Everything else → by file kind: Photos, Videos, Audio, Documents, Archives, Other.
• Names it right. Recordings and camera files get a date-first, sorts-forever name (2026-06-08_1432_IMG_0421.jpg); files that already have a real name — documents, music — keep it.
• Fully automatic — no questions. Plug a drive in and it syncs. One shared index means the same file never copies twice, even off two different cards. (Recorder-only? Set enabled = false under [devices].)
• Mirrors to any extra drives you list, so sync doubles as backup.
• Runs automatically in watch mode — leave it running and every plug-in just syncs, then it bows out the moment you unplug.

Files land here — one folder, organised:

Reel/
├── Interviews/2026/2026-06-08_1432_reel-7F3A.mp3   ← recorder audio, smart-categorised
├── Songs/2026/2026-05-30_2011_reel-A1C9.mp3
├── Photos/2026/2026-05-14_0941_IMG_0421.jpg        ← anything else, filed by kind
├── Videos/2026/2026-05-14_0941_MVI_0423.mp4
├── Documents/2026/Tax Return 2025.pdf              ← real names kept
└── .reel/manifest.json                             ← one dedup index (nothing copies twice)

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Install

Once it's published, anyone can install it from PyPI:

pip install reel-sync

(The package is reel-sync; the command you run is just reel.)

From this folder (for development)

1. Install Python 3.11+ (python.org → tick Add Python to PATH).
2. Install Reel as a command — open a terminal in this folder once:

   pip install -e .
   

   That puts a reel command on your PATH, so you can run it from any folder (including C:\Users\YOU>), not just this one.
3. Set your path in config.toml:

   [library]
   sync_root = "C:/Users/YOURNAME/Reel"
   

   Point sync_root at a cloud-synced folder (pCloud / OneDrive / Dropbox) and your off-site backup is automatic.

Reel finds this config.toml automatically wherever you run it from (it also checks ./config.toml and ~/.reel/config.toml first). No config at all? It falls back to sensible defaults (~/Reel).

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Use it

You really only need two commands. Run them from anywhere — your home prompt is fine.

First time — run this, then plug in the recorder when it asks:

reel setup

A short welcome, then it waits for your ICD-UX570, does the big initial copy, and stays running as auto-sync from there. (Run reel setup again later and it just says "Already set up :)".)

The hands-off way (recommended) — set it once and forget it:

reel auto

Reel now starts with Windows and syncs the moment you plug anything in — no terminal, nothing to remember. (See Make it truly hands-off below. reel auto off turns it back off.)

Or run it in a terminal when you want to watch it work:

reel start

It does the initial sync, then keeps syncing automatically whenever you drop a file onto the recorder from your PC — and it stops by itself the moment you unplug the recorder. (Press Ctrl + C to stop sooner.)

That's the whole flow. The rest is optional:

reel sync              # a single one-off sync, then exit (rarely needed)
reel sort <path>       # auto-filter a folder/files you drop in (or use the .bat)
reel play              # play your latest recording (right in the terminal)
reel play songs        # play through a whole category (or: interviews, voice, …)
reel play <file|word>  # play one recording, a folder, or anything matching a name
reel status            # what's in your library, per category
reel devices           # is the recorder detected right now?
reel open              # open the Reel library in Explorer
reel reset             # clear first-time setup (to see the welcome again)
reel --theme dark start# dark terminal theme

Listen back (reel play)

A little terminal player, same vibe as the rest: a live progress bar, a queue, and one-key controls — space pause, n / b skip, ◂ ▸ seek, ± volume, q quit. reel play alone grabs your latest recording; reel play songs (or interviews, voice, podcasts, memes) plays through that whole shelf, newest first.

Playback is an optional add-on so the core sync never depends on an audio library. Turn it on once:

pip install reel-sync[play]      # or:  pip install just_playback

Without it, reel play simply opens the file in your system's default audio app.

(python -m reel start and python run.py start work identically.)

Make it truly hands-off — reel auto

One command and you never think about it again:

reel auto         # run at login + start watching now (no terminal to keep open)
reel auto off     # turn it back off
reel auto status  # is it on / running right now?

reel auto installs a tiny hidden launcher so Reel starts with Windows and watches quietly in the background. Here's what you actually see:

Plug a drive in → a window pops up showing the logo and live progress bars as it syncs. When it's done → the window tucks itself down to the taskbar (like clicking the – button) and sits there as a calm "all synced" spinner. Unplug → the window vanishes. The background watcher keeps waiting for the next drive.

That's the whole thing: plug in, watch it sort, walk away. Because reel auto already runs continuously, reel start isn't needed — run it and Reel just reminds you it's already on autopilot.

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Branding

Light by default — colours tuned for a white terminal. Want dark? theme = "dark" in config.toml, or --theme dark on any command. Identity lives in reel/branding.py.

Notes

• Privacy: nothing leaves your machine except the copies you put in your own mirror/cloud folders.
• Safety: delete_after_sync = false by default — Reel only ever copies off your devices, never deletes from them.
• No duplicates: one content-hash index (.reel/manifest.json) covers the whole library, so the same file off two different drives only lands once.
• Coming later: smarter sorting, a few quality-of-life touches. See ROADMAP.md. (Any-USB-device auto-sync and built-in playback have both landed.)

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REEL v2.2.0 — plug it in, sorted.