SD Card Import Script – full auto, safe delete, no duplicates

I built this script for myself because I was tired of dragging files around after every shoot.

Plugging in an SD card, going through all the folders, checking for duplicates, sorting RAWs and JPGs – it got old real quick.

So I made this thing.

You plug in an SD card, and it just runs.

It scans the card, finds all the photos and videos, and sorts them into folders like

RAW/2025-05-03/
JPG/2025-05-03/
VIDEO/2025-05-03/

Everything gets copied over, and nothing gets touched unless it’s 100% safe.

It checks every file using SHA-1, so even if two files have the same name, they won’t get duplicated unless the content is actually different.

And it remembers what’s been imported, so you can plug in the same card again and it won’t copy anything twice.

You can run it from an external SSD, your NAS, or just a normal folder on Windows.

It runs in the background and waits for cards – nothing fancy, but does the job.

And yes – it can delete files after import but only the ones it actually copied over.

It doesn’t touch anything else.
If a file didn’t copy, it doesn’t get deleted.

You can choose whether it asks you each time or just does it automatically using config.json.

No internet required, no setup wizard, no account, no garbage. Just a Python script that handles a problem I had.

If you're someone who works with big sets of photos or footage regularly, and you want a clean way to offload and sort everything automatically – this might save you a lot of time.