Upload Mode: Process Local Images Without Hosting

danito

Same pipeline, different source

The processing tools in Bulk Image Downloader From URL List — resize, convert, strip EXIF, watermark, filename constructor — are genuinely useful, and there is no reason they should only work on images pulled from URLs. Upload mode lets you feed a task local files from your own machine and run that exact same pipeline on them. It is a different source flowing into the same destination.

That opens up a whole category of work that has nothing to do with scraping: reprocessing a folder you already have, without hosting it anywhere or re-uploading it to some service first.

Switching a task to upload mode

Every download task can flip between two input modes. By default a task takes a URL list. Hit Switch to Upload Mode and the URL textarea becomes a drop zone for files. Need URLs again later? Switch to URL Mode toggles it back, and your other task settings stay put — only the input source changes.

Getting files in is flexible:

  • Drag and drop local images straight onto the drop zone.
  • Or use the file picker to browse and select them.

The images are stored locally until you process and download them. To see what is attached, use View Files, which lists everything in the task. Added something by mistake? You can remove a file individually rather than starting over.

The full pipeline applies

Once your files are in, everything you would do to a URL-sourced batch is available: resize, convert, watermark, the filename constructor — all of it. This is the point of the feature. Upload mode is not a stripped-down side path; it is the same processing destination with a local source feeding it.

What you can actually do with it

A few workflows this unlocks:

  • Reprocess a local batch without putting it online first.
  • Watermark a folder of images in one pass.
  • Strip EXIF from a set before handing it to a client.
  • Convert a pile of PNGs to WebP for the web, in bulk.

Each of these would normally mean opening a separate image tool. Upload mode keeps them inside the same extension you already use for downloads, so your processing recipes live in one place.

Why it matters

The honest value of upload mode is that it decouples the processing pipeline from where the images came from. Plenty of people install this extension for its URL downloading and only later realize the resize-convert-watermark machinery works just as well on files already sitting in a folder. If you have been bouncing local images through other apps to resize or watermark them, switching a task to upload mode and dragging the files in is very likely the simpler path.