How it works
What happens after
you point it.
No filing system to design first. You choose what Ontiqo should look at. It reads, works out how your files group, and prepares a tidy-up it won't carry out until you say so.
Point it at your files
At first run you choose the folders and accounts to read, and see how many files it found. Anything optional that goes online is off until you switch it on, and the switch says what it costs. Until you commit, nothing on your disk is moved, renamed or written to.
It reads everything
Documents are read in full. Scans are read as if typed. Photos are described, including any words in them. Speech in recordings becomes text. Archives, discs and programs are identified. The aim is to know each file well enough to place it.
The processing view shows the counts, the pace and anything that needs you. If a big collection will take days, it says so.
Files understood
12,884 of 19,022
15,204 already searchable · reading about 5 files a minute
roughly 20 hours to go, at the pace of the last few hours
The processing view, on an example collection without a graphics card. That runs at about half the pace of a recommended machine.
It works out your collection's structure
Once it has seen enough, Ontiqo works out the groupings from the files themselves, not a template. A grouping has to be shared by many files; a label that fits only one file never becomes a folder. Folder names are plain ones a person would choose.
It asks you nothing. You can rename or reshape things later.
Everything gets a place, or a shelf
Each file is filed by what it is. Anything that can't be placed with confidence isn't hidden: files still being read, files that need your decision, duplicates and application clutter each get a marked shelf at the bottom of the tree, with counts. The review pile is kept short.
You adjust, then commit — reversibly
Drag a folder somewhere better or move a file by hand. The header changes from Organised by Ontiqo to Organised by you, and your changes stick even if Ontiqo later refines the rest. When you like it, commit in place or into a new folder with the original untouched. You see exactly what will happen first.
Every commit is reversible. An undo record goes into your Documents folder, where uninstalling won't remove it. Beside it is a double-click undo that needs nothing installed and puts every file back. For files in a cloud account, which need your sign-in, a fresh download of Ontiqo can read the same record and undo it.
Keep using it, or uninstall it
Afterwards, Ontiqo is a browser for your collection. Regroup files by project, year or person without moving anything. Search in plain sentences, and find a recording by what was said or a scan by what was printed on it. Ask a question and get an answer that cites the files it came from.
Or uninstall it. Nothing of Ontiqo is left behind except your undo record. For files on your machine, its double-click undo works with nothing installed. For a cloud account, reinstall Ontiqo and point it at the record.
quotes final(2).xlsx
Comparison of three fencing quotes — $4,180 on the summary sheet.
scan_0112.pdf
A scanned quote for timber fencing, read from the scan itself.
Voice memo 018.m4a
"…he reckons four grand if we do the gate too…"
Search by meaning, across everything it has read, seen and heard.
Where it sits
Three kinds of tool.
Plenty of programs help with files, and most are good at what they do. They just answer different questions.
Search tools
Windows Search, and the file finders
They answer where is that one file? Modern ones answer it well: Windows can now find a photo from a description rather than its filename.
None of them change the collection. The mess is as deep after the search as before, and it grows every year.
Sorters and renamers
The tidy-my-Downloads tools
They answer can something file this for me? For a folder of recent downloads, they can. They sort into built-in categories or a scheme you describe first, and rename as they go.
The categories come from the tool or from you, not from what is there. Most read documents and pictures but not speech, and many handle a few hundred or a few thousand files at a time, often sending them to a cloud service.
Ontiqo
Collection-scale organisation
It answers what is in here, and how should it be arranged? for the whole collection, however old or large.
It reads everything it can, including speech and photos, and works out the structure from the contents. It proposes the arrangement and only moves files when you say so, with an undo record in your Documents folder.
Search comes free, because it has already read everything.
If your files are mostly in order, a search tool is all you need. Ontiqo is for the collection that stopped being in order years ago.
What to expect
Honest answers take real time.
It is a background worker, not a wizard
Reading files properly takes hours on a small collection and days on a huge one. Ontiqo runs at low priority, stops while you are presenting, gaming or on battery, and catches up when the machine is idle.
Useful long before it is finished
Files become searchable as they are read. A quick first pass labels everything early, and the proposed structure appears once enough is understood, then improves as the rest is read.
The same answers on every machine
A faster machine finishes sooner; it never gets better answers. A modest laptop gets the same result, later.
The edges are reported, not smoothed
Some files can't be read: password-protected archives, damaged documents, formats nothing opens. They are named, counted and shown, never dropped. When Ontiqo doesn't know, it says so.
The network, precisely
What goes online, and what never does.
Never
The content of your files. All the reading and organising happens on your computer. No cloud processing, no account, and your file content is never sent to us. The licence agreement says so too.
Only if you choose it
A few optional lookups check public references to identify an unusual file type, a published book or a recording. Each is off until you switch it on, and the switch says what would be sent. Signing in to a cloud source talks to that provider to fetch your own files. Activating a work licence checks the key and nothing else.