You run a picture desk, a media agency, or a marketing department. Your photographers shoot events in the field and upload files to an FTP server. Your job is to receive those files, review them, and publish or distribute them as fast as possible.

The traditional approach: open an FTP client every few minutes, refresh the folder, check if anything new has arrived, download it manually. During a busy event with multiple photographers uploading simultaneously, this becomes a constant, distracting chore. You miss files. You download partial uploads. You lose track of which photographer's batch you've already processed.

There is a simpler way. FTPull monitors the FTP server automatically and downloads new files to your Mac the moment they appear. You get a notification, the files are on your local drive, and you can start working with them immediately.

The receiving side of sports photography

Most articles about FTP automation focus on the photographer — the person uploading. But the receiving side has its own challenges:

Manual FTP monitoring doesn't scale. You need automation on the receiving side just as much as on the sending side.

Setting up FTPull for photo reception

FTPull is a macOS menu bar app that monitors remote FTP, SFTP, or FTPS servers and downloads new files automatically. Here's how to configure it for receiving photos:

  1. Create a connection. Enter the FTP server credentials — the same server your photographers upload to.
  2. Set the remote folder. Point FTPull to the folder where photos arrive — for example, /incoming/ or a photographer-specific folder like /event-2026/photographer-smith/.
  3. Set the local destination. Where downloads should land on your Mac. Choose a folder where you can immediately start reviewing — for example, ~/Pictures/Incoming/Smith/.
  4. Set the polling interval. How often FTPull checks for new files. For live events, set this to 30-60 seconds. For less urgent work, 5-10 minutes is reasonable.
  5. Enable subdirectory monitoring. If photographers create subfolders per session or per batch, enable this so FTPull scans all subfolders recursively.
  6. Preserve folder structure. Enable this to maintain the photographer's folder structure on your local drive. If they upload to /incoming/halftime/, the files download to ~/Pictures/Incoming/Smith/halftime/.
  7. Enable notifications. Get a macOS notification when new files arrive. During a live event, this is your signal to start reviewing.
About partial files: FTPull downloads each file to a temporary location first, then moves it to the destination folder only when the download is complete. This means you'll never see a half-downloaded, corrupt image in your working folder. If the photographer is still uploading a file when FTPull checks, the file is skipped and picked up on the next polling cycle — after the upload finishes.

Monitoring multiple photographers

At a multi-photographer event, create a separate FTPull connection for each photographer. Each connection monitors a different remote folder and downloads to a different local folder:

Each connection polls independently. If Smith uploads a batch of 12 images, you get a notification and those files appear in the Smith folder while Jones and Garcia's connections continue monitoring their own folders.

Alternatively, if all photographers upload to the same folder (e.g., /incoming/) with their initials in the filename, use a single connection monitoring the parent folder with subdirectory support enabled.

Extension filtering for the picture desk

Photographers sometimes upload files you don't need — camera-generated THM files, XMP sidecars, Lightroom catalog fragments. FTPull's extension filter lets you download only what matters:

This keeps your local folder clean and avoids downloading irrelevant files that would clutter the review process.

Integrating with your editing workflow

Once FTPull downloads the photos, they're on your local drive like any other files. From here, you can integrate them into any workflow:

Capture One hot folder

Set FTPull's download destination as Capture One's hot folder. New images are imported automatically into your session or catalog the moment they arrive. You open Capture One and the latest batch is already there, ready to review.

Lightroom auto-import

Lightroom Classic supports auto-import from a watched folder. Point it at FTPull's download destination, and new photos are imported into your catalog automatically.

Photo Mechanic

Open FTPull's download folder in PhotoMechanic for fast visual review. PhotoMechanic's instant previews let you scan hundreds of images in seconds — perfect for a picture desk that needs to identify the best frames quickly.

Bridge or Finder

For simpler workflows, just browse the download folder in Adobe Bridge or Finder. The files are there. Sort by date modified to see the latest arrivals first.

Handling large events

Bandwidth management

During a major event, multiple photographers uploading RAW files simultaneously can generate significant traffic on the FTP server. FTPull handles this gracefully — it downloads what's available on each polling cycle and picks up anything new on the next cycle. There's no risk of overloading the server because FTPull uses standard FTP commands, respects connection limits, and downloads files one at a time (or with configurable simultaneous downloads).

Disk space monitoring

FTPull includes a disk space warning that alerts you when your local drive is running low. At a major event with multiple photographers delivering RAW files, you can fill a drive faster than expected. The warning gives you time to move processed files to external storage or clear space.

Download history

FTPull maintains a complete history of every file downloaded — filename, size, timestamp, source connection. During a fast-paced event, this is your audit trail. If a photo editor asks whether a specific image arrived, you can check the history instantly rather than searching through folders.

Network reliability

FTP connections drop. Servers restart. Wi-Fi at venues is unreliable. FTPull handles all of this automatically:

A real-world setup: the picture desk at a football match

Here's a concrete example. A media company covers a Saturday afternoon football match with two photographers:

The picture desk editor at the office has FTPull running with two connections:

Both folders are watched by Capture One's hot folder. The editor works in Capture One all afternoon. Notifications tell them when new batches arrive. They review, select the best frames, add captions, and publish. At no point do they open an FTP client or manually refresh a remote folder.

After the match, the history log shows exactly what was received, when, and from which photographer. The entire ingest process happened automatically.

Getting started

FTPull offers a 14-day free trial — enough to test it through several real events. Configure a connection, set the polling interval, and let it run. Your photographers upload as usual; the difference is that you stop manually checking the server and start receiving files automatically.

For teams where both photographers and editors need automation, the FTPSuite bundle includes both FTPull and FTPush at a discount — automatic downloads for the desk, automatic uploads for the field.