Import media and metadata files

Once your media and metadata files are prepared, you will need to upload them to your account.

Media files

1. Be sure you understand how to select and prepare media files
2. Sign in to your account and navigate to the  Items manager
3. Click Add new items to open Advanced Import
4. Click Upload Media to open the Google Developers Console in a new window
5. Simply drag and drop image files from your computer into the file list area, or click Upload files and select files

Only items uploaded directly into the Google Developers Console folder will become visible in the content manager items list. Any items uploaded into sub-folders will not be visible.

Advanced users can also use the gsutil command line tool, a useful and faster method if you have a very large number of files to upload.

As a reminder, items you upload at this step of the process are private and are not publicly accessible.

Metadata file

After uploading your media files, you must upload the associated metadata by following the directions below:

1. Be sure you understand how to prepare a metadata file
2. Navigate or go back to the  Items page
3. Click Add new items to open Advanced import
4. Add the address of the Google Sheet containing your metadata using the required field. Click Upload Google Sheet
5. Share access of your Google Sheet with [e-mail] with at least “View” access
6. Alternatively if you are using the CSV or XML metadata formats, click Upload CSV/XML
7. Choose the metadata file from your computer

If the metadata file has formatting problems

An error dialog will appear describing any errors, and where they appear in the metadata file. You will need to fix these errors by correcting entries in your Google Sheet, CSV or XML file before it can be successfully uploaded.

Please review for common import errors and confirm your file adheres to the metadata file specification. Try to upload the file again after making corrections.

If the metadata file processes correctly

You will see a dialog that summarizes the number of items in the file. If the numbers look correct, click Import and your items will be imported. Visit the  Items page to choose how and where the items should be published.

Future updates

Keep your Google Sheet, CSV or XML metadata file for future use. You can add or modify any metadata for an item, except the "item ID" – your object's unique identifier in the system. When you upload a modified metadata file, we automatically detect which items are new or changed, and only perform the necessary updates. You do not need to worry about creating duplicates.

Whenever you upload a metadata file, or a new file through the Google Developer Console, the system automatically matches the metadata with the corresponding image and audio files based on their filename and videos using the YouTube video ID. This process can take some time, so if you see entries on the screen that say "Processing", wait a while then refresh the page.