Straight to HoldFast, or keep a copy on your Mac

Send straight to HoldFast for the fastest move with nothing stored locally, or keep a copy of the masters on your Mac as well.

The How should we move them? step is about the transfer only. Where your videos end up is already decided; this changes how the bytes get there.

Straight to HoldFast (recommended)

Choose this and HoldFast pulls most videos directly from Vimeo. Nothing is stored on your Mac, and your own connection is not the bottleneck, because the videos travel from Vimeo to HoldFast rather than down to your machine and back up again. For most people this is the fastest option and the one to pick.

Screenshot: importer-transfer-modes
Two transfer modes. Where the videos end up is already set; this only changes how they get there.

Also keep a copy on this Mac

Choose this and, alongside the HoldFast copy, each original is saved to a folder you pick on your Mac. Use it when you want a local archive of the masters as well as the copy in HoldFast. It uses disk space and takes longer, because every file is written to your drive on the way through. If you pick this, choose a destination folder before you continue; the app reminds you if you forget.

The bandwidth story, in plain words

With Straight to HoldFast, your laptop mostly hands off a reference and lets HoldFast do the fetching, so a slow or capped home connection does not hold up the move. A few videos have no direct download available from Vimeo; those route through your Mac automatically, which is slower but happens without you doing anything. You can tell the two apart in the progress panel: a cloud icon means HoldFast pulled it, and a laptop icon means it came through your Mac.

Which to choose

• Want the fastest move and no local files? Straight to HoldFast.
• Want a local copy of the masters too? Also keep a copy on this Mac.

You are not locked in either way. If you keep a copy now, you can delete the local files later, and the HoldFast copy is unaffected.