Using Watch Folders in Mendeley
25/02/2025

Looking for a quick and easy way of adding documents to your Mendeley library? Wouldn’t it be great if you could add PDFs to a folder on your computer and these could be automatically imported into Mendeley? Well, actually you can!
By using a ‘watched folder’ within Mendeley, you can nominate a folder on your PC which you can ask Mendeley to ‘keep an eye on’. Every time a new PDF is added to this folder, Mendeley will automatically import it into your library.
Setting up watch folders is easy…
- Within your Mendeley Reference Manager Desktop, go to File > Watch Folder.

- This will bring up the folder structure on your PC. Under the ‘Watched Folders’ tab tick the folders you would like to watch, and click OK.
- Any PDF that you now add to your chosen folders will be automatically added straight into your Mendeley account.
Don’t forget there are lots of other ways you can add documents to your Mendeley account which you can read about in our previous post.
If you have any questions about Mendeley, pop into the Library or contact us.
Categories & Tags:
Leave a comment on this post:
You might also like…
Systematic literature review – combining your search strings
Our previous posts on the systematic review have looked at: Systematic Literature Review – Where do I begin? Systematic Literature Review – Selecting your sources Systematic Literature Review - Identifying your search terms and constructing ...
Getting started on your business and management thesis or research project
Doing a research project - whether it's a thesis, business plan, internship or consultancy project - can be a daunting task, and you might have some questions around how to get started. This post is ...
Getting started on your Master’s thesis
Please note: This post is intended to provide advice to all students undertaking a thesis in engineering or applied sciences. There is separate advice for business and management students. Choosing your thesis topic Your course ...
Systematic literature review – Identifying your search terms and constructing your search strings
Our previous posts on the systematic review have looked at getting started and selecting your sources. In this post we will look at the next fundamental stage: Identifying your search terms and constructing your search ...
The importance of metadiscourse in academic writing
Metadiscourse (or ‘metatext’) is a key feature of academic writing. Hyland (2019) describes it as the writer's “interpersonal communication” and it refers to the parts of your text that talk about your argument in order ...
Systematic literature review – Selecting your sources
In our previous systematic literature review post we identified some background reading for getting started, explained how to find other systematic literature reviews to help you understand what is required, and how reviews should be structured and written ...
