# AFU or copy to USB

The Pearl Nano has USB 3.0 ports (a single port on Pearl Nano) that you can use to copy recordings to external USB flash drives or hard drives. Use this to conveniently provide speakers with a copy of their presentation before they leave the presentation venue.

A USB port is available on the back panel of the Pearl Nano.

The USB storage device must be formatted with one of the following file systems:

| FAT16 | FAT32 | XFS |
| --- | --- | --- |
| EXT2 | EXT3 | EXT4 |
| NTFS | exFAT |  |

We recommend you only connect one USB device to a Pearl Nano at a time. Only one copy or move to USB operation is permitted at a time, even though the UI may appear to let you start a second one. Please wait until the first is complete before starting a new operation.

### Automatic File Upload to a USB storage device

Transfer recordings to a USB storage device automatically when you select an external USB device as the AFU protocol transfer type using the Admin panel.

**Prerequisites**

-  A properly formatted USB device must be connected to a USB port on the Pearl Nano.

- Channel is already added for AFU,

- AFU is enabled and the parameters configured.

**Configure AFU upload to a USB storage device using the Admin panel**

- From the Automatic File Upload configuration page, select **External USB Drive **as the protocol transfer type. If your Automatic File Upload setting conflicts with your new USB device setting, a message is displayed. Click the **fix it** link and click **Apply**.

The fix it link disables any other type of automatic file upload you have configured. When you are done with USB uploads, return to the **Automatic File Upload **configuration page and reconfigure your AFU settings.

- (Optional) Select **Create a subfolder for each channel** to have recordings organized by channel. Pearl Nano only has a single channel.

- Click **Apply**.

#### One-time copy all recordings to USB storage device

When one-time move/copy of files is configured, the Pearl Nano automatically starts copying files as soon as you connect a USB storage device to the USB port.

Newest recordings are copied first. Files continue copying over until one of the following events occur:

-  all files are copied

- the specified maximum number of files are copied

-  the target drive runs out of storage space

File that are currently recording do not transfer until recording ends.

The following table describes the options available for a one-time move/copy of recordings to a USB storage device.

**Table 67 One-Time Move/Copy File Transfer Options**

| **Name** | **Description** |
| --- | --- |
| create subfolder with serial number (<serial>) | If checked, the transfer process creates a sub-folder with the system’s serial number on the USB drive. This is useful if you are using the same drive to collect recordings from multiple systems and want to know which system they came from. |
| create subfolder for the channel | If checked, the transfer process creates a sub-folder for the channel into which the files are copied (within the subfolder for the serial number, if that option is also selected). |
| remove after copying | If checked, the file(s) are removed after being copied to the USB drive. Checking this box makes the transfer a move instead of a copy. |
| mark file as downloaded | If checked, the files that are downloaded are marked with a downloaded icon when viewing file lists. This has no effect if remove after copying is checked. |
| ignore already downloaded files | If checked, files that were previously downloaded or marked as downloaded are not included in subsequent downloads. |

If your USB drive has no activity indicator to let you know when the transfer is complete, select the one-time move/copy option to **remove after copying** or **mark the file as downloaded** so that you know when the transfer has finished.

**Prerequisites**

-  A properly formatted USB device must be connected to a USB port on Pearl Nano.

**Configure a one-time copy of all recorded files to a USB storage device using the Admin panel**

- Log in to the Admin panel as **admin**.

- From the Configuration menu, select **External USB Drive**. The External USB Drive configuration page opens.

- Select **used for one-time move/copy of the recorded files (upon insertion)**.

 If a conflict is reported regarding the Automatic file upload settings, click **Fix it** or go to the Automatic File Upload configuration page and either disable automatic file upload or switch to a non-USB based upload type.

- Check the options you want to use for the one-time move/copy file transfer and click **Apply**.

- Insert the USB storage device into the USB port on Pearl Nano. File transfer starts automatically.

- Follow the steps to One-time copy all recordings to USB storage device when the activity light on the USB storage device stops flashing. If your USB device doesn't have activity indicators:

- Check the **Recording **list for the channel to verify if there are files that have yet to be copied.

- One-time copy all recordings to USB storage device when you are satisfied all files have been copied, or if you notice the USB storage device is out of space.

#### Manually copy recordings to USB

You can manually copy recordings to a USB storage device that is connected to Pearl Nano. This procedure is separate from automatic file upload and does not need any pre-configuration in the automatic file upload page.

The following table describes the options available when manually copying recordings to a USB storage device.

**Table 68 One-Time Move/Copy File Transfer Options**

| **Name** | **Description** |
| --- | --- |
| create subfolder with serial number (<serial>) | If checked, the transfer process creates a sub-folder with the system’s serial number on the USB drive. This is useful if you are using the same drive to collect recordings from multiple systems and want to know which system they came from. |
| create subfolder for the channel | If checked, the transfer process creates a sub-folder for the channel into which the files are copied (within the subfolder for the serial number, if that option is also selected). |
| File already exists | Choose the action to take if a file with the same name already exists in the copy location: replace (default) skip rename |

**Manually copy recorded files to a USB device using the Admin panel**

- Log in to the Admin panel as **admin**.

- From the Configuration menu, select **External USB Drive link**. The External USB Drive configuration page opens.

- Select **used to manually move/copy selected files via the Admin panel **and click **Apply**.

 If a conflict is reported regarding the Automatic file upload, click **Fix it** or go to the Automatic File Upload configuration page and disable automatic file upload or switch to a non-USB based upload type.

- Insert your USB storage device into the USB port on Pearl Nano, then click **Recording** from the Channel menu in the Admin panel. The Recording page opens.

- Check the files you want to download and do one of the following:

- Click **Copy Selected to external drive** to copy the files to the USB drive.

- Click **Move Selected to external drive** to move the files and delete them off of Pearl Nano.

In this example, the first file is currently recording and cannot be downloaded.

- Follow the steps to Safely eject USB storage device when you're done.

**View file transfer to USB device status and cancel using the Admin panel**

During a file transfer to an External USB drive, you can monitor the file transfer progress and cancel the file transfer using the Admin panel. You can only cancel the transfer of a file while it is in progress.

- While the file transfer is in progress, select **External USB Drive link** from the Configuration menu in the Admin panel. The External USB Drive configuration page opens.

- View the current file transfer status under the **Status** section. To cancel the current file transfer, select **Cancel **and confirm when prompted. The option to cancel only appears while the file transfer is in progress. The file that is highlighted in green is currently being transferred.

**View available USB storage space**

When you insert a USB storage device into a USB port and select an **External USB Drive **action other than **ignored** (i.e. manual copy, automatic copy, etc), the total and free space are calculated and displayed in the Admin panel.

When you insert your USB storage device into an available USB port, an External storage usage information tab appears at the bottom of the menus panel in the Admin panel.

You can also view the storage capacity when you select **Storage** using the front screen menu.

**Safely eject the USB storage device using the Admin panel**

When you're done saving recordings to the USB storage device, you can safely eject it using the link at the bottom of the Admin panel page.

- Log in to the Admin panel as **admin**.

- At the bottom of the menus panel, click **eject** and click **OK** when prompted.

It's now safe to disconnect the USB storage device from Pearl Nano.

> product: pearl-nano · topic: recording · source: pearl-nano-userguide.md · updated: Oct 7, 2026