Canva lets you create folders directly inside the Uploads folder in Projects, which gives you another way to organize the photos, videos, and other media you bring into Canva. For a long time, everything in Uploads sat in one long scrollable list, so being able to group media into subfolders is a meaningful improvement.
It also raises a more useful question: should you organize your media inside Uploads, or inside other Projects folders alongside your designs?
What the Uploads Folder Is For
The Uploads folder in Projects is the default landing place for photos, videos, and other media you bring into Canva without choosing a specific destination.
You don’t have to let media land there first. You can open a destination folder and upload files directly there, rather than sending everything through Uploads and sorting it afterward. Getting into the habit of choosing a destination at upload is one of the small decisions that keeps a Canva account manageable over time.
Not every upload needs a permanent folder either. Screenshots, one-off reference images, and temporary files can often be deleted once they’ve served their purpose. Part of keeping Uploads manageable is recognizing what doesn’t need to be kept at all.
Two Ways to Think About Uploads
Before you decide whether to build folders inside Uploads, it helps to decide what role it plays in your workflow.
Uploads as a permanent media library. Some people naturally navigate to the Uploads folder when they need an image. If that’s you, organizing inside Uploads makes intuitive sense: stock photos go in a Stock Photos subfolder, event photos go in an Event Photos subfolder, and so on. The assets live where you’ll actually look for them.
Uploads as an intake area. Others prefer to treat Uploads as a temporary landing spot. Media either arrives there or gets uploaded directly to its long-term home in Projects. Anything that lands loose gets reviewed: reusable assets are filed into the right Projects folder, and temporary or unnecessary uploads can be deleted. With this approach, folders inside Uploads are less useful because assets are meant to move into Projects rather than settle there permanently.
My own preference is the second approach, largely because I built my system before subfolder organization was available inside Uploads. I keep my broader folder structure inside Projects and upload directly into the right destination folder whenever possible. The Uploads folder itself is only where I land things temporarily when I need them quickly and plan to delete them afterward.
That said, this is a personal decision, and the right system is the one that matches where you naturally look for something.
One important note: when you move an uploaded file into another Projects folder, it’s removed from Uploads. This is worth knowing before you start organizing, so you don’t go looking for something in Uploads that you’ve already moved elsewhere.
A Hybrid System Can Work
You don’t need one universal rule for every uploaded file. Reusable media that you browse by type (stock photos, product images, personal brand photography) may fit naturally in subfolders within Uploads. Media tied to a specific client, campaign, event, or deliverable often makes more sense inside the relevant Projects structure.
Stock photos or event images might live in Uploads while client-specific images live inside client folders in Projects. That’s a reasonable split. Just avoid having the same category in both places with no clear sense of which version is current — each category of media should have one predictable place you expect to find it.
Uploads Folders vs. Other Projects Folders
The difference between organizing inside Uploads and using other Projects folders goes beyond location. It affects how the rest of your Canva workspace fits together.
Organizing inside Uploads works well when imported media is primarily for your own use, you naturally look for images through the Uploads folder, and the assets don’t need to sit alongside related designs.
Separate Projects folders may work better when you want designs, templates, and media organized together in one place. A client folder that holds both the design files and the photos used in them, perhaps with a dedicated subfolder for source images, is a common example.
Projects folders can also be shared with team members and have permission controls applied, while the Uploads folder is primarily an individual organizing tool. If others need dependable access to a set of photos or brand images, a shared Projects folder is usually the better home than Uploads.
Where to Begin
If you’re setting up Canva for the first time, ask three questions before you start creating subfolders inside Uploads:
- Will I reuse this media across unrelated designs, or is it tied to a specific project or client?
- Do I naturally look for images by media type (e.g., brand photos, product photos, stock images) or by project?
- Does anyone else need access to this media?
For a broader look at organizing folders across Canva, my tutorial on how to create folders and subfolders in Canva covers the full setup. And if you want a structured approach to organizing your whole Canva account, the Canva Organization Roadmap is a good place to start.
