Folders

As your log grows, folders help you find contacts quickly. Folders give you a hierarchical file-system-style structure for organizing your contacts.

Folders

Folders organize your contacts into a tree. Every account starts with an All Contacts root folder. Beneath it, Hamtrax maintains two built-in category folders -- Activations and Hunted contacts -- that hold auto-created subfolders. You can also create your own custom folders as direct children of All Contacts.

Automatic folders

Hamtrax auto-creates folders so you don't have to think about organization during operation:

• Activation folders — When you start a POTA activation, a folder is created automatically inside the Activations category. It is named using the ADIF convention: callsign@reference-YYYYMMDD (e.g., KA8H@K-1515-20201127). All contacts logged during that activation are saved here. Activation folders are also created automatically when you import a past activation from an ADIF file, or when the general importer files your activation contacts from a whole logbook. In the folder tree, activation folders display the park name and activation date beneath the folder name for quick identification. If an activation has not yet been ended, the folder shows a pulsing green Active badge in the folder tree. Select the folder to see a Resume Activation button at the top of the detail view, letting you jump back into the active session without returning to the Activate tab.
• Monthly folders — Non-activation contacts (hunting, casual QSOs) are filed into a monthly folder inside the Hunted contacts category (e.g., "March 2026"), created automatically on your first non-activation contact of the month.

Creating a manual folder

There are two ways to create a custom folder:

• From the folder tree. Expand All Contacts, click the New folder button at the top of the custom-folders section, enter a name (e.g., "Field Day 2025" or "DXpeditions"), and click Create.
• From Add Contact. Open the global Add Contact form, choose Log in, create a custom folder in the Select Folder dialog, and select it as the destination.

Manual folders are created as children of All Contacts. Only the root folder (All Contacts) accepts new children -- you cannot create subfolders inside category, activation, monthly, or custom folders.

Organizing contacts into folders

• During Add Contact: Choose a content folder in the Log in field of the QSO form. If you skip it, Hamtrax files the contact into the current monthly folder. Root and category folders do not hold contacts.
• From a folder's Add Contact action: Each custom, monthly hunting, or activation folder opens its own role-specific quick-add card. No folder picker appears because the chosen folder owns the destination; See full contact form carries the draft and destination into the full form.
• During import: The general importer auto-sorts every contact from an ADIF or CSV logbook into the right folder — activation folders for your activations, monthly folders for hunts, and a custom folder (optionally split by month, year, band, or mode) for everything else — creating each folder as needed. Importing a single past activation likewise creates an activation folder in the Activations category, named in the standard callsign@reference-YYYYMMDD format.
• After the fact: The current edit form does not move contacts between folders. Choose the right folder when logging so the auto-organization guardrails stay strict.

To keep this organization intact, the contact edit form locks the fields that define an auto-folder: the park, date, and your operating location in an activation folder, and the date in a monthly folder. Those fields appear read-only with a short explanation (for example, "Park is locked to US-2325 for this activation."), so an edit can't accidentally push a contact into a folder where it doesn't belong. Every other field stays editable, and contacts in custom folders have no locked fields. See Manual Logging for details, or the complete rule list in Logbook Hygiene Rules.

How the folder tree is sorted

Folders are grouped and sorted automatically:

• Activations are listed newest first, by activation date.
• Monthly folders under Hunted contacts are listed newest first, by month.
• Custom folders are sorted by most-recent contact activity -- whichever folder you logged into most recently rises to the top. Empty custom folders fall back to creation order.
• Favorited folders are pinned in their own section above the main tree, regardless of category.

Folder operations

Action	How
Rename	Click the pencil icon on a folder and enter a new name. Root and category folders cannot be renamed.
Move	Drag a folder to a new parent, or use the context menu. Only custom folders can be moved; activation, monthly, and category folders are fixed in place.
Delete	Select a content folder, choose Delete from its detail toolbar, and complete the confirmation. Hamtrax permanently deletes the folder, its descendant folders, contacts, and associated media; nothing is moved to the parent. On phones and tablets, a successful deletion returns you to the folder tree so you can see the folders that remain. Root and category folders cannot be deleted.
Favorite	Toggle the favorite star on any folder. Favorited folders appear in a pinned Favorites section at the top of the folder tree for quick access.

In a Select Folder dialog, deleting a folder with contacts also offers Move to new folder. That option preserves the contacts in a new custom folder; Hamtrax never moves them automatically to the parent.

Favorite folders

If you use certain folders frequently -- your main activation logbook, a current contest, or your daily operating folder -- you can favorite them so they always appear at the top of the folder tree.

Favorited folders appear in a dedicated Favorites section above the main tree, separated by a divider. This keeps your most-used folders one tap away, even when your folder tree has dozens of entries.

To remove a folder from favorites, toggle the favorite star again.

Folder equipment

The Equipment area above a content folder is a read-only summary of the radio and antenna used by the most contacts in that folder. The count beside each profile shows how many contacts used it. Select Top Radio or Top Antenna to see how the summary is calculated and how to change the contacts behind it.

To update equipment on existing contacts:

1. Select a folder in the logbook.
2. Choose Bulk Edit. Hamtrax switches to List first, then Select all appears on the left side of the view-control row while the List / Map / DX switch fades out. Select all changes to Clear all when every visible contact is selected.
3. Choose Set equipment, then pick a radio, an antenna, or both.
4. Choose Apply. Only the selected contacts change; leaving radio or antenna untouched keeps each contact's current value for that field.

While Bulk Edit is active, the List / Map / DX switch, Import Contacts, Download, Share, and Delete fade out so they cannot be mistaken for actions on the selected contacts. They return when you cancel or finish the bulk edit.

Folder media

Folders can hold more than just contacts. You can attach photos, notes, and stream links to any content folder:

• Photos — Select a content folder (activation, monthly, or custom) to reveal an inline gallery strip beneath the folder toolbar. Tap the + button to pick an image from your device. Thumbnails appear in the strip immediately; tap any thumbnail to open a full-screen lightbox. Delete a photo from the red X on its thumbnail. Each folder holds up to 4 photos — the + button hides while a folder is full. Hamtrax accepts JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, and HEIF photos (iPhone photos work as-is) up to 10 MB each; oversized or unsupported files explain why they were rejected, upload and deletion failures show a message, and accepted photos are compressed automatically for fast loading.
• Notes — Add free-text notes from the folder's Notes row to record operating conditions, location details, or anything else worth remembering.
• Stream links — Attach YouTube or other video links from the folder's Stream Links row. Hamtrax displays a thumbnail preview when it can derive one from the URL.

Any folder with attached media displays a green camera icon inline in the folder tree, and folders with a livestream URL show a red video icon. These indicators also appear on activation cards in your profile's Activations section.

tip

Use folders for time-bound or event-bound groupings: a specific contest, a field day, a vacation DXpedition, or a POTA activation trip. Auto-folders handle the routine organization; manual folders handle everything else.

Example folder structure

All Contacts
  |-- Activations                         (auto-created category)
  |     |-- KA8H@K-0817-20260301         (auto-created activation folder)
  |     |-- KA8H@K-4566-20260215         (auto-created activation folder)
  |-- Hunted contacts                     (auto-created category)
  |     |-- March 2026                   (auto-created monthly folder)
  |     |-- February 2026               (auto-created monthly folder)
  |-- Contests                            (manual folder)
  |-- DXpeditions                         (manual folder)

Related pages

• Logging Overview
• Manual Logging
• Importing Contacts
• Exporting Contacts
• Logbook Hygiene Rules