Project Wrapped? Rotate Shade Drives into Wasabi Archive Storage

Q: "Why archive out of Shade if the team plan includes storage?"

"Because the allowance is per-seat active storage — 500 GB each on the $20/seat plan. Wrapped projects parked in Shade consume space meant for live work; at Wasabi's $6.99/TB flat rate, a shipped project costs a fraction of a seat to keep and the seats stay free for editing."

Q: "Can we still search archived footage with Shade's AI?"

"No — the index covers content in Shade drives. That's the trade-off of rotation: archive what's truly wrapped, and if a project comes back to life, copy it from Wasabi into a drive again (Wasabi's free egress makes the round trip cost nothing but time)."

Q: "Does Wasabi's 1 TB minimum charge hurt per-project archiving?"

"Only if you archive into it piecemeal while storing almost nothing. Wasabi bills a 1 TB monthly minimum across the account, so a studio's accumulated archive clears it quickly; the first few projects effectively share the floor."

Q: "What does restoring a project cost later?"

"Nothing on the Wasabi side — egress is free within its fair-use policy. That's the specific reason Wasabi suits re-editable archives better than egress-billed alternatives."

Q: "How does the drive-scoped connection help here?"

"Archive rotation is naturally per-project, and Shade's model is per-drive: connect the wrapped drive's Drive ID, copy, verify, clear. The API key stays the same; only the Drive ID changes per rotation."

Q: "How do Shade folders map into a Wasabi bucket?"

"Wasabi is object storage — buckets with key prefixes acting as folders. CloudsLinker recreates the drive's folder tree under the prefix you choose, so a convention like \u003ccode\u003eshade-archive/2026-clientname/\u003c/code\u003e keeps years of projects navigable."

Q: "Are multi-GB camera originals a problem?"

"No. Wasabi accepts objects up to 5 TB and CloudsLinker uses multipart, resumable uploads for large files — camera originals and finished masters transfer without special handling."

Q: "Should we use Object Lock on the archive bucket?"

"For client deliverables and legal-retention material, yes — Object Lock makes objects immutable for a set period, which no active workspace provides. It must be enabled when the bucket is created; plan that before the first rotation."

Move finished projects out of Shade's per-seat active storage into Wasabi at $6.99/TB — free the seats, keep the footage retrievable at no egress cost.

Introduction

Wasabi is where finished creative work goes to cost $6.99 per terabyte per month instead of occupying seat allowance: flat-rate S3 storage with no egress fees, so pulling a project back for a re-edit costs nothing. Shade's team plan allocates 500 GB of active storage per seat — deliberately sized for the working set, not for every project the studio has ever shipped. Once a project wraps, its drive is dead weight against that allowance; the operational rhythm Shade's model expects is archive rotation. Because each Shade drive is API-addressable by Drive ID, that rotation can be a repeatable server-side job rather than a quarterly chore. Two methods below: manual, and a per-drive copy with CloudsLinker (the same steps work for AWS S3 or any S3-compatible store).

Method 1: Download and Upload via the Wasabi Console
Method 2: Copy Shade to Wasabi in the Cloud
Quick Comparison
Practical Tips
Frequently Asked Questions

What is Shade?

Shade is media-first team storage with AI search, review workflows and editor panels — priced per seat ($20/month) with 500 GB of active storage each. It's built for the projects being worked on now, with archive rotation as the intended lifecycle.

500 GB active storage per seat
Unlimited drives; per-drive permissions
AI indexing on drive content
API key + Drive ID access, per drive

What is Wasabi?

Wasabi is S3-compatible archive storage: $6.99 per TB per month flat, no egress fees, a 1 TB billing minimum, and durability features like versioning and Object Lock that suit long-term project retention.

$6.99/TB/month; free egress (fair use)
1 TB minimum monthly charge
5 TB max object; Object Lock immutability
Access Key + Secret Key (S3-compatible)

Comparison: Shade vs Wasabi

Feature	Shade	Wasabi
Role	Active workspace (edit, review, search)	Long-term archive
Storage economics	500 GB per $20 seat (active allowance)	$6.99/TB/mo flat, 1 TB minimum
AI search / review tools	Yes — on drive content	No — plain object storage
Retrieval cost	Included	Free egress (fair use)
Immutability	No	Object Lock, versioning
Connection in CloudsLinker	API key + Drive ID	Access Key + Secret Key + endpoint

Sources: Shade: official site, Capterra: Shade pricing, Wasabi: pricing, Wasabi Docs: service limits.

Preparing to Rotate Shade Projects into Wasabi

Agree on what "wrapped" means before automating anything — delivered, client-approved, retention clock started. Create the archive bucket once, in your preferred region, with Object Lock enabled at creation if immutability matters (it can't be added later), and settle a key-prefix convention like shade-archive/2026-client-project/. Generate a scoped Wasabi Access Key pair (never root keys). On the Shade side, collect the Drive IDs of the wrapped drives and create an API key in account settings. Confirm final deliverables and camera originals are all actually in the drive — the archive is only as complete as what you rotate.

Method 1: Download and Upload via the Wasabi Console

Step 1: Download the project from Shade

Open the wrapped drive in Shade's web app, select the project folders and download them locally. A finished project with camera originals means hundreds of gigabytes staged on a workstation disk before anything reaches the archive.

Step 2: Upload into the Wasabi bucket

Wasabi web console with a bucket open and several project folders queued in the drag-and-drop upload zone

Fine exactly once. As a recurring rotation it ties up a workstation and the office uplink for every wrapped project — the reason studios script this instead.

Method 2: Copy Shade to Wasabi in the Cloud

Per-drive rotation as a repeatable job

CloudsLinker connects the wrapped Shade drive by API key + Drive ID and writes multipart uploads straight into the Wasabi bucket. No workstation staging, no office bandwidth — and because Shade connections are drive-scoped, each project rotation is the same three-minute setup with a different Drive ID.

Step 1: Connect Shade

In Shade, copy the wrapped drive's Drive ID from its settings and use your account API key. In CloudsLinker, click Add Cloud → Shade, paste both, and name the connection after the project.

CloudsLinker Add Cloud dialog for Shade with API Key and Drive ID input fields

Step 2: Connect Wasabi

Generate a scoped Access Key pair in the Wasabi console under Access Keys, then in CloudsLinker click Add Cloud → Wasabi, paste the keys and select the endpoint for your bucket's region (e.g. s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com).

Wasabi console Access Keys page generating a new Access Key and Secret Key pair

CloudsLinker Add Cloud dialog for Wasabi with Access Key ID and Secret Access Key fields filled in

Step 3: Configure the Transfer

Set the Shade drive as the source — typically the whole drive for a wrapped project — and the Wasabi bucket with the project's key prefix as the destination. If proxies live alongside originals, a size or format filter keeps regenerable files out of the archive.

CloudsLinker transfer configuration with a wrapped Shade project drive checked as source on the left and a Wasabi bucket with a dated shade-archive key prefix as destination on the right

Step 4: Start and Monitor the Transfer

Start the rotation and follow the Task List. When it completes, compare object counts against the drive, then clear the Shade drive — that's the moment the seat allowance actually comes back.

CloudsLinker task monitoring view with an active migration in progress

Comparing the Ways to Transfer From Shade to Wasabi

Method	Ease of Use	Speed	Best For	Uses Local Bandwidth	Skill Level
Console download / upload	Medium	Slow + workstation staging	A single small project, once	Yes — twice	Basic
CloudsLinker	Easy	Fast (server-side, multipart)	Recurring per-drive rotations	No	Basic

Practical Tips for Rotating Shade Projects into Wasabi

Archive originals, drop proxies: proxies regenerate from masters — filtering them out keeps the archive lean and the restore path clean.
Enable Object Lock at bucket creation: immutability for client deliverables can't be retrofitted onto an existing bucket.
Date the key prefixes: shade-archive/2026-client-project/ today saves an unsearchable bucket three years from now.
Verify before clearing the drive: object counts in the bucket against the drive's file count — then delete in Shade to free the seats.
Remember search stays behind: archived footage leaves the AI index — export any needed metadata or notes with the project.
Restores are free: if a project revives, copy it from Wasabi back into a fresh Shade drive — egress costs nothing, so archiving is never a one-way door.
The same steps fit AWS S3: any S3-compatible store works identically — swap the endpoint and keys if your archive lives on S3, IDrive e2 or Cloudflare R2 instead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Because the allowance is per-seat active storage — 500 GB each on the $20/seat plan. Wrapped projects parked in Shade consume space meant for live work; at Wasabi's $6.99/TB flat rate, a shipped project costs a fraction of a seat to keep and the seats stay free for editing.

No — the index covers content in Shade drives. That's the trade-off of rotation: archive what's truly wrapped, and if a project comes back to life, copy it from Wasabi into a drive again (Wasabi's free egress makes the round trip cost nothing but time).

Only if you archive into it piecemeal while storing almost nothing. Wasabi bills a 1 TB monthly minimum across the account, so a studio's accumulated archive clears it quickly; the first few projects effectively share the floor.

Nothing on the Wasabi side — egress is free within its fair-use policy. That's the specific reason Wasabi suits re-editable archives better than egress-billed alternatives.

Archive rotation is naturally per-project, and Shade's model is per-drive: connect the wrapped drive's Drive ID, copy, verify, clear. The API key stays the same; only the Drive ID changes per rotation.

Wasabi is object storage — buckets with key prefixes acting as folders. CloudsLinker recreates the drive's folder tree under the prefix you choose, so a convention like shade-archive/2026-clientname/ keeps years of projects navigable.

No. Wasabi accepts objects up to 5 TB and CloudsLinker uses multipart, resumable uploads for large files — camera originals and finished masters transfer without special handling.

For client deliverables and legal-retention material, yes — Object Lock makes objects immutable for a set period, which no active workspace provides. It must be enabled when the bucket is created; plan that before the first rotation.

Conclusion

The manual route — download the drive, upload to the bucket — works once, for one small project, and gets old immediately. The sustainable shape is per-drive server-side rotation: connect the wrapped drive by Drive ID, copy it into a dated key prefix in Wasabi, verify object counts, then clear the Shade drive to free seat allowance. With Object Lock on the bucket, the archive is also immutable — something the active workspace never was. Repeat per project; the connections take minutes to set up after the first.

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