Reports and report folders are metadata types supported by the Salesforce API.   

By default, reports are stored in the Private Reports folder, which is not accessible via Gearset, so any reports saved there will not show in a Gearset comparison. In order to make reports deployable, they will either need to be put into the default Public Reports folder or a folder you create.

If you save the report in the Public Reports folder, the report will show as unfiled$public/(ReportName).
​

If you save the report in a custom folder, the report will show as FolderName/ReportName.
​

If you don’t want users to be able to access reports or report folders within Salesforce you will need to disable Manage Reports in Public Folders and View Reports in Public Folders for the profile in question.

When performing a comparison where you want to include both reports and report folders, select the Report metadata object and “All Items from source and target”.

This will show both:

If you only want to see report folders then select the Report metadata object and select “Specify named items and rules”.

This shows only the Report Folders.
​

When selecting individual reports:

The comparison shows those reports and all report folders, not just the one associated with the selected report.

Selecting a report to deploy.

If the report’s folder does not already exist on the target, it will be included as a suggested solution.

If the suggestion is not added the validation will fail with an error: Cannot find folder: <xxx> - where <xxx> refers to a specific folder name.

If the report is in the Public Reports Folder a folder will not need to be added.