diff --git a/app/filesWatcher.js b/app/filesWatcher.js
index 21fed1464cb99be13a78f0a3ee93f95ad4b7e786..bbe91f718fbead2ec165b4c37239cd9ae767d38f 100644
--- a/app/filesWatcher.js
+++ b/app/filesWatcher.js
@@ -237,9 +237,9 @@ module.exports = function(config, models){
 
   logger.info('starting watcher')
   var watcher = chokidar.watch(config.userInfo.basePathToWatch+ '/**/*.bkr', {
-    usePolling: true, // more expensive, but works also on GPFS with updates from multiple machines
-    interval: 1000,
-    binaryInterval: 3000
+    usePolling: config.watcher.usePolling, // more expensive, but works also on GPFS with updates from multiple machines
+    interval: config.watcher.interval,
+    binaryInterval: config.watcher.binaryInterval
   });
   watcher.on('add', (path,stats) => {
     addNewNotebook(path, stats)
diff --git a/config/default.hjson b/config/default.hjson
index 93920953f4c9865c8590152d861a2b15f796fc56..b6cae2efc95325daae4f64371cec9a0814fa0cb2 100644
--- a/config/default.hjson
+++ b/config/default.hjson
@@ -94,3 +94,8 @@ userInfo: {
   sharedDirInContainer: "/data/shared"
   mySharedDirInContainer: "/data/my-shared"
 }
+watcher{
+  usePolling: true
+  interval: 2000
+  binaryInterval: 6000
+}
\ No newline at end of file