SelfPhotos
All your photos, finally in one place, organized by AI
SelfPhotos is a photo manager software designed for users who want to keep their photos on local storage instead of cloud services like Google Photos or iCloud.
Features
Disk Scanning for Photos and Videos
SelfPhotos only scans directories you explicitly specify and authorize. It will never access folders you haven’t explicitly selected—your privacy comes first.
You can scan media on drives like:
- Internal drives
- External USB hard drives
- SD cards
- Network shares (SMB)
More data sources coming soon:
- FTP/SFTP
- WebDav
- Google Photos
- Google Drive
- OneDrive
- Dropbox
- S3 compatible
- Aliyun Drive
- Baidu Drive
- …
The scanner extracts EXIF metadata and file paths and caches it. Subsequent scans only check for new or changed files, making re-indexing fast.
Timeline by Capture Date
Scroll through your entire photo library chronologically. Jump to specific dates or months. Timeline view is heavily optimized to handle 100,000+ photos without lag.
Accurate dates through deep metadata analysis. SelfPhotos performs comprehensive, meticulous analysis of photo metadata to precisely extract capture dates. Your photos appear on the timeline exactly when you took them, not when you copied or edited them.
Mobile Photo Backup (iOS & Android)
Install SelfPhotos on your phone to enable automatic backup. Find it on the App Store for iOS, or download the APK file directly from our website for Android devices for now.
New photos are backed up automatically when paired with a PC or Mac running the SelfPhotos app. Your phone storage stays free, and your photos land on your local disk instead of a cloud service you don’t control.
Organized backup structure. Backed up photos can be automatically organized into folders by year, month, and day (e.g., 2024/2024-03/2024-03-08/). You can also optionally add date prefixes to filenames for easy sorting—turning IMG_1234.jpg into 20240308-IMG_1234.jpg. Keep your photo library organized exactly how you want it.
File Structure Preservation
Unlike Google Photos, which flattens everything into a single bucket, SelfPhotos respects your existing folder structure.
Navigate through folders the same way you would in File Explorer or Finder. This matters if you organize photos by year, event, or project—your organization stays intact.
NAS Support via SMB
Scan photos and videos stored on a network-attached storage device through the SMB protocol.
Supported NAS vendors:
- Synology
- QNAP
- TrueNAS
- Unraid
- Any device running an SMB file share
Comparison
| Feature | SelfPhotos | Google Photos | iCloud Photos |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | Your hardware | 15 GB free, then paid | 5 GB free, then paid |
| Privacy | Local only | Scanned for ads | Encrypted but on Apple servers |
| Offline access | Full | Partial | Requires cache |
| Monthly cost | $0 | $2–$10 | $1–$10 |
| File structure | Preserved | Flattened | Flattened |
Who Is This For?
- Users with large photo libraries who have extensive collections of photos and videos but struggle to keep them organized
- Users who want a timeline view instead of nested folders who want photos and videos displayed in one unified timeline
- Privacy-conscious users who don’t want photos uploaded and scanned for ad targeting
- NAS owners who already have network storage and want a native photo manager client that runs on PC or Mac instead of a browser
Requirements
Desktop client: Windows 10+ or macOS 10.15+, Linux coming soon
Mobile app: iOS 15+ or Android 8+