Release Notes

Stay informed about the latest feature updates and issue fixes of Self Photos on various platforms

The desktop application is updated synchronously with the Windows and macOS versions. The Linux version is not supported for the time being

September 22, 2026

Self Photos 0.8.5 Release Notes

🎨 New themes and first-launch guide: Choose from new themes and follow the guide to add photo folders
📱 Album-based backup: Use the original phone album name for backup folders
📂 Local file operations: Rename files, create folders, and remove photos from a person

🧭 Improved navigation: Search opens in a dialog, with clearer filters and menus
🗂️ Better source browsing: The folder tree remembers its expanded state, adjusts its width, and skips single-child folders
🖼️ Better photo browsing: Group photos by day, resize person cards, and navigate dates more easily
🔔 Clearer feedback: Fewer repeated notifications, with improved first-scan guidance and error details
🖥️ Window close behavior: Closing the window keeps the app in the Windows system tray or macOS menu bar
🔄 Local photo sync: Check photo folders at startup and scan only changed directories
🧠 Improved background recognition: Schedule face and vision tasks together to reduce resource use
✅ Easier multi-select: Clearer selection states for photos and people; drag-select across groups and from blank areas on the People page
👤 Person management: Clear a person’s name and enjoy clearer selection styling on person cards

🗄️ Cache management: The Settings > Advanced > Cache page now supports viewing statistics for and deleting thumbnails/cache, changing the cache location, and migrating thumbnails
🗑️ Deduplication page upgrade: Added a left folder sidebar for easier categorized browsing, a new “Keep only files in folder” option, and icons for sorting and selection
📂 Folder drag-and-drop: Folders can now be dragged directly into the app to add them as scan paths
📋 Copy to clipboard: Files can now be copied to the clipboard, with the shortcut adjusted to ctrl/cmd+c
🖱️ Thumbnail size adjustment: Thumbnail size can now be controlled with ctrl/cmd + mouse wheel and two-finger pinch on Mac trackpads
⌨️ New shortcuts: Added [ and ] shortcuts to toggle the navigation bar and the info panel
🔧 System maintenance: Added a “Fix thumbnails” feature under Advanced > System Maintenance
ℹ️ Home page info: The home page now shows the version number and detailed system info, with quick access to the log folder

⚡ Faster thumbnail generation: Thumbnail generation on Windows is now 3x faster
🎬 Faster video thumbnails: Video thumbnail generation on macOS is now 6x faster
📡 SMB stability: Improved the stability of all SMB operations
🧠 Face recognition compatibility: On Windows, the face runtime now detects DirectX capability and automatically falls back to CPU when it’s insufficient
🎞️ Live Photo parsing: Live Photos are now correctly recognized and parsed locally
🖼️ Preview experience: The preview position is now preserved as much as possible when resizing the window; the hover-preview Live Photo icon stays visible after playback finishes
🗑️ Deduplication page performance: Optimized the performance of rendering results
💬 Copy and prompts: Added an “Add folder” entry on the home page, improved the person merge prompt, and improved error messages when moving to trash fails
🔗 About page: The official website download link is now always displayed

🕐 Date grouping: Fixed an issue where photos were grouped under the wrong date
🍎 macOS: Fixed an issue where the system Photos Library was being scanned
🌍 Geolocation: Fixed an issue with extracting location information
🔑 Shortcuts: Fixed a bug with the Enter key event in the Add SMB panel
🖼️ Thumbnails: Fixed an issue where cropped face candidate avatars were rotated 90 degrees
🔗 Links: Fixed the link to the official website’s Releases page

⚡ Search filter performance: Optimized the performance of search filter conditions
📅 Period filter: “Period” filter now only includes results with EXIF metadata
🎨 Data source styling: Improved data source folder styling
📦 Auto-select on locate: Automatically selects the photo after locating in the data source

🎛️ Combined filtering: New combined filters, available across multiple pages
🖼️ Info panel: View photo/video details with quick jump to their album or people
📄 Video & screenshot pages: Dedicated pages for videos and screenshots for clearer browsing

🪟 macOS visuals: More refined frosted-glass effects
🔍 More accurate EXIF parsing: Improved photo metadata parsing
📦 Locate in folder: Automatically selects the corresponding photo/video after locating
🖱️ Folder right-click exclude: Confirmation dialog before excluding via right-click to avoid mistakes
📐 Window resize optimization: Browsing position stays stable when resizing the window
📁 SMB messaging: Clearer hint when a share name cannot be detected

Fix exclude rule dirty data: Bug where exclusion rules missing an include parent path prevented deletion

📅 Timeline optimization: Smart grouping by month, hover to show calendar view
📱 Phone backup page UI rework: Interaction redesign; improved firewall permission prompt
🔄 APP backup sync favorites/albums: Added phone favorites and album sync support (requires latest APP version)
🖱️ Locate in folder: New feature to locate a photo in its containing directory
👤 People page statistics: Show photo count on the people page
🏷️ Album source display: Album list shows the source phone from which it was synced
📦 Backup migration optional: When changing storage path or configuration on a device, optionally migrate old data

Fix Windows drive letter detection: Attempt to resolve the error when retrieving drive letters on Windows
Fix large video upload error: Fix backup failure for large video files from the APP
Fix dot-prefixed file filtering: Auto-filter files starting with . during scan to prevent incorrect photo imports
Fix issue: Fix unstable APP reconnection after PC network changes
Fix hover preview residue: Fix hover preview not disappearing during fast scrolling
A series of other fixes

Face Recognition: Brand-new face recognition feature that intelligently identifies faces in photos
Waterfall Layout: New waterfall layout for photo browsing, delivering a more immersive experience

Download the latest version of Self Photos immediately and enjoy new features and a better user experience