PhotoStructure User Guide

Howdy, and welcome to PhotoStructure!

This article provides a “guided path” of documentation for users just getting started with PhotoStructure.

Introduction: 🤔 Why PhotoStructure? #

• Why I’m building PhotoStructure

• Why you may want to use PhotoStructure

Chapter 1: 👶 PhotoStructure Basics #

• What’s a PhotoStructure Library?

• PhotoStructure’s automatic library organization

Chapter 2: 🧭 Where do I put PhotoStructure? #

PhotoStructure is “self-hosted,” which means it only runs on your computer.

It runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux desktops, as well as servers.

• What do I need to run PhotoStructure?

• How much free disk space do I need?

Chapter 3: ⚙️ Setup and installation #

For desktops:

• Install PhotoStructure for Desktops

For servers:

• Install PhotoStructure for Servers

Chapter 4: 🚀 Post-installation articles #

• Post-installation #protips

• How do I prevent a directory from being imported into my library?

• Why didn’t my file get imported into my Library?

• How do I backup my photos on my phone to my server?

• How do I start and stop PhotoStructure?

• How to search your PhotoStructure library

• What are “Library metrics”?

• How to archive, remove, and delete photos and videos in your PhotoStructure library

• How to import Google Photos into PhotoStructure

• How to zoom in PhotoStructure

Chapter 5: 🤖 Advanced topics for PhotoStructure for Servers #

• Server hardening

• Command-line tooling, including log monitoring, library and file diagnostics, and more

• Raspberry Pi support

Chapter 6: 🗄️ Advanced metadata topics #

• What’s a hierarchical tag?

• How does PhotoStructure extract keywords from my photos and videos?

• How does PhotoStructure capture captured-at?

• DAMs, systems of record, and how PhotoStructure plays well with others

Chapter 7: 🥼 Advanced PhotoStructure topics #

• PhotoStructure’s advanced settings

• What do you mean by “deduplicate”?

• Library syncing vs rebuilds

• How do I access my PhotoStructure Library on other computers?

• Alpha, beta, stable, and latest; What should you use?

• How to uninstall PhotoStructure

Chapter 8: 💁 Help! #

Questions? Feature requests? Found a bug?

• Visit the PhotoStructure forum, or

• Hop into our Discord chat

• Getting Started
• FAQ
• Docs

Hi! I’m Matthew, the author of PhotoStructure. I’m a dad, amateur photographer, and author of open source, adtech, fintech, and edtech software since the turn of the millennium. He/him. I am building a self-hosted, safe, and fast new home for all your photos and videos.
Your memories deserve PhotoStructure. Try it out for free!