---
title: PhotoStructure user guide
url: https://photostructure.com/getting-started/user-guide/
date: 2022-06-05
keywords: library, settings
---


**Howdy, and welcome to PhotoStructure!**

Here's a “guided path” through some of PhotoStructure's documentation.

_Please don't feel like you have to read through all of this!_

We've tried hard to make PhotoStructure "just work" right out of the box, and
for most of our users, they don't have to read much (or any!) of our
documentation and they get along just swimmingly.

If you're curious about how anything works, or want to configure something to
your needs, know that you probably can, and that these pages were made for you.

## 🤔 Why PhotoStructure?

- [Why **I'm** building PhotoStructure](/about/introducing-photostructure/)

- [Why **you** may want to use PhotoStructure](/faq/why-photostructure)

## 👶 PhotoStructure Basics

- [What’s a PhotoStructure Library?](/faq/library/)

- [PhotoStructure's automatic library organization](/getting-started/automatic-library-organization/)

## 🧭 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](/server/photostructure-for-servers/).

- [What do I need to run PhotoStructure?](https://forum.photostructure.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-run-photostructure/44)

- [How much free disk space do I need?](/getting-started/how-much-disk-space-do-i-need-for-my-photostructure-library/)

- [How are the desktop & server editions of PhotoStructure different?](/server/photostructure-for-servers/#how-are-the-desktop--server-editions-of-photostructure-different)

## ⚙️ Setup and installation

- [Install PhotoStructure](/install/)

- [Install video and `.heic` support](/getting-started/media-codec-support).

- [Where should PhotoStructure look for photos and videos?](/guide/scan-paths/)

## 🚀 Post-installation articles

- [Post-installation #protips](/getting-started/post-install-protips/)

- [How do I prevent a directory from being imported into my library?](/faq/how-to-hide-directories/)

- [Why didn't my file get imported into my Library?](/faq/why-is-my-file-missing/)

- [How do I backup my photos on my phone to my server?](/faq/how-do-i-safely-store-files/#how-do-i-back-up-files-on-my-phone)

- [How do I start and stop PhotoStructure?](/faq/how-to-start-and-stop-photostructure/)

- [How to search your PhotoStructure library](/faq/search/)

- [What are “Library metrics”?](/faq/metrics/)

- [Understanding sync reports](/guide/sync-reports/)

- [How to archive, remove, and delete photos and videos in your PhotoStructure library](/faq/archive-remove-delete/)

- [How to import Google Photos into PhotoStructure](/faq/takeout/)

- [How to zoom in PhotoStructure](/getting-started/zoom/)

- [Add PhotoStructure to your home screen](/getting-started/add-to-home-screen/) (iPhone, iPad, Android, desktop)

## 🖥️ Advanced topics for PhotoStructure for Servers

- [Server hardening](https://forum.photostructure.com/t/server-hardening-101/1027)

- [Temperature monitoring on Linux](/server/temperature-monitoring/)

- [Command-line tooling, including log monitoring, library and file diagnostics, and more](/server/tools/)

- [Raspberry Pi support](/server/photostructure-for-rpi/)

## 🗄️ Advanced metadata topics

- [What's a hierarchical tag?](/faq/whats-a-hierarchical-tag/)

- [How does PhotoStructure extract keywords from my photos and videos?](/faq/keywords/)

- [How does PhotoStructure capture captured-at?](/faq/captured-at/)

- [DAMs, systems of record, and how PhotoStructure plays well with others](/faq/system-of-record/)

## 🪄 Advanced PhotoStructure topics

- [What does PhotoStructure mean by “drive,” or “volume”?](/faq/what-is-a-volume/)

- [PhotoStructure's advanced settings](/getting-started/advanced-settings/)

- [What do you mean by “de-duplicate”?](/faq/what-do-you-mean-by-deduplicate/)

- [What's the difference between “sync” and “rebuild”?](/faq/sync-vs-rebuild/)

- [How do I access my PhotoStructure Library on other computers?](/faq/remote-access/)

- [How to uninstall PhotoStructure](/faq/uninstall/)

## 📦 PhotoStructure versions

- [What's new in the latest version?](/whats-new)

- [Read detailed release notes for every build](/release-notes)

- [Beta vs stable: what should you use?](https://forum.photostructure.com/t/beta-stable-and-latest-what-should-you-use/274)

## 💁 Help!

Feedback? Questions? Feature requests? Found a bug?

- Visit the [PhotoStructure forum](https://forum.photostructure.com), or

- Hop into our [Discord chat](/go/discord)

We'd love to hear from you!

## 🙌 Thanks!

Thank you for taking the time to read through PhotoStructure's user guide!

Use coupon code `RTFM15` to get 15% off your [PhotoStructure PLUS
subscription](/pricing).