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Documentation

All of PhotoStructure's documentation

Photo by Tim W

Why should I use PhotoStructure?

PhotoStructure is designed to be a safe, permanent home for all your photos and videos. There are many, many software packages to help manage photos and video libraries. PhotoStructure is uniquely focused on

What is a “PhotoStructure library”?

Your PhotoStructure library contains 📚 your image database, ⚙ library settings, đŸ–Œïž preview images, and đŸŽžïž transcoded videos (if enabled). These files are created when PhotoStructure imports your photos and videos, and enable PhotoStructure’s fast and fun user interface.

Introducing: PhotoStructure!

A long time ago, in a different millennium, a young nerd convinced his beautiful wife to give up her SLR film camera, and switch to digital. Boy, was that a mistake.

Switch your cross-platform CI to GitHub Actions in 5 minutes

If you maintain an open source project that’s hosted on GitHub, and you’re frustrated by one or more of your current continuous integration (CI) providers, good news: GitHub Actions is a free CI service that supports running tests and other tasks on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

How does PhotoStructure capture captured-at?

One of the most important pieces of metadata about a photo or video is when a given image or video was captured. PhotoStructure has advanced heuristics to determine this “Captured-At” time.

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

PhotoStructure is designed to work smoothly as your only photo and video manager, or as a “friendly sidekick” to other applications that you’re already using. This article will discuss why this is an important feature, and how it’s implemented.

How do I safely store my files?

A printed photo in an album can easily last 20+ years without deterioration. Digital files are another story altogether: computers fail, hard drives crash, and CDROMs deteriorate. Reliably and robustly storing digital files used to require an IT staff and rack of expensive hardware.

What's a hierarchical tag?

All of PhotoStructure’s tags are “hierarchical.” This article will try to explain how they work, and why they’re useful. Flat tags Most popular tagging systems, or folksonomies, are “flat.” Twitter’s hashtags are an example of flat tags; there’s no explicit relationship between any two hashtags.

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

When PhotoStructure is importing files, it automatically excludes all hidden files, as well as operating system and application support directories. Additionally, across all platforms, the following rules are also applied:

What are in my logs and error reports?

When PhotoStructure encounters errors, it may automatically send a report to our error system, Sentry. These error help us determine both what resulted in the error, and how to resolve it in the future.

How do I access my PhotoStructure Library on other computers?

PhotoStructure’s UI is web-based, and designed to work well with both mobile and desktop browsers. PhotoStructure’s web service defaults to only being accessible to the computer running PhotoStructure. This prevents other computers on your local area network, or “LAN,” from viewing your library.

Library syncing vs rebuilds

PhotoStructure has several strategies to ensure your library matches your filesystem. đŸ©ł Briefly A “sync” focuses on your filesystem. Sync updates your library with changes made to your filesystem. A “rebuild” focuses on what’s already in your library.

What are “Library metrics”?

Version 0.9.0 added a bunch of metrics about your PhotoStructure library to the about page. This page tries to explain what exactly these numbers represent. Screenshot of PhotoStructure’s about page

Using environment variables with PhotoStructure

You can use environment variables to configure PhotoStructure’s settings. The defaults.env file describes all of PhotoStructure’s settings, and how to change each with an environment variable. This file will also be found in your root app directory (from version 0.

Windows troubleshooting

Computers can be, and frequently are, persnickety. If you’re having problems with PhotoStructure or seeing error messages, you’re in the right place. đŸ©ș Health checks PhotoStructure runs health checks regularly.

RAID is not a backup

Safely storing your most important files requires both using filesystems that can detect bit rot, as well as keeping copies of those files on different devices.

PhotoStructure Tools

By installing PhotoStructure for Node or PhotoStructure for Docker you’ll get access to a number of tools that can help answer a number of questions about your PhotoStructure library. Some level of proficiency with the terminal is required to use these tools.

What do you mean by “de-duplicate”?

Browsing with PhotoStructure is designed to be fun and fast. If you’ve got a bunch of files that are of the same photo or video, and you have to click “next” several times to see something different, it’s irritating and decidedly not-fun.

What's a “drive,” or “volume?”

When you set up your library, you’ll see this option: PhotoStructure uses the words “disk,” “drive,” and “volume” to mean any storage device available to your computer. This includes:

Automatic library organization

If your photos and videos are disorganized, PhotoStructure can bring some order to your chaos. If you’d like all your photos and videos to be organized into one, tidy place, choose “Yes” on PhotoStructure’s settings page:

How to restore your library from a database backup

If your PhotoStructure library isn’t opening due to database corruption, you can restore your library’s database to a previous version. Although your library’s database is very robust, an incomplete backup or incomplete shutdown may lead to this situation.

Advanced Settings

PhotoStructure’s settings page is simple and only offers a handful of configuration options. There are many configurable settings within PhotoStructure, though, including: how “nice” PhotoStructure is with your system’s CPU: should it auto-pause imports if CPU exceeds 75% (which is the default), or is it running on a server, and can use 100% of the CPU?

Why is PhotoStructure rebuilding my library?

When you upgrade to a new version of PhotoStructure, you may see this progress bar: What’s going on here? New versions of PhotoStructure frequently introduce new features. Some of these features may require revisiting the photos and videos in your library.

What keyboard shortcuts does PhotoStructure have?

If you’re on a desktop or laptop, knowing a couple keyboard shortcuts will help you get around your library faster. Hover over any button to see a description, and if there is a keyboard shortcut, it will be in the tooltip as well.

How does PhotoStructure extract keywords from my photos and videos?

PhotoStructure uses a bunch of methods to pull out keywords from your photos and videos. Keywords from metadata PhotoStructure extracts keywords from the following metadata tags: CatalogSets Categories (this is typically XML-encoded) HierarchicalSubject Keywords LastKeywordXMP Subject TagsList XPKeywords (these are keywords added by the Windows Explorer) PhotoStructure looks for metadata in .

Why didn't my file get imported into my Library?

PhotoStructure has a number of filters that all must pass for a photo or video to be added to your library. Directory filters PhotoStructure doesn’t import any files from system directories, hidden directories, or NoMedia directories.

Post-installation #protips

So, you’ve got PhotoStructure installed, and it looks like it’s importing every photo and video you’ve got. What should you know now? Tip #1: Initial PhotoStructure imports Importing thousands of photos and videos is a workout for your computer.

Video support with PhotoStructure

If you have videos, you need to install VLC or FFmpeg. -- PhotoStructure requires additional software to be installed to support videos in your library. Why? PhotoStructure uses open source video processing software to extract preview images and transcode the videos in your library so they can be streamed to browsers on your mobile and computer.

How to zoom in PhotoStructure

PhotoStructure has a several ways to view your photos at different magnification levels. PhotoStructure’s new loupe slider (added in v0.8.0). Zoom Select a zoom level directly by clicking the loupe slider in the header.

How do I change my library?

PhotoStructure is designed for million-asset libraries, so you shouldn’t need to switch between libraries in most cases. If you want to have a couple separate libraries, though, you certainly can.

How do I fix Windows to support worldwide languages?

Your copy of Windows 10 may be configured to only support Latin-character filenames. This may prevent programs (like PhotoStructure) from accessing your files. To enable UTF-8 on Windows 10, follow these steps:

How to uninstall PhotoStructure

Uninstalling PhotoStructure is easy: just follow the steps specific for your edition. If you have a moment… We’re sorry to see you go! If you have time to send us a chat message or short email saying why PhotoStructure didn’t work out for you, that’d be wonderful.

Where should I install PhotoStructure?

You’ll want to install PhotoStructure for Desktops on a computer that you can leave powered on for a while, at least during the initial import. Ideally, you’ll install PhotoStructure on a computer that you can leave on all the time, so you can have access to your library whenever you want from wherever you are.

PhotoStructure Installation

đŸŽ„ Do you have videos? Please follow these steps. It’ll only take a minute. 📖 See also: Where should I install PhotoStructure? How much free disk space do I need?

What metadata is inside your photos?

Every time you take a digital photo or video, your camera or smartphone records a bunch of information about the image that you just captured. Information about something is called “metadata.

Why doesn't PhotoStructure move original files?

PhotoStructure is designed to be a very safe home for the images of your life. You should consider older hard drives, especially more than 5 years old, as fragile parchment that must be handled with care.

How much disk space do I need?

Your library’s disk space is proportional to the number of photos and videos you have in your library, and whether or not you choose to have PhotoStructure organize your photos and videos by copying them into your library.

How do I start and stop PhotoStructure?

When you close the main PhotoStructure window, PhotoStructure continues to run in the background, which may include synchronizing your library’s photos and videos. Shut down PhotoStructure by clicking the ☰ navigation menu in the upper-left corner of your PhotoStructure window, and selecting “Shutdown.
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