Photoview

Photoview is a self-hosted photo gallery that scans folders on your server and presents them in a modern web interface. It focuses on organizing and browsing large personal photo libraries using metadata (EXIF) and folder structure, with features for sharing and multi-user access.

Key Features

• Imports and indexes photos/videos from directories on disk (no manual uploads required)
• Automatic metadata extraction (EXIF) and timeline/date-based browsing
• Face recognition and person pages (optional feature)
• Map/location browsing when GPS metadata is present
• Web-based album browsing, search, and filtering
• Multi-user support with authentication and per-user access control
• Sharing via links for albums/media (for easy external viewing)
• Docker-based deployment with database-backed indexing

Use Cases

• Host a private “Google Photos-like” gallery for a household photo archive
• Browse and search a large DSLR/phone library stored on a NAS by date/people/location
• Create shareable albums for family or events without uploading to third-party clouds

Limitations and Considerations

• Requires an initial indexing/scan step; large libraries may take time to process
• Some advanced capabilities (e.g., face recognition) depend on configuration and compute resources

Photoview is a practical option for turning an existing folder-based photo archive into a searchable, multi-user web gallery. It is best suited for users who want fast browsing and metadata-driven organization while keeping files in place on their own storage.