README.md

July 7, 2025 · View on GitHub

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What is it?

Desktop app to view your photos like you do in Google Photos or Apple Photos (e.g. Calendar, list, map, etc..) but locally and respecting metadata open standards (not creating a separate database to store that information*).

Sorting your files this way ensures you always own them, and can store them wathever you want: any cloud provider, a USB Drive or just your computer. They are just files!

of-screenshot Screenshot 2024-01-25 at 08 33-PhotoRoom

The OneFolder Manifesto

Your files, your folder, forever.

  1. File-Over-App
    Your pictures live as ordinary image files—no proprietary library, no lock-in.

  2. One Source of Truth
    Every photo you care about sits in a single folder you control. Back it up or sync it anywhere; the structure stays intact.

  3. Open Standards First
    We read and write well-known metadata (EXIF / XMP) instead of inventing new formats. Any modern viewer can understand your photos today—and in 20 years.

  4. No Silent Overwrites
    Edits never overwrite originals without your say-so. Your folder remains a reliable archive, not a guessing game.

  5. Future-Proof Freedom
    Because the rules live in the files, you can switch tools, change clouds, or hand the folder to your grand-kids—and everything still works.

Features

  • Watch folders (it does not copy them in a separate place, it watches and updates the folder in question)
  • List and Grid View
  • Edit metadata

Comming soon:

  • Map View
  • Calendar View
  • Detect duplicates
  • HEIC

Do you want to help?

There is many ways people can help:

  • Test new features
  • feedback and suggestion on design
  • Copy Writting and bloggin
  • Detect new communities for growth
  • Coding

If you are interested here is a form so we can reach out: https://forms.gle/TpU1NxBQSreadki18

Documentation

Stack

This project is a fork from Allusion.

Quick Start

You need to have NodeJS and a package manager such as Yarn installed. Then run the following commands to get started:

  1. Run yarn install to install or update all necessary dependencies.
  2. Run yarn dev to build the project files to the /build directory. This will keep running to immediately build changed files when they are updated.
  3. In a second terminal, run yarn start to start the application. Refresh the window (Ctrl/Cmd + R) after modifying a file to load the updated build files.

Release Build

An installable executable can be built using yarn package for your platform in the /dist folder. The building is performed using the electron-builder package, and is configured by a section in the package.json file. Builds are automatically published to Github Releases when a tag is created in GitHub.

Star History

Star History Chart

Releasing

When you want to create a new release, follow these steps:

  1. Update the version in your project's package.json file (e.g. 1.2.3)
  2. Add git add .
  3. Commit that change (git commit -am v1.2.3)
  4. Tag your commit (git tag v1.2.3). Make sure your tag name's format is v*.*.*. Your workflow will use this tag to detect when to create a release
  5. Push your changes to GitHub (git push && git push --tags)

note: the release name of the release has to start with the version number and a hyphen (e.g. 1.0.19 - ...) if not the auto downloader won't pick it up

After building successfully, the action will publish your release artifacts. By default, a new release draft will be created on GitHub with download links for your app. If you want to change this behavior, have a look at the electron-builder docs.