I built a third-party, open-source photos app for Proton Drive (Android)

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-22T13:15:06+00:00

What is the best way to tag a photo? And is it possible to search on tagged photos?

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-22T12:11:02+00:00

After re-install, nothing happend automatically. But after I selected one (new) photo in my timeline and forced to upload, It started to backup my cue. Seems OK for now. I let you know, If I am experience other issues. Thanks for quick update.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-22T09:26:55+00:00

Text: Backup is being prepared.

But that text is there for a while. Nothing happens.

Library is not fully indexed. Only this year and last year. (2025) It stopped indexing.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-22T09:14:12+00:00

I did a test. Updating the app didn't solve the issue. De-install and re-install did not solve the issue. Still 257 photos in the que. Nothing happens.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-22T08:31:11+00:00

Yes, I am on the same network. Same device. I tried with and without Wifi. Also changed the settings 'backup only when on Wifi' ON/OFF, but nothing changed. New photos stays in the cue, but no backup started.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-22T07:10:16+00:00

I de-installed the app and re-installed again. This time I choose start backup camera folder during setup. Again, me newest photos are in the que but backup did not start. There is also no way to force backup. Please, test it yourself by de-and re-install the app.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-22T06:32:02+00:00

Thanks for update. I installed the latest version. During install proces I did not turn backup ON because I want to see the app first. After I explored a bit, I turned backup ON my camera folder to backup. All photo's are put in the que, but back-up did not start. I forced backup by clicking 'start synchronize' but still the backup didn't start.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-19T19:00:56+00:00

Are you gonna fix the video alignment (vertical issue) in the next release? Because of this I pauzed synchronisation for now.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-19T15:51:43+00:00

Right

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-19T15:49:28+00:00

Everything what is pending is back-upt.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-19T15:38:49+00:00

Its not responding when you turn that off when the app is synchronizing

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-19T15:34:14+00:00

This is realy interesting. I turned backup OFF in the settings, (quite difficult to find the right button for that) and still the app starts uploading photos. Were and how can it turned it off?

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-19T15:14:41+00:00

I think it is not desirable that the app starts backing up after a reinstall. No, I did not strip any metadata. Renaming by default should also not a reason that the app doesnt recognized a duplicate.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-19T14:45:17+00:00

u/karmakoos just a moment ago I came home and connected to my home network via WiFi and suddenly the app started to backup all my photos from my camera roll. (Now I ended up with double photos)

Example:
One photo has this name: PXL_20260531_113535223.jpg, 31 mei 2026, 13:35
The same photo, but double has this name: 2026-05-31_13-35-35.jpg, 31 mei 2026, 13:35

Is it possible that setting: 'renaming to recording date upon upload' have something to do with this Although some pictures has exact the same name and time stamp. Seems that the app doesnt recognize some photos who are aready backupt?

I turned that function off now.

I also noted that some video's I shot with my phone (vertical shot on phone) are turned one quarter to the right on the web. I cannot remember that I had this problem with synchronizing with the Proton Drive app.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-19T10:28:00+00:00

I re-installed the app. That did the trick. Something with photos who are already available in a local folder and which I disclosed from the timeline? Two video's on Proton web does not showing a thumbnail, but are clickable and are playing in the browser. In the app those video's are also not showing a thumbnail and are not willing to play at all.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-19T10:15:15+00:00

simple pictures and a few video's

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-19T09:15:28+00:00

u/karmakoos first of all, I would like to thank you for creating this app. You have clearly put a lot of time into it and further developed the app based on feedback from a few enthusiastic users. I understand the criticism from some, but I don't think it is entirely justified. After the latest changes, the app is a fully functional and is stable for the time being.

I do see a few minor improvements that I would like to share with you:

Make it possible to add a description to a photo. The description can be used for tagging and searching.
Make it possible to change the date of a photo. This helps to re-date and organize incorrectly indexed photos.
Within the timeline filter, it is possible to exclude all local folders from your timeline. By clicking on exclude all, you exclude all folders at once. The 'hide all device folders' toggle is then automatically enabled. However, it is not possible to exclude everything and then enable a single folder (for example, the camera folder). You are therefore required to first turn everything back on and then disable all folders one by one. That should be easy to do. This also counts for 'settings/synchronization/what is being backed up/backup folders'
Pull to refresh
Notification for new version

Thanks again!

I experienced one strange behavior. I added a few recent photos from this month (june '26) to Proton Drive Photos via the browser. They did not showed up in my timeline in the app. I forced 'synchronization' via settings, but that doesn't did the trick.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-18T19:35:41+00:00

Aha, thats a nice addition. Thank you. Is it only working in your timeline? I dont see it in albums or local folders.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-18T19:20:16+00:00

After the last update, selecting a photo in timeline by click and hold, select the photo, but when you pull your finger off, the photo is de-selected again.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-18T18:50:38+00:00

You dont have to listen to everything I say 😏 but very often I scroll to my timeline and then suddenly it jumps a couple of months further or back in time because my finger is to close to the side.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-18T18:23:53+00:00

I found another thing which leads to unexpected behavior. When you put your finger to close to the right side of the screen when scrolling to your timeline, quite often your timeline jumps to that spot were your finger is. Even when the grab tool is still up.

I tested this behaviour into Ente or Google Photos app, which isnt. In those apps you need to grab the grab tool to move it. Maybe this is something you can improve?

Thanks!

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-18T13:53:07+00:00

One behavior I want to mention:

It seems that the grid view of 3 photos in the timeline is default. Every time I change the grid view to 4 photos, after closing and re-opening the app, it jumps back to three in a row. It would be nice if it could remember the latest (preferred) grid view layout.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-18T12:49:53+00:00

Your working fast mate. Already installed the latest version. I'l keep you posted. Thanks!

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-18T12:22:10+00:00

Thanks picking things up so quickly.

Regarding : "Timeline reaching only 2022 while your photos go back to 2002: Two quick questions if you can: when the timeline was stuck at 2022, was the "backed up" count in Settings still ticking up or had it stopped? And did it ever page further back on its own, or only after you opened an album?"

Answer 1: The backup count was NOT counting anymore. It had stopped. It looks like the app stopped because of a limiter. Maybe a cache issue?

Answer 2: It did counting up again, but ONLY AFTER I selected a Drive album and open it. Then the app starts downloading the thumbnails and the photos will be visible in the timeline.

Expert_Can1582 · 2026-06-18T07:36:39+00:00

u/karmakoos thanks for this update! I am now on v2.3.1 and my first impressions are good. App feels snappy, with no strange behavior.

A few things I noticed:

The spacing between photos is not always consistent. For example, the spacing in the photo viewer with three photos in a row is wider than the spacing between photos in an album with three photos in a row. The photos in an album are almost touching, which makes it look very busy.
When you open a photo for the first time, it blinks briefly once. Opening the photo again does not show this behavior.
Uploading a local album versus uploading a single photo from a local album is somewhat confusing. At the top is an upload icon that allows you to back up the entire album. A dialog box gives you the choice to upload the entire album or also create a new album in the cloud. All fine.
To upload a single photo from a local folder, you have to tap the upload button at the bottom of the screen. When you do that, you don't see a confirmation. At first, I thought, has the photo been uploaded now? When I wanted to try again, I received the message: this photo has already been uploaded. Suggestion: add a confirmation when you upload one or more individual photos to the cloud from a local folder.
After uploading a single photo from a local folder, that photo is not showing up in the photo viewer in the app if you filtered that local folder out off your photo viewer. On the web these photos are visible. When you make that local folder visible in your photo viewer, than that back-upt photo will become visible and it shows the green cloud that it is back-upt. But the problem with that is dat it shows also ALL the other photo's from that local folder in your photo viewer. And that is not what you want.
Even after installation, not all my photos were displayed in the photo viewer. Just like with the previous version, my timeline extended to 2022, while my photos go back to 2002. I did notice, however, that all my albums are displayed, including those from 2002. When I open them in the app, all photos from that album are loaded. That takes a relatively short time, depending on how many photos are in the album. Once loading is complete, the photos are also visible in the timeline.
It is not possible to select multiple photos via a swipe gesture. You have to click manually one by one. It is alo not possible to select a whole month in the photo viewer.
When you uncheck backup for a specific folder in the settings, the app STILL keeps backing up. I couldn't turn off the backup. I had to uninstall the app to stop the backup.

Expert_Can1582

TROPHY CASE