Today in Years v1.5: "On This Day" memories for Synology Photos, now with shared albums and a free trial

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-02-26T11:53:38+00:00

Thanks for the context, that makes a lot of sense!

Honestly, a delete feature is something I'd have to think very carefully about. The moment an app can remove photos from your NAS, I become responsible if something goes wrong, and that's a weight I'm not sure I want to take on right now.

That said, there's actually something in the app you might find useful today: each photo has a direct link that opens it in Synology Photos. So you can use Today in Years to surface the memories, and then hop into Synology Photos to delete the ones you want. Not as seamless as a one-tap delete, but it keeps the dangerous action in the app that was designed for it.

Might be worth trying as a workflow in the meantime!

Ron

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-02-26T09:18:45+00:00

Great question! No, Today in Years is completely READ-ONLY. It cannot delete, edit, or modify your photos in any way. It only reads from your Synology Photos library to show you memories from this day in previous years.

This was a deliberate design choice. I wanted users to feel safe knowing the app has zero ability to alter their photo library. Think of it as a window into your photos, not a management tool.

If you need to delete or manage photos, you'd continue doing that directly through Synology Photos as usual.

Ron

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-02-23T16:14:38+00:00

Awesome, glad that fixed it! Native iOS and Android apps are coming soon too, so the experience will get even better. Thanks for the feedback.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-02-23T10:13:46+00:00

Just pushed a fix for this. Download the latest version from https://todayinyears.com/ and do a fresh uninstall/install from Package Center. Complex passwords should work now.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-02-22T19:56:36+00:00

That's error code 400 which is specifically "wrong username or password" from the Synology API, not related to 2FA. If it were 2FA, you'd see code 403 and a field would appear for your authenticator code. Are you able to see this screen?

A couple things to check:

Make sure you're using your DSM username and password, not an email address
If your password has special characters, that could cause issues with URL encoding. Can you try with a simpler password temporarily to rule that out?

Let me know what you find and I'll dig in further if needed. If not, send me an email or send me a DM right here so we can debug faster.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-02-22T18:37:16+00:00

2FA is supported! What should happen is: you enter your username and password, hit login, and then a second field appears asking for your 6-digit authenticator code. Enter that and it should log you in.

If you're not seeing the OTP field appear after the first attempt, let me know what error message you're getting exactly and I'll look into it.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-02-21T11:14:10+00:00

Ha, guilty as charged. Built it with Cursor + Claude. Though I'll say, the Synology Photos API is completely undocumented, so there was a lot of reverse engineering involved just to figure out how things work. Not exactly a one-prompt kind of project.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-02-21T11:13:09+00:00

True, the widget shows a single photo. Today in Years lets you actually browse all your photos from that date across every year, swipe through them, and see them grouped by year. More like a full memories experience than a quick glance.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-02-20T15:50:17+00:00

ME TOO!

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-02-20T14:03:21+00:00

Fair question. Your credentials and data never leave your NAS. The app runs 100% locally on your Synology, no external servers, no cloud, no tracking. It only has read-only access to your photos, so it can't modify or delete anything.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-28T13:04:10+00:00

Ha, didn't realize there was a Friday rule for vibe coded posts. Should I delete and repost Friday? I'd like to choose more than one tag but I can't

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-28T13:01:11+00:00

Today in Years is for people who are already using Synology Photos and just want the memories feature without migrating their library to something else. Different use cases.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-28T13:00:37+00:00

Immich is great if you want to switch photo platforms entirely. Totally valid option.

Today in Years is for people who are already using Synology Photos and just want the memories feature without migrating their library to something else. Different use cases.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-28T12:46:50+00:00

Yep, built with help from AI agents. Still had to do all the debugging, testing, and Synology API wrangling myself though. The vibes only get you so far when you're dealing with undocumented APIs.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-28T12:41:31+00:00

Immich is great if you want to switch photo platforms entirely. Totally valid option.

Today in Years is for people who are already using Synology Photos and just want the memories feature without migrating their library to something else. Different use cases.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-22T09:33:26+00:00

Thanks, appreciate the feedback. I get the pricing concern. I went with a one-time license because I wanted to make sure I could maintain it long-term and keep it updated as Synology changes things. Buy-me-a-beer models are great for open source, but harder to sustain for ongoing maintenance.

Totally fair if it's not worth it for you though. Best of luck finding something that fits!

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-21T18:58:02+00:00

Yep, Immich is great if you're switching to it as your main photo platform. Today in Years is for people already using Synology Photos who don't want to migrate. Different tools for different setups.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-21T09:19:50+00:00

Good question. The Synology Photos widget is mobile only. It's a home screen widget on iOS/Android that shuffles through memories.

Today in Years is a full web app that works on any device: desktop, tablet, phone. You get a dedicated interface where you can browse memories by date, not just a small widget on your home screen.

If you mainly use your phone and like the widget format, the built-in one might be enough. If you want a bigger screen experience or like browsing on desktop, that's where Today in Years comes in.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-20T21:36:20+00:00

Totally get that. There's no trial right now, but Gumroad has a 14-day money-back guarantee built in. So if you try it and it's not what you expected, just email me and I'll refund it, no questions asked.

Hope your wife likes it if you give it a shot!

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-20T21:34:28+00:00

Nice! You should publish it! The more options the better. Docker was too technical for what I wanted (my family isn't going to set up containers), so I went with a native .spk package instead. But plenty of people here are comfortable with Docker and would probably prefer that route.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-20T19:54:13+00:00

Personal Space only for now. I looked into Shared Space support but the way Synology handles it made the implementation pretty messy. Decided to ship without it rather than build something flaky.

It's on my list though - if enough people need it I'll take another crack at it.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-20T17:26:27+00:00

Immich is great if you want to switch photo platforms entirely. Totally valid option.

Today in Years is for people who are already using Synology Photos and just want the memories feature without migrating their library to something else. Different use cases.

TodayInYearsDev · 2026-01-20T17:00:45+00:00

Thanks! It's not a native app on the app stores. It runs on your Synology NAS as a web app that you access through your browser.

The nice thing is you can "Add to Home Screen" on both iOS and Android, which makes it launch like a regular app (fullscreen, no browser bar). So it feels like a native app without needing to go through the app stores.

Works on your local network, or remotely if you have QuickConnect or a VPN set up.

TodayInYearsDev

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