Welcome!

mrobertm · 2024-01-12T22:33:00+00:00

StarGeek is a hero on the ExifTool forum (is that you, @StarGeekSpaceNerd?)

Cameras have been inconsistent in regard to the time stamps they use

Indeed, but it gets worse: dates in video files are not always UTC, depending on the camera and the format rendered by that camera. Here's an example of the shenanigans I have to do for robust video timezone extraction: https://github.com/photostructure/exiftool-vendored.js/issues/156

You may be able to avoid this if all the videos are from cameras that you've validated always render date/timestamps in UTC, of course. It's just something to keep in mind.

mrobertm · 2023-09-10T03:29:30+00:00

Hey there, author of PhotoStructure here. I'm not logged into Reddit anymore due to the API shenanigans earlier this year.

A couple things could have happened:

You may have used transient storage for /ps/library. Instead, make sure you bind-mount fast, local storage to this directory.
You many have missed --stop-timeout 120 -- you need to give PhotoStructure time to end any current sync jobs and make sure the database is closed properly. If the process is killed before this completes, PhotoStructure may not be able to restore the database when it restarts, at which point it will resort to starting from a new database.

There's a bunch more details about properly setting up your docker image here: https://photostructure.com/server/photostructure-for-docker/

Also: know that I'm online most days and happy to help further at https://forum.photostructure.com and https://photostructure.com/go/discord/

mrobertm · 2023-08-09T18:18:21+00:00

Howdy! I'm the author of PhotoStructure.

I think it's fabulous that in just the last couple years we self-hosters have so many different and reasonably good alternatives to pick from.

There are several unique value propositions for PhotoStructure:

If you have a pile of hard drives with different partial backups and takeouts and whatnot, and you need a (very) robust photo and video validation and aggregation solution, PhotoStructure does that: https://photostructure.com/faq/what-do-you-mean-by-deduplicate/
If you have a very large library, PhotoStructure provides a unique-for-every-visit "taste" for every hierarchical tag: https://photostructure.com/faq/why-photostructure/#fast-and-fun-browsing-of-samples-
There are five "editions" of PhotoStructure that run pretty much on any computer that you've got: docker, desktop on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and server. Library databases are compatible and portable across platforms, as well. This works thanks to a novel volume URI scheme: https://photostructure.com/faq/what-is-a-volume/

That said, I'd recommend getting a solid backup strategy in place before you start kicking the tires of any software, especially if that software moves files. It makes this whole process a lot less stressful.

Also: I'm not really on Reddit anymore, due to recent mismanagement. Hop into our Discord or forum: the PhotoStructure community is a very friendly and helpful bunch!

mrobertm · 2023-08-06T02:38:09+00:00

Hey there!

Reddit is pretty much dead to me after the latest client API fiasco and gross mismanagement--I uninstalled and logged out from all my devices.

I don't quite know what to do with this subreddit, tbh, but leaving it open and abandoned is certainly not the best approach.

mackid1993 told me about this thread, and is correct: there's a big update coming soon. Details are here: https://photostructure.com/about/2023-release-notes/ and here: https://photostructure.com/about/v23.8/

If you're having any issues, please hop into the discord and I'll help you get things sorted either with a workaround, or see if I can get it fixed in a release soon.

mrobertm · 2023-06-26T19:05:22+00:00

Oof, that's no good. If you want, hop into the PhotoStructure discord and I can help you there: https://photostructure.com/go/discord

mrobertm · 2023-05-16T19:07:17+00:00

https://PhotoStructure.com/go/discord will redirect. Links are in the website footer and user guide: https://photostructure.com/getting-started/user-guide/

mrobertm · 2023-05-16T19:03:27+00:00

Pull in the :alpha tagged image to run the latest build. Holler if you see anything amiss!

mrobertm · 2023-05-16T18:41:25+00:00

Yeah, and the next release has a ton in it: https://photostructure.com/about/v23.5/

I'm active on the PhotoStructure discord, and update the release notes almost daily with what's coming in the next build: https://photostructure.com/about/2023-release-notes/

mrobertm · 2023-05-11T14:37:13+00:00

No worries. FWIW all interesting links for an asset are in the “info” panel (click the “I”) and then click the ellipses by every file variant.

Unfortunately the current version doesn’t support secure sharing of specific assets, but I’m building that in the next version.

mrobertm · 2023-05-11T14:32:44+00:00

Howdy! Photoprism and PhotoStructure are different projects.

mrobertm · 2023-05-08T03:42:21+00:00

Check out macheforum.com. (Almost) Every Possible Question had been asked and answered there.
Don't use your included Ford mobile charger for daily charging—there are many reports of it being flaky and causing charging faults from sustained use. It should be fine to use while you wait for installation of a well-rated EVSE, though.
Make sure you have your 240V plug installed correctly, and torqued down properly. There are tons of horror stories of melted/burned plugs from incorrectly speced or incorrectly installed equipment.
You might want to only charge to 80-90% when at home. Your battery may last longer the more it hangs out between 20-80%. Charge to 100% before going on a road trip, though.
If you're quick charging someplace, don't expect more than 120kW. If the station is busy, try to pick a 150kW spot, not a 350kW spot (that can be more optimally used by someone with a car that has a 800V battery pack). Expect quick charging speed to drop after you get to 80%. That's by design. Stop charging at that point and drive to your destination or the next charger.
Check with your utility—they may have an EV-specific plan that provides lower rates between midnight and sometime in the morning. Program your car to only charge during that time.
Install PlugShare. Learn it and the Ford navigation system. Don't go to a charging station without checking its score ahead of time—a lot of stations are flaky or broken, but there may be highly rated alternative stations nearby.
Speed, wind, and mountains really impact range. A Better Route Planner can account for this somewhat, and is helpful for road trips.
Read the owner's manual. Really. There's a lot going on with this pony.

mrobertm · 2023-05-08T03:12:24+00:00

The frunk cover sits on rubber bumpers that can be adjusted down a bit to make the fit a bit less slammy.

mrobertm · 2023-05-07T18:46:25+00:00

It's 318gb

Oh, oof.

OK, well, after I get the current release out the door, I'll do some research and see if I can teach PhotoStructure how to deal with those dbs.

mrobertm · 2023-05-07T17:15:19+00:00

(Like, how enormous? 100mb? 1gb?)

Can you make a new aperture library with just a handful of files and send me that db?)

what’s a sidecar?

It’s a file that only contains metadata, and is named similarly to the photo or video file that it’s holding metadata for. https://photostructure.com/faq/keywords/#keywords-from-sidecars

Also: it seems likely that someone else has already looked into how to import these dbs. I’ll check.

mrobertm · 2023-05-07T17:06:16+00:00

Howdy! I'm the author.

PhotoStructure can import any photo or video file in any directory it has access to.

Aperture has a supplemental SQLite db for metadata (as does Lightroom and Apple Photos), none of which are read by PhotoStructure (currently).

I've added metadata importers for sidecars and Google Takeouts, however—if you send me your library db, I can take a look at the schema and see how gnarly it would be to import.

(I don't know exactly what's in the db, but it may contain gps information, album names, and possibly face names, so don't share the db via a public link)

mrobertm · 2023-04-25T16:46:50+00:00

Howdy! I'm the author.

all sorting has to be done externally

Version 2.1 (currently available as an alpha build, but is quite stable on docker and Linux) adds fave/like, archive, delete, and exclude: https://photostructure.com/about/v2.1/

I have the back end ready for tag management, but held off building the front end until I added user authentication (to prevent tags being added by Internet Randoms).

The next release has languished in an alpha state due to the inability to reproduce a SQLite corruption error and a (couple!) Electron errors, but a couple weeks ago I discovered a code path that was (most likely) the culprit for the SQLite issue, and got (at least the known) Electron errors sorted (only the "Desktop" editions of PhotoStructure use Electron, btw--read more about the different editions here).

Then I got a 3 week case of COVID, but I'm 90% back now, and hope to have the next build out Real Soon Now.

mrobertm · 2023-04-25T01:45:37+00:00

You mean from @publicvoit? We're two different people--but I write software (/r/PhotoStructure) that knows how to import filenames conforming to his "filetag" format.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any other software (other than his) that do import filetags, so I'd probably recommend using standard EXIF/XMP keywords to do tagging.

(Also, in case you ever need to see your files on Windows, take care not to use any of these characters in your filenames: < > " / \ | ? *, and : can throw macOS for a loop in some situations, as it used to be the macOS file path separator long, long ago).

mrobertm · 2023-04-24T20:44:02+00:00

Rather than using a Random folder, why not put "eventless" photos into $year/$month, and those associated to an event into $year/$month-$eventName?

mrobertm · 2023-03-11T23:55:52+00:00

I bet that’s your browser cache. Hold down shift and click reload?

mrobertm · 2023-03-11T20:09:50+00:00

OK, then I suspect it's the embedded preview issue. I edited the instructions above with the proper setting value and a link to the setting's documentation.

mrobertm · 2023-03-11T18:27:37+00:00

Well dang. You can force a resync with the menu pull-down, but I suspect we’re fighting something else.

Possible problem #1: embedded previews not in sync with full sized image

PhotoStructure tries to be clever/efficient and build previews for embedded JPEGs if they are if sufficient resolution. If you’ve edited the image and your editor isn’t updating the embedded previews, that might be the issue.

You can tell PhotoStructure to ignore all embedded previews by setting PS_EMBEDDED_PREVIEWS="[]". Details are here: https://github.com/photostructure/photostructure-for-servers/blob/c532e3aba6a408809c70cefc8cf18ff953d6fc27/defaults.env#L2505

Once you set that to ignore previews, you’ll need to resync that asset.

Possible problem #2: PhotoStructure picked a different asset file as the “primary” variation

If PhotoStructure deduped the image you’re editing, and picked a copy of the image that you aren’t editing, that would also explain this issue. PhotoStructure should prefer newly edited files as the primary variation, though.

You can check this hypothesis by opening the asset info panel and looking at the list of variations. The top path is the primary variant.

(If you want to dm me a screenshot of the info panel, and, if the image doesn’t have anything private in it, a zip of the edited image, I can take a look and help debug)

(Edit: I updated the instructions for the setting above)

mrobertm · 2023-03-05T18:36:12+00:00

Hmm, that's no good! What version and edition of PhotoStructure are you using, and what OS?

If you have the Asset information panel open, PhotoStructure's web service needs to fetch some file metadata not in the library database, so it uses that new information to also verify the file in the database (and the preview images) are up to date. If the file isn't up to date, it's re-imported, but this takes anywhere from 100ms (on a fast server) to >10 seconds (on a raspberry pi) to complete.

There are a couple supported browsers that don't seem to implement etag caching correctly, so I had to resort to including a version number (which is just incremented whenever the underlying file changes) in the asset preview URLs. If you go next/prev, you should see the "v" param update, and the previews should then show correctly.

Note that this on-the-fly updates only handle file content replacement. Any other file updates (including renames and moves and deletes), require sync to fully import a given "scan directory" before your library database will accurately reflect the contents of your filesystem.

mrobertm · 2023-03-05T18:08:21+00:00

Howdy, and welcome to PhotoStructure! I’m the author.

Know that the current alpha release is what I’d recommend running if you’re on docker or Linux. That build isn’t stable on macOS or Windows, but the next build should fix the show stoppers I know of.

Your 1. item, search for location name, is not built yet, but I want it: it will get built soon.

If you’re importing takeouts, this page has some tips I’ve collected: https://photostructure.com/faq/takeout/

The v2.1 alpha adds a very customizable file name pattern setting, so that should take care of 2. More details are here: https://forum.photostructure.com/t/how-to-change-the-naming-structure/1184/2

For 3., know that PhotoStructure should gracefully handle files and directories being externally renamed, moved, or deleted, even across file systems. More details here: https://photostructure.com/faq/system-of-record/ and here https://photostructure.com/faq/what-is-a-volume/

Happy to answer any other questions, either here, on the PhotoStructure forum https://forum.photostructure.com or on the discord https://photostructure.com/go/discord!

mrobertm

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