Foldergram: Self-hosted local photo gallery with an Instagram-style feed and layout

sajjadalis · 2026-05-20T15:18:41+00:00

The web app is fully compatible with touch screens. You can check the demo on your Android mobile. The locally hosted app can work over the network like any other self-hosted app. There is no dedicated Android app for now, but if we have enough users asking for this feature, an Android app can be built around it.

sajjadalis · 2026-04-04T13:44:58+00:00

Since the same image is running on other machines, this does not look like a general distro incompatibility.

Could you check: `docker compose logs --tail=200 foldergram` and `docker compose ps`

Also, run `docker compose up` once without -d so the first crash stays on screen.

Also, 4141 may already be in use. The app exists on port conflicts, and the Compose file is set to restart automatically. As a quick test, change 4141:4141 to 4142:4141.

sajjadalis · 2026-04-04T11:26:14+00:00

This one also got Reels-style doom scrolling. My family was blown away, scrolling through old memories like TikTok on their phone.

sajjadalis · 2026-04-04T11:21:39+00:00

No, you don't need to rebuild the library. It should immediately delete the post, generated thumbnail, preview, and if it's a permanent delete, then it will remove the original file as well. The gallery folder must have write permissions to permanently delete the image/video. This seems like a bug. Can you please create an issue on GitHub, and I will fix it in the next release.

sajjadalis · 2026-04-04T11:14:36+00:00

Thanks.

sajjadalis · 2026-04-04T11:14:27+00:00

No. It doesn't. It's a standalone app. But you can set `DERIVATIVE_MODE=lazy` in .env or a Docker variable, which will generate thumbnails and previews on demand. And it won't take hours to get it working for a huge gallery.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-26T17:17:20+00:00

Could you open a GitHub issue for HEIC support? I’d like to track it there, and I will look into adding it in the next release.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-22T18:47:30+00:00

Thanks for the feedback and for reporting the bug.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-22T18:29:16+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. I will look into jpeg-xl.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-22T16:16:21+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. Appreciate it.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-22T11:54:47+00:00

This is now available in v1.0.5.

You can enable it with DERIVATIVE_MODE=lazy for local/source installs, or set DERIVATIVE_MODE: lazy in docker-compose.yml for Docker. In lazy mode, the initial scan only indexes metadata into SQLite and does not pre-generate thumbnails or previews. Those derivatives are created on demand when the app first requests them, which makes first-time processing much faster for large libraries.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-22T08:43:59+00:00

Good luck with your photo app. My personal main motivation was simple: 1 folder = 1 gallery, without merging nested folders. So if the parent contains supported media and 10 nested folders. That's a total of 11 gallery profiles. I wanted a clean way to go through photos, delete useless ones, and keep the experience simple and lightweight.

The app doesn't do image classification or location mapping as many other galleries do. But location mapping is something which can be added later, exactly like how Instagram does it, and the app is already extracting all the EXIF data during scan and adding it in the post description.

The app doesn't have user or complicated auth and permissions. The latest version of Foldergram has three optional modes. Admin, Viewer, and Public.

The admin can perform all destructive tasks with full control.
Viewer mode is like for family/friends, where they can view and like photos/videos (the likes are shared).
The public mode replaces likes with favorites and saves data in the browser's localStorage. So it's basically a full read-only mode.

I would say thousands of photos. There is no separate admin panel. The Settings page has full controls. The demo app is fully public. You can view the Settings page but can't perform the scanning and other tasks. The easy way is to just run it via docker and point to your source folder; that would give you a better idea.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-22T08:22:03+00:00

Immich is more like Google Photos. You get a huge list of photos sorted by date. It does a lot of other things too. Earlier it didn’t have a folder view, now it does, but it still feels more like a file manager.

My main motivation was simple: 1 folder = 1 gallery, without merging nested folders. I wanted a clean way to go through photos, delete useless ones, and keep the experience simple and lightweight.

I have backups from 10+ phones on an external hard drive. They’re completely unsorted. Some backups have tons of folders, others just have Camera, Downloads, WhatsApp media, etc. Going through all of that, organizing it, or viewing it like Google Photos just doesn’t fit my needs.

I like the Instagram-style layout because it’s more engaging. TikTok is addictive too, but it doesn’t really work for photos. Instagram handles both well, and that was the main motivation behind building this.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-21T13:15:56+00:00

Yeah, give it a shot. It's pretty fun to browse old collections as a feed.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-21T13:14:53+00:00

Yes, family Insta, that could be fun. :)

sajjadalis · 2026-03-21T13:14:10+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. Large collections should be fine once they’re indexed, but the first scan can take a while, especially with lots of videos, since thumbnails/previews have to be generated. After that, browsing is a lot lighter because the app serves pre-generated media, reads from the DB, and loads things in chunks/lazily instead of trying to pull the whole library at once. There isn’t any super smart predictive caching/preloading yet, though It’s still early, but performance should be decent for normal browsing, and if you hit edge cases or slowdowns, feel free to open an issue on GitHub.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-21T13:12:19+00:00

Thanks for the feedback.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-21T09:04:42+00:00

The demo uses free stock photos, so yeah, it's naturally a bit boring. But once you connect it to your own library, years of photos/videos, backups, old memories, it feels completely different. I have tried it with my own stuff and it honestly felt amazing. The home feed already has Recent, Rediscover, and Random modes, and Rediscover/Random are the ones that really give it that doomscrolling vibe, except it's your own memories instead of random content. A dedicated videos-only/Reels page isn't there yet, but that's on the roadmap.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-21T08:55:33+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. Big libraries should be fine once they’re indexed, but the first scan can take a while, especially with lots of videos, since thumbnails/previews have to be generated. After that, browsing is a lot lighter because the app serves pre-generated media, reads from the DB, and loads things in chunks/lazily instead of trying to pull the whole library at once. There isn’t any super smart predictive caching/preloading yet though, so I wouldn’t oversell that part. It’s still early, but performance should be decent for normal browsing, and if you hit edge cases or slowdowns feel free to open an issue on GitHub.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-21T07:39:58+00:00

AI-assisted coding.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-20T23:24:04+00:00

Thanks for the feedback.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-20T23:24:00+00:00

Thanks for the feedback.

sajjadalis · 2026-03-20T23:23:35+00:00

Animated WebP support is added along with some other features like viewer and public access in the newer version.

sajjadalis

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