📚 Stacks & File Variants

LibrePhotos can automatically detect and group related photos together. There are two distinct concepts: file variants (same capture in different formats) and stacks (different captures grouped together).

File Variants

File variants represent the same moment captured in different file formats. Instead of showing duplicate entries in your timeline, LibrePhotos treats them as a single photo with multiple files attached.

RAW+JPEG Pairs

When you shoot in RAW+JPEG mode, your camera creates two files for each shot (e.g. IMG_001.CR2 and IMG_001.jpg). LibrePhotos groups these automatically during scanning — you'll see one photo in your timeline with a RAW badge overlay indicating that a RAW variant is available.

This happens whenever both files are in the same folder and have the same name, like IMG_001.CR2 and IMG_001.jpg, and there is no setting for it: both files stay in your library, as one photo with a RAW variant. A RAW in another folder, for example on a second memory card, becomes a photo of its own. The Stack RAW+JPEG pairs switch that 1.2.1 and older showed on the Library page and in first-time setup did nothing, and is gone since 1.3.0.

Live Photos

Live Photos (common on iPhones) consist of a still image and a short video clip. LibrePhotos detects these and groups the image and video as file variants of a single photo.

How Scanning Groups Variants

LibrePhotos uses a two-phase scan to group file variants:

1. Phase 1 — Grouping: Before processing, all image and video files are grouped by their directory and base filename. For example, IMG_001.jpg and IMG_001.CR2 in the same folder become one group. XMP sidecars are set aside at this stage.

2. Phase 2 — Processing: Each group is processed together, creating one Photo entity with all files attached as variants. The main display file is chosen automatically by priority: JPEG → Video → RAW. Once all image groups have finished, any XMP sidecars are processed and attached to the photo they belong to.

Metadata is read from the main file and from the XMP sidecars of every variant. A sidecar named after the RAW file (IMG_001.CR2.xmp, as darktable and other RAW editors write it) counts as well, so a rating, keywords, a description or face regions set in the RAW editor reach the photo. When both exist, a sidecar named after the main file (IMG_001.xmp or IMG_001.jpg.xmp) wins over the RAW's. Not released yet: before this, only sidecars named after the main file were read; a Rescan from the Library page picks up the others.

After each scan, a Repair File Variants job runs automatically. It looks for RAW files that ended up as their own photo and merges them into the matching image photo (same folder, same base name — JPEG, HEIC, PNG or TIFF), and corrects the main display file when a RAW file is still marked as the main one. Live Photo videos that were already scanned as separate photos are not merged by this job.

Viewing File Variants

When viewing a photo that has file variants:

• A RAW badge appears on the thumbnail in the photo grid
• In the lightbox sidebar, next to the filename (beside the dimensions and file size), a photo with extra formats shows a +N format(s) link. Expanding it lists the non-primary variants, each with a format badge (JPG, RAW, VIDEO, META, or FILE).
• When you download photos as a zip, all file variants of each photo are included automatically. Not released yet (comes after 1.3.0) So are their XMP sidecars, see Sidecars in a download.

Stacks

Stacks group different but related captures together. Unlike file variants (same shot, different format), stacks contain separate photos that belong together logically.

note

Once photos are stacked, only the stack's cover photo appears in your timeline — the other photos stay in your library but are collapsed behind the stack. Open the stack to reach them, use Set Cover to change which one is shown, or Unstack to bring them all back.

Stack Types

Type	Description	Detection
Burst	A rapid sequence of photos taken in burst mode	Automatic (rule-based: EXIF burst/sequence tags and filename patterns by default)
Bracket	Exposure brackets for HDR	Reserved — not currently created; there is no bracket detection, and Create Stack always makes a Manual stack
Manual	Any photos you want to group together	Manual

Automatic Stack Detection

Burst detection runs a list of rules stored per user. Enabled by default (hard criteria):

• EXIF Burst Mode Tag — camera burst / continuous-drive flags
• EXIF Sequence Number — sequence metadata written by the camera
• Filename Burst Pattern — file names that say "burst": Google and other Android cameras (IMG_20151009_143426_BURST1), Pixel (00001IMG_00001_BURST20200302155220435) and Samsung (20200115_123456_001, the cover ..._COVER). Frames with the same burst name in one folder are one stack

The two EXIF rules build one burst from consecutive frames of the same camera (model, and serial number when the photo has one; a frame scanned before LibrePhotos read serial numbers has none and still joins the other frames of its model when they all come from one body) taken at most 2 seconds apart, using the sub-second capture time (SubSecTimeOriginal). A burst that crosses a second boundary stays one stack, two cameras shooting at the same moment get one stack each, and a sequence number that starts again begins a new burst. A frame whose sequence number says "single shot" (0) is not a burst frame. Frames are ordered by capture time, and the stack's cover is the middle frame.

Not released yet: before this, these rules grouped frames by the whole second, and a Canon photo shot in continuous drive mode made Detect Stacks fail. Run Detect Stacks again to regroup existing bursts.

A camera's file counter (IMG_0001, DSC_0815) or a download copy (photo (1)) does not make a burst by default: every camera numbers its files. A filename rule set to a counter pattern (sequence_suffix, bracketed_sequence, iphone_burst) or to a custom pattern still matches them, but then its frames also have to come from the same camera, count up by one and follow each other within the rule's interval (2 seconds by default).

Not released yet: before this, the default filename rule took every IMG_xxxx file of a folder for one burst. Run Detect Stacks again to regroup existing bursts.

Available but disabled by default (soft criteria — these estimate, and can group unrelated photos):

• Timestamp Proximity — photos taken within a configurable interval of each other (2 seconds by default, measured to the sub-second) on the same camera
• Visual Similarity — perceptual-hash comparison of consecutive photos

Open Settings and use the Burst Detection Rules panel to enable, disable, reorder, add or remove these rules (including extra presets such as a looser 5-second timestamp rule or a custom filename pattern). Changes apply the next time you run Detect Stacks.

You can trigger stack detection from the Organizing → Stacks page by clicking "Detect Stacks" and choosing which types to detect.

The Organizing Page

The Organizing page (accessible from the navigation) is your central hub for managing stacks and duplicates. It has two tabs:

Stacks Tab

• Browse all detected stacks
• Filter by stack type — the dropdown offers All Types plus each type you actually have stacks of
• Click a stack to open the Stack Modal showing all photos in the group with details (resolution, file size, camera, date)
• Set Cover — Choose which photo represents the stack in the timeline
• Unstack — Remove the grouping. It asks first: the photos stay in your library, a burst or bracket stack comes back with the next detection, but a manual stack has to be built again by hand
• View in Lightbox — Browse stack photos in the full lightbox viewer

Creating Manual Stacks

1. Select multiple photos from any view
2. Open the selection actions menu (three-dot menu)
3. Click "Create Stack"
4. The selected photos are grouped into a manual stack, and only the cover photo remains visible in your timeline

Managing Stacks

From the selection actions menu, you can also:

• Merge Stacks — Combine multiple stacks into one
• Break Apart Stacks — Remove the selected photos from every manual stack they belong to (a stack is deleted automatically if fewer than 2 photos remain)

Stacks in the Lightbox

When viewing a photo that belongs to a stack:

• The Stacks section in the sidebar shows thumbnail previews of other photos in the stack
• Click any thumbnail to switch to that photo
• Click "View full stack" to open the Stack Modal
• If a photo is in multiple stacks, they are shown in an accordion grouped by type