Skip to main content

๐Ÿ–ผ๏ธ Viewing Photos

Photo Viewsโ€‹

LibrePhotos provides several ways to browse your photo library. You can switch between views using the navigation menu or the header dropdown on the main timeline.

Timeline (Home)โ€‹

The default view showing all your photos grouped by date, from newest to oldest. A scroll scrubber on the right edge lets you quickly jump to any date โ€” click or drag it to navigate through large libraries.

Filtering the timelineโ€‹

New in 1.3.0

The Filter button next to the display options narrows what the timeline shows:

  • Media type: all, photos only, or videos only.
  • Hide from timeline: leave out Screenshots and/or Documents (see Fixing a wrong category).
  • Show only: Favorites.

While a filter is active the button is highlighted with the number of active filters, and the header says what is filtered. The filter lives in the page address, so it survives a reload and can be bookmarked.

Save as default makes the current filter what the timeline shows every time you open it, for example to keep screenshots out for good. Reset to default goes back to your saved default. A saved default applies to the main timeline only: Favorites, Screenshots, Videos, Hidden, Trash, albums, folders, search, people, places and public pages are never filtered by it.

Selecting all photos on a filtered timeline selects only what it shows, so Select all followed by Move to trash never reaches the screenshots or documents the filter hides.

Favoritesโ€‹

Photos you've marked as favorites. To favorite a photo, click the star icon in the lightbox toolbar (or press f), or use the selection actions menu. The star turns yellow once the photo's rating reaches the Minimum image rating to interpret as favorite value in your user settings.

Removing a favorite sets the photo's rating to 0, which also clears a star rating it had (for example a 5-star rating imported from Lightroom or digiKam). If you rate with stars, switch to stars mode instead.

Rating photos with starsโ€‹

Not released yet. Set Rating style to Stars in Settings to rate photos from 1 to 5 stars instead of marking favorites:

  • In the photo viewer, five stars replace the favorite star in the toolbar, and on the photo page a Rating tile replaces Favorite. Click a star to set the rating, click the current rating again to clear it, or press 1 to 5 (0 clears it). On a photo someone shared with you, the stars show the owner's rating and cannot be changed.
  • In the grid, a rated photo shows its rating, such as 4 โ˜…, in the top-right corner. Unrated photos show nothing.
  • To rate several photos, select them and choose Set rating from the selection actions menu. Set rating is not available after Select all: select the photos one by one instead.

The rating is the same 0-5 rating that is read from and written to the file's metadata, so it matches what the mobile app and other photo tools show. Photos at or above Minimum image rating to interpret as favorite still appear on the Favorites page.

Hiddenโ€‹

Photos you've hidden. Hiding a photo takes it out of every view (the timeline, albums, people, places, search and folders) without deleting it; this page is the only place it still shows. To hide photos, select them and choose "Hide" from the selection actions menu. To keep a photo in your albums but off the timeline, archive it instead (see Hidden or archived?).

Archiveโ€‹

Photos you've archived. Archiving takes a photo off the main timeline and out of Memories, and nothing else: it stays in its albums, on the people and places pages, in folders and in search. Use it for photos you have sorted into albums and no longer want to scroll past, or for receipts and other photos you want to keep but not see every day.

  • To archive photos, select them and choose Archive from the selection actions menu (the โ‹ฎ button). Unarchive in the same menu puts them back on the timeline. Both work after Select all too.
  • In the photo viewer, the archive button next to the eye (or the a key) archives the photo you are looking at, or unarchives it. On the photo page it is under More.
  • Open the Archive page from the Photos header dropdown (after Hidden) or by searching for "Archive" with Ctrl + k. It has the same media filter as the Hidden page.
  • In albums, search and the other views, an archived photo has a small archive mark in its top right corner, so you can see why it is not on your timeline.

Not released yet: Archive ships with the first release after 1.3.0.

Hidden or archived?โ€‹

Where the photo showsArchivedHidden
Timeline (Photos)NoNo
MemoriesNoNo
Albums, eventsYesNo
People, places, things, tagsYesNo
SearchYesNo
FoldersYesNo
Favorites, Videos, Screenshots and the other views in the Photos dropdownYesNo
Its own pageArchiveHidden

A photo can be hidden and archived at the same time; then it is hidden, and shows only on the Hidden page until you unhide it. Neither one deletes the photo or changes its file.

Recently Addedโ€‹

Shows only your most recent batch of imports โ€” the photos whose added date falls on the same calendar day as the most recently added photo in your library. They appear in a single flat grid under one "Added on โ€ฆ" line in the page header; there is no per-day grouping. Older imports are not listed here โ€” use the Timeline to browse your whole library. With a media filter, the page shows the latest day a matching photo was added, for example the last day you imported videos.

Photos Onlyโ€‹

Shows only still photos, filtering out all videos.

Videos Onlyโ€‹

Shows only video files, filtering out all still photos.

Screenshots and Documentsโ€‹

Screenshots lists the photos detected or marked as screenshots. Documents lists the photos of receipts, letters, forms and other paper (see Documents). Both are in the Photos view switcher in the page header and in the command palette (Ctrl+K). When a photo is in the wrong one, change its Category.

note

Not released yet (comes after 1.3.0) This applies to the Documents page.

Filtering a list by media typeโ€‹

note

Not released yet (comes after 1.3.0) This applies to the labelled media button, its Documents only choice, and the filter on Trash, Recently Added, Without Timestamp, Without Location and folder pages.

Favorites, Hidden, Trash, Recently Added, Without Timestamp, Without Location, Not in an Album, search results, and the album, person, place, thing, tag and folder pages have a media button next to the display options. It names what the page shows: All media, Photos only, Videos only, Screenshots only or Documents only. Click it to pick another. While a filter is on, the button is highlighted, the header says what the page shows, and Show all next to it goes back to all media. On a phone the button is an icon with a dot while a filter is on.

The choice is part of the page address (for example ?media=videos), so it survives a reload and can be bookmarked. Every page starts with all media: the saved default of the timeline filter never applies here.

Selecting all photos on a filtered list selects only what it shows. In Trash, filter to Videos only, then Select all and Delete permanently removes the trashed videos and leaves every other photo in the trash.

Without Timestampโ€‹

Photos that don't have a date/time in their EXIF metadata. Useful for finding and fixing photos with missing timestamps.

To give them a date, select them and choose Change date and timeโ€ฆ from the selection actions menu, then Set (see Changing the date of many photos). Not released yet.

Without Locationโ€‹

Not released yet (comes after 1.3.0)

Photos that have no GPS coordinates, oldest added first. Open a photo and set its location from the Location section of the details sidebar; once it has coordinates it leaves this view. A photo whose coordinates could not be turned into a place name still has a location, so it is not listed here.

To give many of them one place, select them and choose Set locationโ€ฆ from the selection actions menu (see Setting the location of many photos). Select all reaches every photo on the page, not only the ones loaded so far, and the page has the media filter.

Not in an Albumโ€‹

Not released yet (comes after 1.3.0)

Your photos that are in none of your own albums, newest first, so you can see what is left to sort. An album another user shares with you does not count: a photo of yours that is only in their album still shows up here. Hidden and trashed photos are left out.

Open it from the Photos view switcher in the page header (under Without Timestamp and Without Location) or from the command palette (Ctrl+K, "not in an album"). Select photos and add them to an album from the selection actions; they leave the list once it refreshes. Select all reaches every photo on the page, not only the ones loaded so far, and the page has the media filter.

My Public Photosโ€‹

Photos you've marked as publicly visible, accessible at your public profile URL.

Foldersโ€‹

Browse your photos by filesystem directory structure. The root view shows the subfolders of your scan directory, each with a count of the photos inside it (including photos in nested subfolders). Click into any folder to see its photos and subfolders. Only folders that contain indexed photos are listed โ€” folders that are empty, hidden (names starting with .), or not yet scanned will not appear.


Photo Viewer (Lightbox)โ€‹

When you click on any photo in LibrePhotos, it opens in the photo viewer (also known as the lightbox). This provides a full-screen view of your photo with navigation controls and a details sidebar. The photo sits on a plain black background in light and dark mode, so nothing of the page behind it changes how its colours and exposure look. (Not released yet: up to 1.3.0, the page showed through a dimmed, blurred layer around the photo.)

  • Arrow keys or swipe to navigate between photos
  • Thumbnail bar at the bottom shows nearby photos for quick navigation
  • Close button (X) or press Escape to return to the gallery

The open photo is part of the page's address, as ?photo=<id> (for example /favorites?photo=<id> or /album/user/12?photo=<id>). (Not released yet: up to 1.3.0, opening a photo left the address as it was.) That gives you:

  • Back in the browser, or the back gesture on a phone, closes the photo and leaves the grid where it was, scrolled to the photo you looked at last. Stepping to the next or previous photo does not add a step to the history, so one Back always closes the viewer.
  • Reload reopens the same photo.
  • A link to this photo in this view: copy the address while the photo is open. Whoever opens it sees the same page with that photo open, and can step through the rest of the list from there. A photo the list does not hold (on a page of the timeline that has not loaded yet, or hidden by a filter) opens on its own, without previous and next. A photo the person may not see, or that no longer exists, leaves the grid as it is.

On a public album the same works for visitors, as long as the photo is in the album. The photo page at /photo/<id> is a separate page for one photo, without the list around it.

Toolbarโ€‹

The toolbar at the top provides quick actions. From left to right:

  • Slideshow - Start or stop an automatic slideshow. While it runs, a dropdown lets you choose the interval (3, 5, 10, 15 or 30 seconds).
  • Select text in photo - Lay the recognised text over the photo so you can select and copy it. Shown only on your own photos where text recognition found text.
  • Zoom in / Zoom out - Magnify the image. Available for still photos only, not videos.
  • Fullscreen - Enter or leave fullscreen mode for distraction-free viewing.
  • Copy to clipboard - Copy the photo as an image to your clipboard, ready to paste into a chat, a document or an email. It copies the display-size version the viewer shows; use Download for the original file. The button is shown for still photos, and only when LibrePhotos is served over HTTPS, because browsers allow clipboard access on secure pages only.
  • Hide / Show (eye icon) - Hide the photo everywhere but the Hidden page, or unhide it.
  • Archive / Unarchive (box icon) - Take the photo off the timeline and Memories, or put it back (see Archive). The box is teal while the photo is archived.
  • Favorite (star icon) - Mark the photo as a favorite, or remove the mark. In stars mode this is a row of five stars instead (see Rating photos with stars).
  • Share link (globe icon) - Create a revocable link to this one photo and show it with a copy button, plus Replace link and Revoke. The globe is green while the photo has a live link. This does not make the photo public; see Revocable Photo Links.
  • Delete - Move the photo to trash.
  • Rotate counter-clockwise / Rotate clockwise - Rotate the photo 90ยฐ in either direction (see Rotating Photos).
  • Toggle info panel - Show or hide the photo details sidebar.
  • Close - Return to the gallery.

The Hide, Archive, Favorite, Share link, Delete and Rotate controls are only shown when you are signed in. On a public or shared album page the toolbar shows just the slideshow, zoom, fullscreen, copy, info-panel and close buttons.

There is no download or share button in the lightbox itself. To download photos, select them in the gallery grid and choose Download from the selection actions menu; the download dialog can also include the other photos from each selected photo's stack. To share photos with other users, select them in the grid and choose Sharing from the same menu.

To put a single photo on the clipboard, open it and press the Copy to clipboard button or Ctrl + c (โŒ˜ + c on macOS). The browser's own right-click menu on the picture offers Copy image as well.

Rotating Photosโ€‹

The two rotate buttons in the toolbar let you reorient a photo in 90ยฐ steps โ€” useful for images that were captured at the wrong angle or whose EXIF Orientation tag is missing or incorrect.

Rotation in LibrePhotos is non-destructive:

  • The original image file on disk is not modified. Instead, the rotation is recorded as an EXIF Orientation override stored in the database, and the thumbnails are regenerated so the new orientation is visible everywhere in the UI.
  • Each click composes on top of the previous rotation, so two clicks of the clockwise button produce a 180ยฐ rotation and four clicks return the photo to its original orientation.
  • The change applies to the photo for every viewer, not just your own session.
  • Rotation is only available for still images. Videos cannot be rotated from the lightbox.

Your Write edits to files setting (Settings โ†’ Metadata) controls whether the rotation also reaches the filesystem. This is a three-way choice, not an on/off toggle:

  • Off, the default: only the LibrePhotos database and thumbnails are updated, and the file on disk stays byte-for-byte identical.
  • Save to sidecar: the original stays untouched and the new orientation is written to the photo's XMP sidecar as XMP-tiff:Orientation, for every image format. Apps that take the orientation from a sidecar, such as digiKam, show the photo turned the same way (darktable ignores it). The value is relative to the image as stored in the file: for a HEIC or AVIF photo it starts from the file's own rotation (its irot and imir), not from its EXIF Orientation, which can disagree.
  • Save to media file: for JPEG, PNG, TIFF and WebP files, LibrePhotos writes the new EXIF Orientation into the original, so every viewer shows the rotation. HEIC, AVIF, RAW and the other formats are not rewritten: their viewers ignore that tag, so the rotation stays in LibrePhotos.

Not released yet: up to 1.3.0, a rotation never reached the sidecar, and Save to media file wrote a wrong EXIF Orientation into HEIC, AVIF and RAW originals (often the opposite turn), replacing the camera's own value. LibrePhotos' own thumbnails were not affected. If another app shows such a file turned the wrong way, set its orientation there or with exiftool -Orientation=....

Photo Details Sidebarโ€‹

The sidebar displays detailed information about the current photo and provides quick access to related content.

While you edit the date, the caption, the tags or the location, a dimmed line under the editor says where the change is kept: Saved in LibrePhotos only, or Saved in LibrePhotos and written to the sidecar file (or to the photo file). It follows your Write edits to files setting, which its Settings link opens. All four are written to files. Not released yet.

Unsaved changesโ€‹

An edit is kept only once you save it: the check (โœ“) of the date, caption and tags editors, or Save in the location picker. While the date, caption or tags you typed differ from what is saved, an orange Unsaved mark sits next to that editor's title. With such an edit, or a spot picked in the location picker and not saved yet, stepping to another photo (with the arrows, the arrow keys or a swipe), picking a stack or similar photo, closing the viewer, or going Back then asks Discard unsaved changes? first: Keep editing leaves you where you were with your text intact, Discard drops the edit and goes on. An editor you opened but did not change never asks. On the photo page, leaving with an unsaved edit asks Leave without saving?, and reloading or closing the tab asks through the browser's own dialog in both places. Not released yet.

Timestampโ€‹

Shows when the photo was taken. You can click the edit button to modify the date and time if needed. Save stays greyed out while the time field is empty or incomplete, and the editor stays open until the date is saved; if the save fails, LibrePhotos says so and your input is kept. After a save, an Undo timestamp modification button next to the date puts the previous date back.

A date you set this way wins over the date rules and is marked Set by you. To drop it, edit the date and click Remove timestamp: the date rules decide the photo's date again, so it keeps a date read from its file if it has one. Not released yet.

Changing the date of many photosโ€‹

A camera with a wrong clock, or one left on summer time, puts a whole trip off by the same amount. To fix it, select the photos in the grid (or Select all), open the selection actions menu (โ‹ฎ) and choose Change date and timeโ€ฆ. The dialog has two tabs:

  • Shift moves every selected photo by the same amount, so their order and the time between them stay the same. Pick Earlier or Later and enter the days, hours, minutes and seconds, or click 1 h earlier or 1 h later. A line spells out the shift ("1 hour, 30 minutes earlier"), and a table shows the oldest and newest selected photo now and after the shift. Shift stays greyed out until the amount is more than zero. Photos without a date are left alone; the dialog says how many.
  • Set gives every selected photo the same date and time, picked with the same calendar and time field as the Timestamp editor. Use it for scans and photos without a date. The photos then share one time, so their order on the timeline is lost.

When you save, a message says how many photos got their new date and how many a shift skipped. The new dates count as set by you: they win over the date rules, a rescan keeps them, and Remove timestamp in a photo's Timestamp editor hands that photo back to the rules. With Write edits to files on, LibrePhotos writes them to the photos' files or sidecars in the background, as XMP:DateCreated. Not released yet.

File & Camera Infoโ€‹

Near the top of the sidebar, LibrePhotos shows a summary of the current file: the filename (a link that opens the original file in a new tab), the image dimensions, megapixels and file size (for a video: its dimensions, duration, codec and size), and, when the photo has more than one file, the +N formats toggle described under File Variants below.

When the photo carries camera EXIF, two rows follow, as on a camera's own info screen:

  • Camera: the camera's make and model, with the shutter speed, the ISO and the exposure bias (1/250 ยท ISO 200 ยท +0.7 EV).
  • Lens: the lens, with the aperture and the focal length, plus its 35 mm equivalent when that differs (ฦ’/5.6 ยท 23 mm (35 mm equiv.)).

A row the photo has nothing for is left out; without a lens name, the aperture and focal length join the camera row. Numbers follow your interface language, so German shows ฦ’/5,6 and 8,4 MB. A shutter speed of a quarter second or longer is given in seconds (2.5 s).

Show more reveals the rest, with labels: whether the flash fired, the white balance, the metering mode, the subject distance and the digital zoom, then the folder of the file and any duplicate file copies. The button is not shown when there is nothing more. For the full list of EXIF fields, see EXIF Data. Not released yet: up to 1.3.0 the camera and lens shared one line, without the exposure bias, the megapixels, the flash, white balance or metering mode.

File Variantsโ€‹

If a photo has multiple file variants (e.g., RAW+JPEG pairs, Live Photos with embedded video, or edited copies), the file info row shows a +N formats toggle that lists them with type badges (JPG, RAW, VIDEO, META). Downloading a photo always includes every one of its file variants in the zip โ€” there is no separate option for that. The download dialog's only checkbox, "Include all photos from stacks", controls whether the other photos from the same stack (bursts, brackets, manual stacks) are added as well. A RAW badge overlay is shown on photos that have RAW file variants.

For more details on how file variants and stacks work, see Stacks & File Variants.

Categoryโ€‹

New in 1.3.0

LibrePhotos detects screenshots while scanning and documents (receipts, letters, forms) from their text, and the Classify Media Categories job (listed on the Jobs page) re-runs both over the library. The category is the badge at the end of the filename row in File & Camera Info. When it is wrong, click the badge and pick Photo, Screenshot or Document. The menu also says whether the category was Detected automatically or Set by you, and where the item appears with your saved timeline filter. A notification with Undo confirms the change; undoing a correction of a detected category hands the item back to the detectors. Videos get the badge only when they were wrongly flagged, and can only be set back to Photo.

A category you set is kept: rescanning the library or running Classify Media Categories again never overwrites it. The control is shown on your own photos only.

To fix many items at once, select them in the grid and choose Mark as photo, Mark as screenshot or Mark as document from the selection actions menu.

Locationโ€‹

Displays the location where the photo was taken (if GPS data is available). An interactive map shows where the shot was made โ€” you can pan and zoom it with the on-map navigation controls, and clicking the marker opens a small popup with the photo's thumbnail. To set or correct a location, click the pencil icon next to the place name to open the Pick location dialog. (The pencil is hidden on publicly shared photos.)

On your own photos, the coordinates are shown under the place name (37.08990, -8.41280), with a button that copies them in that form for a map or a search box, and the altitude when the photo has one (31 m above sea level). The copy button needs HTTPS, like copying an image. People you share a photo with, and visitors of a public album, never see this line. Not released yet.

Peopleโ€‹

Shows faces detected in the photo. You can:

  • Click on a face to view all photos of that person
  • Edit the person's name by clicking the edit button
  • Mark a face as "Not this person" if incorrectly identified

Captionโ€‹

The AI-generated or manually entered caption for the photo. You can:

  • View the things OpenCLIP detected, displayed as green badges under Things; click one to search for it
  • Edit the caption manually โ€” type # to get autocomplete suggestions for thing album tags
  • Generate a new AI caption using the suggestion button
  • Use the AI suggestion button to quickly fill in a machine-generated caption

Tagsโ€‹

Your own tags for the photo, shown as teal badges. This section always appears in the sidebar when you are signed in, showing No tags when none are set. Click the pencil button to open an editor where you can add or remove tags โ€” separate entries with a comma, and existing tags are offered as autocomplete suggestions, the ones beginning with what you typed first โ€” then use the check to save or the X to cancel. Click a tag badge to open that tag's album.

Tags also come from the photo file: a scan turns each keyword stored in it (XMP Subject, IPTC Keywords, the PersonInImage names and the last level of each HierarchicalSubject keyword, including .xmp sidecars) into a tag. Those tags carry a small file icon, and hovering or focusing one says From the file's keywords. You edit them like any other tag. With Write edits to files set to Off, removing one here does not change the file, so a rescan adds it back, and the editor says so. With a sidecar or the media file chosen, your tag changes are written to the file's keywords (see EXIF Data) and a removed tag stays removed (not released yet). Not released yet: earlier versions showed the file's keywords in a separate Keywords section below the tags.

These are not the same as the Things list under the caption: those come from OpenCLIP and are not editable here.

To tag many photos in one go, select them in the grid and press t instead โ€” see Tagging photos.

Tags are not shown on public or shared album pages.

Albumsโ€‹

Shows which user albums contain this photo. Each album is displayed with:

  • Cover photo thumbnail - A preview of the album's cover
  • Album title - Click to navigate directly to that album
  • Photo count - Number of photos in the album

This makes it easy to see the context of a photo and quickly jump to related albums without leaving the photo viewer.

Similar Photosโ€‹

Displays photos that are visually similar to the current one. This is useful for:

  • Finding duplicates
  • Discovering related photos from the same event
  • Browsing photos with similar content

Click on any similar photo to view it directly.

Photo Pageโ€‹

Every photo also has a page of its own at /photo/<id>. You get there from a link to the photo, by Ctrl + clicking (โŒ˜ + click on macOS) a photo in a grid, and from a similar photo in the details.

note

Not released yet (comes after 1.3.0) Up to 1.3.0 the page was titled with the file name and its full folder path and had no actions.

The photo or video is shown as large as the window allows on a neutral background, with Back above it (to where you came from, or to the timeline when you opened a link) and Open in viewer below it. Open in viewer shows the photo in the lightbox, for zoom, fullscreen, the slideshow and the keyboard shortcuts. When text recognition found text in one of your photos, a Select text in photo button lays it over the photo there too.

Beside the photo (below it on a phone), the page title is the date the photo was taken, with the time and the place under it. On your own photos the pencil next to the date opens the date editor described under Timestamp.

Under the title, labelled buttons hold the photo's actions:

  • Favorite: mark the photo as a favorite, or remove the mark. The button is yellow while it is one. In stars mode it is a wider Rating tile with five stars instead, which work as in the photo viewer (see Rating photos with stars).
  • Share: create a revocable link to this photo, as the globe in the lightbox does (see Revocable Photo Links). The button is green while the photo has a live link.
  • Album: add the photo to one of your albums, or to a new one.
  • Download: download the original file. When the photo has more than one file (a RAW next to its JPEG, the video of a Live Photo), it opens a list to pick the file from.
  • More: Copy image (still photos, HTTPS only), Rotate 90ยฐ counter-clockwise and Rotate 90ยฐ clockwise (still photos), Hide photo / Show photo, Archive photo / Unarchive photo, Open in viewer, and Move to trash / Restore from trash.

A photo in the trash, hidden or archived says so above these buttons, with a button to restore it, show it again or unarchive it.

Then each subject has a card, with the same editors as the details sidebar:

  • People: the faces in the photo. Hovering one marks it on the photo; you can name a face, confirm a suggested name, mark it as not this person, delete it, or mark a face the scan missed with the button at the top of the card.
  • Caption: your caption, with the Things found in the photo under it.
  • Tags: your tags, marked when they came from the file's keywords.
  • Place: the address and a map; the pencil opens Pick location.
  • Place's coordinates line, with the copy button and the altitude, is the same as in the Location section.
  • Camera: the camera and lens, with aperture, shutter speed, focal length (and its 35 mm equivalent) and ISO, the exposure bias, and the same Show more list as the sidebar.
  • File: the file name (it opens the original), its dimensions, megapixels and size (a video's duration and codec), the Category badge, the photo's other formats with a download button each, the folder it is in below your library folder, copies of the file and its stack.
  • Albums and Similar Photos, when there are any.

Details a photo does not have yet are not listed as empty cards: they are buttons in one Add details card (Add a caption, Add tags, Add a place, Mark a face). Each opens its editor straight away.

On a photo someone shared with you, the page shows the photo, its date and the name of its place, Open in viewer and Copy image, and says who shared it. Everything else stays with the owner, as in the lightbox.

Keyboard Shortcutsโ€‹

KeyAction
โ† / โ†’Previous / Next photo
Shift + โ† / โ†’Jump back / forward 10 seconds (videos only)
Ctrl + โ† / โ†’Jump back / forward 1 minute (videos only)
EscapeClose photo viewer
SpacePlay / pause (videos only)
zToggle zoom (still images only)
iToggle sidebar
fToggle favorite (favorites mode)
0 - 5Set the star rating, 0 clears it (stars mode)
hHide / unhide photo
aArchive / unarchive photo
pOpen the photo's share link dialog
dMove photo to trash
gToggle fullscreen
sStart / stop slideshow
tSelect text in the photo / stop selecting it (only on your own photos where text was recognised)
Ctrl + c (โŒ˜ + c on macOS)Copy the photo to the clipboard (still images only; when text is selected, the browser copies the text instead)

The f, 0-5, h, a, p and d shortcuts act on the current photo and are disabled on public (unauthenticated) album pages. f does nothing in stars mode and 0-5 do nothing in favorites mode.

Seeking in Videosโ€‹

Space starts and pauses a video. Holding Shift with the arrow keys jumps ten seconds back or forward, and holding Ctrl instead jumps a full minute โ€” the same split VLC makes between a short and a long jump. The plain arrow keys keep moving between photos even while a video is playing, so skipping through a clip never costs you your place in the album. Each jump is confirmed on screen โ€” the player's own control bar stays hidden when you drive it from the keyboard, so there would otherwise be nothing to see.

On macOS, Ctrl with the arrow keys is claimed by Mission Control for switching between desktops, so the one-minute jump may not reach the page there; Shift is unaffected.

Seeking is unavailable while a video is still being converted for playback: the first time you play a video your browser cannot play as it is, or any video when you have Always transcode videos turned on in your settings. For as long as that conversion is running the browser is never told how long the video is or how to jump within it, so the player says so rather than ignoring the key.

Videos your browser cannot playโ€‹

Not every browser plays every video. H.265 (HEVC), which most phones record in, plays in Safari, and in Chrome and Edge on a machine with a hardware decoder for it, but not in Firefox or in Chrome without one. Older cameras' formats, such as MPEG-2 or Motion JPEG, play nowhere.

LibrePhotos asks your browser, for each video, whether it can play it. If it can, you get the original at full resolution. If it cannot, the video is converted to H.264 for you as it plays, capped at 720 lines, and kept for the next time you watch it (see Experimental options for how converted copies are stored). A video your browser says it can play but then fails to decode is converted the same way, automatically. You do not need Always transcode videos for any of this.

This applies to you and to anyone you share a video with who signs in. Visitors to a public album without an account are always served the original.

note

New in 1.3.0 On 1.2.1 and older, a video your browser could not play needed Always transcode videos.

HDR Videosโ€‹

Most phones record video in HDR by default: iPhones in Dolby Vision, most Android phones in HLG. Wherever LibrePhotos converts such a video โ€” the gallery thumbnails, and playback whenever it is converted (see Videos your browser cannot play) โ€” it maps the picture down to ordinary SDR colours, so it looks like itself instead of washed out and grey.

In the photo grid, an HDR video carries an HDR badge next to its duration. Whether a video is HDR is worked out once, when the scan adds it, together with its codec and pixel format. Videos that were already in your library before this existed are checked by the Probe Videos job, which runs by itself after your next scan and rebuilds the thumbnails of the HDR ones, and of any 10-bit or 4:2:2 ones, so thumbnails that looked washed out or did not play are corrected then. See Job System.

note

The HDR badge, the scan-time check and Probe Videos are new in 1.3.0. 1.2.0 and 1.2.1 already mapped HDR videos to SDR, but could turn bright skies and highlights flat white; older releases converted them washed out.