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🖼️ Viewing Photos

Photo Views​

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)​

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 — click or drag it to navigate through large libraries.

Favorites​

Photos you've marked as favorites. To favorite a photo, click the heart icon in the lightbox toolbar or use the selection actions menu.

Hidden​

Photos you've hidden from the main timeline. Hiding a photo removes it from the default view without deleting it. To hide photos, select them and choose "Hide" from the selection actions menu.

Recently Added​

Photos ordered by when they were added to LibrePhotos (import date rather than capture date), grouped by "Added on [date]".

Photos Only​

Shows only still photos, filtering out all videos.

Videos Only​

Shows only video files, filtering out all still photos.

Without Timestamp​

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

My Public Photos​

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

Folders​

Browse your photos by filesystem directory structure. The root view shows your scan directory's subfolders with aggregated photo counts. Click into any folder to see its photos and subfolders. This mirrors the actual file organization on disk.

Photo Viewer (Lightbox)​

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.

  • 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

Toolbar​

The toolbar at the top provides quick actions:

  • Toggle sidebar - Show or hide the photo details panel
  • Favorite - Mark the photo as a favorite
  • Download - Download the original photo (with options for stacked/variant photos)
  • Share - Share the photo with other users
  • Delete - Move the photo to trash
  • Fullscreen - Enter fullscreen mode for distraction-free viewing
  • Slideshow - Start an automatic slideshow with configurable interval

Photo Details Sidebar​

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

Timestamp​

Shows when the photo was taken. You can click the edit button to modify the date and time if needed.

File Variants​

If a photo has multiple file variants (e.g., RAW+JPEG pairs, Live Photos with embedded video, or edited copies), they will be displayed here. You can click on any variant to view it, and when downloading, you can choose to include all variants in a zip file. 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.

Location​

Displays the location where the photo was taken (if GPS data is available). A small map preview shows the exact location, and clicking it will open a larger map view. You can also edit the location if it's missing or incorrect.

People​

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

Caption​

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

  • View auto-generated tags from the active tagging model, displayed as color-coded badges (green for SigLIP 2, blue for Places365)
  • Edit the caption manually — 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

Tags from each model are stored independently. The lightbox shows tags from all models that have been run on the photo, so you can see results side by side.

Albums​

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 Photos​

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.

Keyboard Shortcuts​

KeyAction
← / →Previous / Next photo
EscapeClose photo viewer
iToggle sidebar
fToggle fullscreen
DeleteDelete photo
sStart / stop slideshow