While cloud photo storage definitely has some advantages for sharing and backups, the cloud is really just someone else’s computer. I wanted an easy way to store backups of family photos from a mobile device to a network drive. I recently found a nice replacement for a custom solution with PhotoPrism, OpenMediaVault and PhotoSync.
Home Fotolab
A few years ago, I started building a suite of applications to manage household photos. application and a website built in Python. Some of the basic construction was built but the project didn’t get very far. Fortunately, as is often the case with any invention, someone else has built the components I need.
Household Fotomat
Household Fotomat is a web application that provides a user-friendly interface for managing and sharing photos. The application is built using the Flask web framework and uses Pillow for image processing, allowing users to upload photos directly to the application and tag them with metadata such as captions and dates. The application generates thumbnails for uploaded photos and provides a responsive interface for browsing photos. Behind the scenes, the application uses SQLite for database management, storing photo metadata and thumbnail data. In addition to the web interface, the application also includes a RESTful API for programmatic access to photo data. Overall, Household Fotomat offers a comprehensive solution for managing and sharing photos, with a robust backend and a user-friendly frontend.
WordPress Household Photos Plugin
The WordPress Household Photos plugin is a powerful tool for managing and sharing photos within a WordPress environment. With the plugin, users can easily upload and organize photos into albums and galleries, with the ability to tag photos with metadata such as captions and dates. The plugin provides a customizable frontend for displaying photos on a WordPress site, allowing users to choose from a variety of display options, including slideshows and masonry layouts. The plugin is fully responsive and optimized for mobile devices, ensuring that photos look great and load quickly on any screen size. With its intuitive interface and robust features, the WordPress Household Photos plugin is an excellent choice for anyone looking to enhance their WordPress site with stunning photo galleries and albums.
Android App (Unbuilt)
The Android app didn’t get very far. The idea was to build a customized FTP client that connects to the Household Fotomat application and uploads the photos. The concept wasn’t very complex overall, I expected to include an existing FTP library and provide a basic interface to select photos to upload.
PhotoPrism
PhotoPrism an open-source photo management solution that offers a wealth of powerful features for organizing, searching, and sharing your photo collection. One of the features that really sets PhotoPrism apart is its AI-powered search capabilities. With advanced algorithms that can identify the content within your images, including people, places, and objects, PhotoPrism makes it possible to find specific photos within your collection. And with a variety of organizational tools, such as custom albums and tags, you can easily keep your photos sorted and accessible.
OpenMediaVault
OpenMediaVault is a free, open-source network-attached storage (NAS) software designed for home and small business use. With an easy-to-use web interface and a wide range of features, OpenMediaVault makes it simple to set up and manage your own NAS server using a web interface. The software includes support for a variety of file systems, RAID configurations, and network protocols, as well as backup and remote access options.
OpenMediaVault has been my go-to for awhile because of my hardware setup. My network server is an old laptop with several external USB drives attached. One of the nice features of OMV is that I can mount and share external drives as though they are internal drives.
PhotoSync
PhotoSync is a free Android app that enables users to easily transfer and synchronize their photos and videos across multiple devices. With a range of methods such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and FTP, users can easily transfer their media from their Android device to their computer, or vice versa. The app also supports a variety of popular cloud storage services. For a small fee, you can buy the PhotoSync NAS add-on to transfer their media to and from network devices such as a shared folder or NAS. This add-on also supports Family Library, so you can share one copy freely with members of your household.
Conclusion
I am happy to have found an effective and affordable solution for my photo management needs. And also pretty happy that I didn’t have to build it. The combination of PhotoPrism, OpenMediaVault and PhotoSync offers a flexible and powerful system. Not only does it save me time and effort in organizing my photos, but it also gives me peace of mind knowing that my photos are securely stored on a backup drive inside my home.