The Offline Photo Organizer You've Been Waiting For

Building the Ultimate Offline Photo Organizer

Why I'm Doing It Myself

I'm fed up waiting for a reliable, privacy-focused, offline photo organization app that combines the best features of beloved classics like Windows Live Photo Gallery and Picasa, but without the cloud or self-hosted headaches. How hard can it be, really?

Like many, I've been stuck maintaining an old Windows XP machine just to run Windows Live Photo Gallery for dependable offline photo organization. Meanwhile, today's options either push expensive cloud subscriptions, self-hosting complexity, or miss key features altogether. So I said, enough is enough — I'm building my own modern replacement from the ground up.

Why Offline Photo Organization Matters

In a world dominated by cloud photo storage, many users want complete control over their memories and metadata — with no dependence on the internet or external servers. This need is especially critical for:

• Privacy advocates who want zero data leakage

• Users without reliable internet connections

• Professionals requiring local performance and secure backups

• Enthusiasts who loved legacy tools like Windows Live Photo Gallery and Picasa

Currently, solutions like Mylio and Excire Foto offer some offline capability but still lean heavily on cloud features or subscriptions. Many free or open-source options like digiKam exist but may not meet usability or performance expectations for all users.

What I'm Building: The Live Gallery App

My project aims to fuse the robust, easy-to-use photo organization features of Windows Live Photo Gallery and Picasa into one modern, performant, secure, and scalable app. Key architectural and feature highlights:

• Built with C# and WinUI 3 for native Windows performance and clean modern UI

• Full offline functionality with no cloud or self-host dependency

• Robust local database management ensuring fast and reliable metadata search

• Facial recognition capabilities (mostly done)

• Planned clustering by location and time for smarter grouping

• Metadata search and flexible filtering (in progress)

• Future-proof design to optionally add Linux support if demand arises

Why This Matters to You

The Live Gallery App will give you total control over your photo collection — secure, private, and easily searchable offline. No forced migration to cloud services or complicated self-hosting setups.

I'm preparing an initial alpha release soon and looking for testers and feedback. If you loved Windows Live Photo Gallery or Picasa, or want a powerful offline photo organizer without the privacy compromises, this will be worth watching.

How It Compares to Existing Solutions

• Windows Live Photo Gallery

  • Offline: Yes

  • Cloud-Based: No

  • OS Support: Windows XP/7

  • Notes: Discontinued legacy tool

• Picasa

  • Offline: Yes

  • Cloud-Based: No

  • OS Support: Deprecated Windows/Mac

  • Notes: Discontinued Google product

• Mylio

  • Offline: Partially

  • Cloud-Based: Optional

  • OS Support: Windows, macOS, iOS

  • Notes: Sync locally, subscription-based

• Excire Foto 2025

  • Offline: Mostly

  • Cloud-Based: No

  • OS Support: Windows, macOS

  • Notes: AI-powered, paid

• digiKam

  • Offline: Yes

  • Cloud-Based: No

  • OS Support: Windows, Linux, macOS

  • Notes: Powerful but complex open-source

• Live Gallery App (in development)

  • Offline: Yes

  • Cloud-Based: No

  • OS Support: Windows (initially)

  • Notes: Modern rewrite and replacement

Connect With Me

If you want to reach out directly, ask questions, or share feature suggestions, you can email me at hello@livegalleryapp.com. I'm eager to hear from anyone interested in this project and happy to provide more details or updates.

Join the Conversation

Does this sound like the offline photo organizer you've been waiting for? What features would be essential to you? Join the Discord community, share your thoughts, and stay tuned for updates!

https://discord.com/channels/1416677630152937537/1416677631017095261