===================================================================== PHOTO HOME (FOTO namai) v1.1 - home photo archive organizer Robertas & Claude, 2026 ===================================================================== WHAT IS THIS? PHOTO home (originally "FOTO namai", Lithuanian for photo home) cleans up your photo "dump": it gathers photos and videos from several places (phone copies, Downloads, old drives), figures out WHEN each photo was taken, and lays everything out into a clean Year\Month structure. With full UNDO - everything can be put back with one button. The program deletes NOTHING and sends NOTHING to the internet. Everything happens only on your computer. WHAT IT IS NOT It is not a viewer/gallery - use your favourite one for browsing (IrfanView, Windows Photos, etc.). PHOTO home is an ORGANIZER: its job is getting files into the right places. TWO STAGES - THE SAFETY FOUNDATION A. HOME BOOK (index) - the first step, always safe. The program only READS your files and writes its own list (the index): where a file lives, when it was taken, whether the date is trustworthy. Your files are NOT touched. Search works with the index alone. B. MOVING DAY (home archive) - only when you press "Build home archive..." yourself. The program proposes a plan, you review and confirm it. The default mode is COPY (originals stay in place). And UNDO is always there. GETTING STARTED (4 steps) 1. On the "Organizing" tab tick what to scan (the program suggests known locations; "Add folder..." adds any other). Press the "Recon" button. 2. WHERE TO SEE THE DURATION: the blue line BELOW the source list (above the buttons) shows the full price BEFORE you start: "Selected: N files, X GB, ~Y min". If it shows hours - feel free to leave it overnight. 3. Press "Index selected" and wait: while working, a clock spins in the middle of the window, and finer progress is in the bar at the very bottom. Cancel any time without harm - next run continues from where it stopped. When done, the program shows an ARCHIVE X-RAY (see below). 4. On the "Search" tab search by date, type, label, camera or file name. Double-click shows the file in Explorer. HOW THE DATE IS RESOLVED In order of trust: 1. EXIF (the date the camera wrote inside the photo); 2. file name (IMG-20230318-WA0006.jpg, Screenshot_2025...); 3. folder name ("Midsummer 2015" also becomes a search label); 4. file mtime - but then the date is marked UNRELIABLE and such files go to a separate _UNDATED folder so they never mix with truly dated ones. 5. SURROUNDINGS (new in v1.0): if a dateless file sits in a folder whose neighbours agree on one month, or arrived in one batch with dated files, it receives the neighbours' MEDIAN date (source "kaimynyste" or "partija"). Scattered "junk drawer" folders are left alone - the layer checks itself. ARCHIVE X-RAY (new in v1.0) After every indexing run the program shows a "WHAT IS IN YOUR ARCHIVE" report: how many files and where, where their dates come from, how many lack a reliable date, the LINE IN TIME ("from ~2009 your dates are reliable") and which backup folders the safety rails skipped. Nothing is moved - only read and counted. "Save report..." writes it to a .md file - share it or keep it for comparison. Screenshots are recognized and placed into a separate _SCREENSHOTS folder - they are not "memories". These two folder names are the same in every language. The reason is simple: the name lives ON YOUR DISK, not on the screen. If it followed the interface language, switching the language would create a second folder and split your photos between the two. One name - one place. Fake files (.jpg name but not an image; 0 bytes) are NOT moved; the journal explains why. Android trash files (.trashed-*) and thumbnail caches (.thumbnails) are SKIPPED: photos you deleted and the phone's internal copies never enter the index or the archive. HOME MOVIES (VIDEO) Family videos are first-class citizens of the archive, indexed and organized together with photos: mp4, mov, avi, mkv, m4v, 3gp, wmv, webm, mpg/mpeg, mts/m2ts. A video's date comes from its file name (e.g. VID_20231113_...) or from mtime (then honestly labeled "unreliable") - v1 does not yet read video-internal metadata. iPhone "Live Photo" pairs (IMG_x.JPG + IMG_x.MOV) ALWAYS travel together when organizing - the pair is never split. Music and audio recordings (mp3, m4a...) are NOT indexed - this is a memories archive, not a file inventory. SHELVES - SEVERAL DRIVES IN ONE INDEX WHAT IS A "SHELF"? Any place your files live - a storage: the computer's internal drive (C:, D:), an external USB drive, a flash stick, a camera memory card, a network (NAS) folder. Picture a cupboard with shelves: boxes of photos on each one. The program knows WHICH shelf every photo sits on - even when the shelf is taken out of the cupboard (drive disconnected). YOU NAME THE SHELVES YOURSELF. When a new drive appears, the program shows a dialog with its own suggestion (e.g. from the drive label, or "MY-PC drive C:") - keep it or type your own: "Red WD", "Mom's flash stick", "Old laptop". Tip for external drives: put a sticker with that name on the drive - no guessing a year later. Search also works for DISCONNECTED shelves - the program says: "file is on shelf 'Red WD', currently not connected; plug the drive in". Drive letters (E:, F:) may change freely - the drive is recognized by its internal serial, not the letter, so the name you gave never gets lost. CARD FILE (new in v1.0): THUMBNAILS of indexed photos stay in the program and are shown even when the drive is DISCONNECTED - pick with your eyes while the shelf sits in a drawer. A background worker fills them in by itself without disturbing you. Opening the original without the drive - the program politely asks to connect the shelf. OPEN IN YOUR OWN EDITOR (new in v1.0) Right-click a result - "Open with ..." opens the file in your favourite editor (Photoshop, Corel, even Paint). You define the list yourself: "Add/edit editors..." opens a simple settings file with an example and an explanation. The program never edits anything itself - it only hands the file over; your originals are never touched. HOW TO GET PHOTOS OFF YOUR PHONE A phone in Explorer is not a drive but a "window" into it (no drive letter), so no program can scan it directly. Photos must be COPIED first: 1. Open the phone in Explorer. On Windows 11 with "Link to Windows" the phone may show up even without a cable - you can try from there, BUT the wireless view usually does not show everything. Most reliable: USB cable. Once plugged in, the phone ITSELF WILL ASK "USB mode?" (a dialog on its screen or in the notification shade, in the PHONE'S language) - pick "File Transfer". NOT "Photo transfer" - that mode shows only DCIM, no WhatsApp. The default is "charging only" - until you answer, the phone looks EMPTY on the computer (not a malfunction). After picking you see everything, and large amounts copy faster. An old Huawei/Honor may pose as a CD drive "My CDROM" and offer to install HiSuite - close it, do NOT install: picking "Device file manager (MTP)" on the phone is enough. If the phone shows up but looks empty - unlock its screen and replug the cable into another USB port. 2. Internal storage: photos in DCIM\Camera; screenshots in Pictures\Screenshots or DCIM\Screenshots (Xiaomi); WhatsApp - Android\media\com.whatsapp\WhatsApp\Media. 3. Copy the folders to your computer or an external drive (originals stay untouched on the phone). 4. In PHOTO home press "Add folder..." -> index. One more path - the cloud: Google Photos / OneDrive already download photos into a computer folder - just add that folder. The same guide lives in the app - the "Get photos off a phone?" button. Note: the Microsoft Phone Link photo cache is partial and stored inside an internal database, not as files - do not rely on it as a source. DUPLICATES While organizing, the same content is never copied into the archive twice (checked by content, not by name). If there are many duplicates, the program will suggest running our family duplicate tool Smart Duplicate Finder first, then organizing. Right after indexing you get a copies ESTIMATE (by identical size) - the best moment to clean up is BEFORE moving day. WHERE THE PROGRAM KEEPS ITS DATA Index and settings: C:\Users\\AppData\Local\PhotoHome\ After organizing, two human-readable files appear in the archive root: KAIP_SUTVARKYTA.md (the rules used) and UNDO_ZURNALAS.md (what came from where). Portable mode (advanced): put an empty file named PhotoHome_portable.txt next to the program - all data will then travel with it (e.g. on a flash drive). REQUIREMENTS AND NOTES - Windows 10 or newer (Win 7/8 will not work - Qt6 limit). - Your antivirus may warn about an unsigned program (SmartScreen "Unknown publisher") - normal for free tools without an expensive certificate. The code is open on GitHub. DIDN'T FIND YOUR ANSWER IN THIS FILE? This program was written by Claude (the Anthropic AI) - so the best one to answer questions about it is... Claude itself: claude.ai. The app has a button for that: "?" -> "No answer here? Ask the AI" - it opens claude.ai with the question already started; you just type your question and hit send (nothing is sent without your hand). For example: "...My question: is it safe to point it at my photo folder? What exactly does 'Build home archive' do?" "...My question: how do I update the app to the newest version? explain it step by step." The code is public, so the AI reads the actual code and answers about how the program really works - no guessing. Any language works. NOTE: claude.ai will show a red caution banner above such text - that is their standard warning for ALL link-delivered prompts (read what you are sending, then send with confidence - the text is right there before your eyes). Other AI assistants work too - but the author will answer best. FAMILY OF GIFTS (all free, no ads) 1. Smart Duplicate Finder - duplicate file finder. Run it first. 2. Temp Cleaner - temp file cleanup with explanations. 3. PHOTO home (FOTO namai) - home photo archive organizer. This program. Author page: https://github.com/RobertasTa =====================================================================