Sources

A source is a folder you add to Imagory and give a name, such as “Phone backup” or “Account A Takeout”. You can have as many sources as you like. They all appear together in one library.

Add a source

Choose Add source… from the toolbar or the File menu (on an empty library, Add a photo folder…). Pick the folder and give it a name. Imagory scans it and its subfolders for JPEG, PNG, GIF and HEIC photos. Other files, such as videos and RAW files, are skipped.

You can add ordinary photo folders and extracted Google Takeout exports. Zip files from Google must be extracted first (see Takeout import).

Source types

Imagory shows what it thinks the folder is, and you can change it.

• Plain folder: any folder of photos. Dates come from the photo itself (EXIF) or the file name.
• Takeout: a Google Takeout export. Dates, places, captions and people also come from the JSON files Google puts next to your photos.
• Cleaned: a folder made by Clean up Takeout. Imagory detects it by itself, and its type cannot be changed.

Manage sources

Open Sources… (also in the sidebar as Manage sources…) to see each source with its photo and missing counts.

• Rescan: looks for new, changed and missing photos. Unchanged photos are skipped, so it is quick. Rescan all in the toolbar does this for every source.
• Rename…: changes the name Imagory shows.
• Change type…: switches between plain folder and Takeout. Imagory works out the dates again.
• Relocate…: use this when a drive letter changes or you moved the folder. Point the source at its new place and Imagory carries on without scanning from scratch.
• Remove missing…: makes Imagory forget the files it can no longer find in that source, after you confirm.
• Remove…: makes Imagory forget the whole source and its thumbnails, after you confirm.

Removing only affects Imagory’s own database. Your photos are never touched.

Missing files

If a file disappears from a source, Imagory hides it but does not forget it. It comes back if the file returns. This matters because an unplugged drive looks the same as deleted photos. If a whole source’s folder is unavailable, Imagory tells you and still scans your other sources.

If you move a file to another folder inside the same source, Imagory recognises it, and the photo keeps its place and its albums.

Duplicates

Identical files, with exactly the same contents, show once in the grid, even when they sit in different folders or sources. Imagory hides the extra copies and never deletes them. The viewer lists every place the photo was found.