Show HN: Memories – FOSS Google Photos alternative built for high performance

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall reception

  • Many commenters praise Memories as a polished, fast, much‑needed replacement for Nextcloud’s default Photos app.
  • Several people report successful deployment on large libraries (tens of thousands of photos), with good timeline performance.
  • Others say earlier versions (about a year ago) were “barely working,” but it’s acknowledged the project was very young then.

Performance & UX

  • Demo and some real deployments show very fast timeline loading, attributed to optimized SQL, caching, and Nextcloud preview generation.
  • At least one user describes severe slowdowns and thumbnail loading issues on a powerful server; the project maintainer attributes this to misconfiguration (missing preview generator, PHP limits).
  • Disagreement emerges over whether “just use Docker/AIO” is sufficient; some complain that even official images and upgrades can be fragile.

Nextcloud Integration & Setup

  • Tight coupling to Nextcloud is both a strength and a turn‑off:
    • Pros: reuses Nextcloud for auth, sync, sharing, ecosystem apps (face recognition, tags, search integration).
    • Cons: people who prefer Syncthing or lighter setups would like a standalone version; some view Nextcloud as slow/bloated and upgrades as painful.
  • Configuration is described as moderate: install app, configure directory, plus extra steps for AI/preview generator. Hetzner/managed instances may lack needed components like ffmpeg.
  • S3 as external storage is possible but considered fragile in Nextcloud; local or mounted storage is preferred.

Features & Limitations

  • Supports EXIF/sidecar metadata editing, file‑level metadata storage, raw + derivative stacking, and live photos; HDR/spatial video support is limited.
  • Uses Nextcloud’s face recognition/Recognize apps; accuracy is described as decent but not perfect.
  • Social/sharing: public, optionally password‑protected links and shared folders/albums, including uploads by others; comments and richer “family album” flows are not fully Google Photos‑equivalent.
  • No semantic/CLIP search yet; it is a major planned feature.
  • Android app exists; iOS relies on PWA plus the standard Nextcloud app for auto‑upload.

Comparisons to Alternatives

  • Immich: praised for AI search (CLIP), multi‑person search, and speed; criticized as bleeding‑edge, with version coupling between server and clients and less flexible mobile folder mapping.
  • PhotoPrism: liked but seen as slower; facial recognition considered weaker and licensing/membership model contested.
  • Ente: highlighted for E2EE and on‑device CLIP search; now fully open source but with different goals.
  • Other tools mentioned: digiKam, Lychee, Synology Photos, Mylio, Les Pas, nc‑photos.