The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/Legal_Ad_1096 on 2025-07-31 14:09:59+00:00.
Hello,
I have a lot of family and childhood pictures contained in various old devices (computers/phones). I would like to extract them and take advantage of this opportunity to create a centralized and easily maintainable digital photo library. Until then I didn't have any centralized way to store my pictures. My goal is really to create a digital photo library that will last on the very long term (my life basically, I am 25) and that I will continue to fill with new pictures. I precise that I am not talking about professional pictures taken with high quality cameras, I am talking about family pictures, events pictures, taken mostly with a phone and that don't need any editing.
What I plan to do is to store all my pictures in folders. I don't want to rely on any photo library software and data base because software can be discontinued and add to much complexity. I don't think it is future proof enough.
I precise that I want my photo library to be OS independent so I think using only simple folders is perfect for this.
I don't think that the "date created" and "date modified" of the pictures is a reliable way to remember when the pictures where taken because often when you move the files or switch between OS these info get overridden. So, I have two choices here: either I do a file structure /YYYY/MM or even /YYYY/MM/DD; or I put all the photos in a same folder but rename them with the date taken (with a script): YYYY_MM_DD_HH_SS.jpeg. For this I would need your input, what do you think is the best practice?
Regarding ways to say which pictures are associated to an event (wedding, birthdays...), I plan to keep info.txt files in the files structure to provide descriptions to group of pictures.
According to you is this a good way to organize my photo library in a robust and future proof way? Or am I missing something?
I precise that this post is not about how to backup my photo library and on which medium I should store it. It is about which file structure I should use or which tools I should use to make the photo library. Regarding the backup I will save the library on the cloud and hard drives.
Thank you!