Memories is a free, open-source photo management app for Nextcloud. It keeps photos on your own Nextcloud instance, with encryption available through a secret key. A timeline lets you jump through libraries containing hundreds of thousands of photos. Albums can be shared with server users or anyone online, and users on the same server can collaborate. Memories connects with Recognize and Face Recognition for keyword and face tagging. You can edit titles, descriptions, GPS locations, dates, times, and tags, including across multiple photos. A map uses GPS data and reverse geocoding to locate images by place name. Videos can be transcoded on demand for adaptive streaming with VA-API or NVENC acceleration. The responsive web app works on Android and iOS, while official Nextcloud mobile apps upload photos and videos automatically. A dedicated Android client is in early access. Memories requires Nextcloud 26 or later, PHP 8.0 or later, a supported database, Imagick, ffmpeg, ffprobe, and distributed memcache.
Who it is for
Memories suits Nextcloud users who want self-hosted photo organization, sharing, metadata editing, maps, and video support. It favors commonly used photo features over advanced professional photographer metadata tools.
What is good
- Self-hosted storage on your Nextcloud instance
- Timeline supports very large photo libraries
- Shared albums and server collaboration
- EXIF editing and GPS-based map view
- Adaptive video streaming with hardware acceleration
What to know first
- Requires Nextcloud 26 or later and supporting components
- Video transcoding may not work on Raspberry Pi
- External-storage indexing may be slow
- Dedicated Android app remains in early access
Verdict
Memories offers broad photo, video, metadata, map, and sharing tools while keeping files on your Nextcloud server. Its technical requirements and potentially intensive video transcoding matter when planning a self-hosted setup.
Compared on photo storage services
- Free plan
- Yes
- Original-quality storage
- Yes
- Face search
- Yes
- Shared albums
- Yes
- Video backup
- Yes
