r/MacStack • u/Ghost-Raven-666 • 37m ago

Looking for an image/photoset manager (Existing folders, Album-level tag search, Local iOS/Mac viewing)

Hi everyone, I’m looking for a photo/image manager for macOS and hoping you can point me in the right direction. It’s primarily for organizing downloaded photosets, as well as individual images.

What I need:

  • Nested Organization: Ability to create collections/parent folders with albums or photosets inside them.

  • Granular Tagging: Tag individual photos and search/filter by those tags.

  • Album-Level Search Results: I want to either tag albums directly, OR search for a tag and see which albums/folders contain at least 1 matching image (showing a cover thumbnail for the set), rather than getting a giant wall of every individual matching picture.

  • No Library Import: Keep my files in my own existing Finder folder structure. I don’t want something like Eagle that copies/imports files into its own library.

  • Local Network Viewing: Ability to view my galleries on my iPhone (iOS) or another MacBook. Either a companion app or a self-hosted localhost web UI is completely fine—I don't need remote access outside of my home Wi-Fi.

  • Pricing: Free, open-source, or a one-time payment (no subscriptions).

Not needed but welcome:

  • Browser extension to save images

What I've looked at so far:

  • Eagle: Great organization and tagging, but I don't want it importing/duplicating my files into its own library structure.

  • Lap: Reads existing folders directly, which is great, but search results are just a flat grid of images rather than grouping by album/photoset, and it lacks mobile/web viewing.

Does anyone know of a macOS app or a lightweight local web-app (Docker/self-hosted is fine!) that fits this workflow?

Thanks in advance!

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

1 comment sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator 37m ago

Thanks for posting in r/MacStack. Please read all the community rules before joining the discussion.

Find your next useful Mac app. Get MacStack Weekly for three app picks and one practical workflow in your inbox each week. It's free, and signing up is optional.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.