Go through a folder of photos and videos one at a time, keep what you want and send the rest to the Recycle Bin. Turn on On This Day to see what you took on today's date in every past year. Works offline. No tracking.
Get the latest version from Releases. Under Assets, download the file for your computer:
| Your computer | Download | Then open |
|---|---|---|
| Windows (64-bit) | windows-x64.zip |
ImageSwiper/ImageSwiper.exe |
| Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) | macos-arm64.zip |
ImageSwiper.app |
| Linux (64-bit) | linux-x64.tar.gz |
ImageSwiper/ImageSwiper |
Extract the download to a folder you can write to, such as Documents, and keep everything inside it together. You don't need to install Python or anything else to run it. Intel Macs aren't supported. On Linux you need a desktop environment; Ubuntu 22.04 or newer is supported.
Image Swiper isn't signed, so your computer may warn you the first time:
- Windows: if SmartScreen says it protected your PC, click More info, then Run anyway.
- macOS: if the app won't open, go to System Settings › Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway next to Image Swiper.
To see video thumbnails and use the date a video was recorded, install
FFmpeg so that ffmpeg and ffprobe are on
your system PATH. On Windows, winget install ffmpeg does this. Without FFmpeg
you can still review videos and open them in your usual player.
- Click Open Folder… (
Ctrl+O, orCmd+Oon a Mac) and pick a folder. Leave Subfolders on to include every folder inside it. - Each photo or video appears in turn. Press Keep (
W) to move on, or Delete (Q) to send it to the Recycle Bin. - Changed your mind? Undo (
Ctrl+Zor Backspace) brings back the last file you deleted and shows it again. Undo is available on Windows. - When you reach the end you'll see how many files you reviewed and how much space you freed.
Under each photo you'll see the date it was taken, how many years ago that was, its name, size and folder. Click the folder to open it in Explorer or Finder.
The strip under the photo shows the whole folder, one block per file: grey for files you've passed, red for files you deleted, and teal for where you are now. Click anywhere on the strip to jump there.
Use Name, Date or Shuffle in the toolbar to choose the order. Name
sorts numbers naturally, so IMG_9 comes before IMG_10.
Turn on On This Day to see only photos and videos taken on today's date, in any year, including this one. Use the arrows beside it to go back or forward a day, for example to catch up on days you missed.
Click Random Day to see a random date. Click it again for another random date.
- Random Day picks only from dates that have photos or videos in the folder.
- Random Day turns on On This Day if it is off.
- After a random pick, the arrows go back or forward from that day.
Click the arrow beside Open Folder… to reopen one of your last three folders. If a folder is on an external drive, connect the drive first.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
W |
Keep and move to the next file |
Q |
Delete (send to the Recycle Bin or Trash) |
Ctrl+Z or Backspace |
Undo the last delete (Windows) |
| Right arrow | Next file |
| Left arrow | Previous file |
Ctrl+O |
Open a folder |
On a Mac, use Cmd instead of Ctrl. With the mouse, you can also click the left
or right edge of the photo to go back or forward, and click a video to play it in
your default player.
Image Swiper only deletes a file when you press Delete or Q. Keeping,
browsing, changing the order and On This Day never change your files, and kept
files stay exactly where they are.
- Windows: deleted files go to the Recycle Bin. Undo restores the most recent one; restore older ones from the Recycle Bin.
- macOS and Linux: deleted files go to the Trash. Restore them from the Trash; Undo isn't available on these systems.
There is no "are you sure?" prompt, so one press of Q sends a file to the bin.
Network drives and some USB drives don't have a Recycle Bin, so files deleted
there may be removed permanently. For your first session, try a copy of a folder
on your computer's own drive.
The space freed is the size of the files you've sent to the bin. You'll get that space back once you empty the Recycle Bin or Trash.
- Photos: JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, WebP, TIFF, HEIC/HEIF and camera RAW files such as CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, DNG and ORF. Large RAW files can take a moment to appear.
- Videos: MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, WMV, WebM, M4V, 3GP, MTS and more. Videos play in your default player, not inside Image Swiper.
Dates come from the photo's or video's own capture information. If a file has none, Image Swiper uses the date the file was last modified, which can put it on the wrong day in On This Day.
To check for a new version:
- Click the version number beside Image Swiper in the toolbar.
- Read the result. If a new version is available, click Open release page.
The version number turns teal when a new version is available. It stays teal until you close the app.
Download the new version and extract it. On Windows, copy the cache folder from
your old Image Swiper folder into the new one, beside ImageSwiper.exe. This keeps
your saved dates, video previews and recent folders. On macOS and Linux, your saved
data carries over automatically.
Upgrading on Windows from a version that stored data in AppData
Close Image Swiper, press Win + R, and open
%LOCALAPPDATA%\ImageSwiper\data\. Copy everything in it into the cache folder
beside the new ImageSwiper.exe, then open the app. If cache already has files
in it, back them up first. Nothing is moved automatically.
- Works offline. Every feature except the update check works with no internet connection.
- No tracking. The app has no telemetry, analytics, crash reports or accounts.
- One network connection, only when you ask. When you select the version number, the app asks GitHub (api.github.com) for the latest release. It sends nothing else and nothing is downloaded. Open release page opens the release page in your browser.
- Your photos stay where they are. The app never writes into your photo folders. It changes a file only when you delete it.
- Saved data stays on your computer. To make repeat visits fast, the app saves
file dates, video previews and your last three folders:
- Windows: in a
cachefolder besideImageSwiper.exe - macOS and Linux: in your account's application data folder
- Windows: in a
To remove previews of videos you have deleted, select … › Clear Thumbnail Cache… in the toolbar.
- The first scan is slow: Image Swiper reads the date of every new file once. Next time the same folder opens much faster. You can close the app mid-scan.
- Videos show "Preview unavailable": install FFmpeg (see above). You can still click to play them.
- A photo appears on the wrong day: it probably has no capture date, so its file date was used instead.
- Windows warns that the app is unsafe: see First launch.
Image Swiper starts from the beginning of the folder each time; it doesn't remember where you stopped. Rotating photos, favourites and finding duplicates aren't available yet.
See development for running from source and tests, architecture for how the code is organised, and releases for building a release.
Free to use and modify. No warranty provided.