
PiGallery2
Fast directory-first photo gallery for low-resource servers

PiGallery2 is a fast, directory-first web photo gallery that renders your existing folder structure as a read-only gallery. It is optimized for low-resource servers and focuses on quick browsing, searching, and viewing photos and videos without modifying your originals.
Key Features
- Directory-first browsing that mirrors your on-disk folder structure
- Fast indexing to a database for responsive browsing (SQLite or MySQL)
- Advanced search with boolean logic, negation, range queries, and autocomplete suggestions
- Photo viewer with optional info panel (including EXIF metadata)
- Map view from GPS photo metadata, with GPX track display and activity visualization
- Sharing links for folders with optional password protection
- On-the-fly thumbnail generation in multiple sizes with caching to a temp folder
- Video playback support and optional transcoding with thumbnail generation
- Markdown files in folders for simple blogging/notes and date attachment
- Logical albums based on saved searches and per-user allow/block filters
Use Cases
- Self-host a lightweight family photo archive that keeps your existing folder layout
- Quickly search large photo collections by date, rating, people metadata, and location
- Share selected folders externally via password-protected links
Limitations and Considerations
- The gallery is intentionally read-only and does not support organizing, editing, or tagging photos within the app
- Face features rely on existing metadata (no built-in ML-based automatic face detection)
PiGallery2 is best suited for users who want a fast, minimal-maintenance photo gallery that reflects their filesystem as-is. It provides powerful search and viewing features while keeping photo management in your regular file workflow.
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