SQLite Photo Explorer for Windows 10/11 Photos App

Setup

1. Dependencies

NPM install the dependencies in the project directory.

npm install

2. Run Windows Photos AI on your photos

Place photos to scan into the ./data/all folder in the project directory.

In the Settings app, reset the Photos app to factory settings, then open the Photos app. Inside Photos, add the ./data/all folder from the project directory. It will start scanning.

After it has finished scanning, you're ready to use the SQLite database. Go to folder your AppData directory (a hidden folder inside your user folder C:/Users/<YOUR_USER>/AppData). From there, copy ./Local/Packages/Microsoft.Windows.Photos_8wekyb3d8bbwe/LocalState/MediaDb.v1.sqlite to ./data/ in the project directory. It may also be in ./Local/Packages/Microsoft.PhotosLegacy_8wekyb3d8bbwe/LocalState/MediaDb.v1.sqlite

You're now ready to use the app.

3. Launch the app

In the project directory, run the following:

node index.js

Features

Object recognition

Full Location

Camera Make/Model

Packages Used

1. Prisma

The SQLite DB the Windows Photos maintains is highly normalized, it's not fun to query. Prisma handles the SQL.

2. TanStack Table

Table adds all the filtering, sorting, nested grouping features available in the app.

3. TanStack Virtual

Virtual allows 10s of 1000s of rows to be loaded in app. All the rows can be filtered against, aggregated, but not displayed at once. Instead, only a "screen-full" of rows are truly displayed. Uses infinite scrolling similar to social apps.

4. Others

• SolidJS - Frontend framework
• Fastify - Backend server, static server
• Vite - Frontend builder
• ST - Runtime type definitions