Where to start with these photo archive guides
If you read one guide, make it the one on how to organize photos on an external hard drive. The other external hard drive photo guides below go deeper on one task each.
We make CachePix, and these guides name it where it fits. CachePix is a photo catalog app for Mac and Windows. It catalogs the photos on your drives and lets your phone browse them with the drives unplugged. No cloud for your photos. For what it does today, see our photo cataloging software page.
Know the limits. CachePix catalogs JPEG, PNG, WebP and 15 RAW formats. HEIC and TIFF photos are cataloged and searchable, and previews for them are coming on Mac. Video isn't supported. CachePix is a catalog, not a backup, so keep backing up your drives.
Organize photos on your drives
These photo organizing guides help you set up a structure you'll keep and know what a catalog does before you pick one.
Start here
How to organize photos on an external hard drive
A practical system for photos on one drive or five: folders, drive names, two copies, names and captions in the files, and a catalog you can search unplugged.
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Explainer
What is a photo catalog?
How a catalog keeps previews and metadata while pointing to files where they sit, and how that differs from a photo library and a disk catalog.
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Find and search photos
Filenames rarely tell you what's in a photo. The names, keywords and captions inside your files do.
How-to
Find photos across drives
Search a connected drive with Finder or File Explorer, or catalog your drives once and search them later with the drives in a drawer.
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How-to
How to search photo metadata
Which EXIF, IPTC and XMP fields help you find photos, how to add keywords and names, and how to search across drives.
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See your archive on your phone
Browse on an iPhone, iPad or Android phone, and know how much room it takes before you start.
How-to
View external hard drive photos on your phone
Two ways, with steps and limits for each: plug the drive into your phone, or browse a catalog with the drive unplugged.
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Measured data
How much space it uses on your phone
In our measurement (method on the page), CachePix put 8.03 GB of thumbnails on an iPhone for 190,566 photos (885.66 GB) in two folders on one external drive, plus HD previews that download automatically for the capture-date window you choose, the last year by default.
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Troubleshooting
When a drive won't show up or its photos won't open, work through the checks one at a time.
Fixes
Can't view photos on an external hard drive?
Drive missing, photos that won't open, or an iPhone that can't read the drive: check the connection, power, format, file type and permissions.
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Leaving the cloud
Moving a library off a cloud service, or replacing an app you relied on? These pages show where CachePix fits and where another tool is the better pick. For side-by-side facts, compare photo catalog software.
Alternative
Google Photos alternative without the cloud
Keep your photos on your own drives and still browse them on your phone, with the trade-offs spelled out.
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Alternative
Picasa replacement
If you used Picasa, here's how CachePix compares for photos in the folders you already have, gaps included.
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