PhotoPrism, a popular software solution loved by photography enthusiasts and self-hosting aficionados, has rolled out its latest stable release, packed with enhancements to both its security features and overall functionality.
However, if you are unfamiliar with the software, let us briefly introduce it. PhotoPrism is an AI-powered photo management application that allows users to conveniently organize, browse, and share photos and videos. It is similar to platforms like Google Photos or iCloud Photos but strongly focuses on user privacy and data control.
The good part is that, like other similar solutions, such as Immich or Ente, you can run PhotoPrism on your own server, on a private cloud, or even locally on your device. This means you have complete ownership and privacy over your precious moments, with no third-party access. Now, back to the topic.
The highlight of the new release is the introduction of Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). This security layer adds an extra verification step to the login process, significantly enhancing account security by requiring a second form of identification beyond just the password.
But the PhotoPrism latest update doesn’t stop at just security enhancements; it also brings a plethora of other improvements across the board:
- User Interface (UI): App Passwords can now be managed directly through the UI, and buttons and toggles in search results are now more visible.
- Photo and Video Management: The handling of non-JPEG files like HEIC has been updated, and they are no longer incorrectly marked as stacks in the UI. Video capabilities have also seen significant upgrades, including enhanced support for Intel QSV hardware transcoding and the addition of support for Material Exchange Format (MXF) files.
- Albums and Places: Users will notice fixed links to albums in the settings tab of the edit dialog and updated reverse geocoding data along with standard map tiles, which enhance the ‘Places’ feature.
- Indexing and Metadata: PhotoPrism now warns about files with invalid filename extensions and ignores nested storage folders within the original path. Additionally, improvements have been made in metadata handling, such as using file modification times as creation time fallbacks and better validation of camera settings.
- Performance and Setup: There are new indexing optimizations to reduce query time, and the software now includes ARMv7 tar.gz packages, facilitating installation in a broader range of devices without needing Docker.
- WebDAV and API Enhancements: The update preserves file modification dates via the X-OC-MTime header and introduces support for OAuth2 client credentials and access tokens, along with Prometheus-compatible metrics for better system monitoring.
- Security and Maintenance: The PhotoPrism dev team has upgraded to the latest stable release of Go, enhanced CORS policies, and improved cache headers to bolster both security and performance.
Moreover, the application has seen updates in its translation capabilities, with missing user interface translations now generated using tools like DeepL and Google Translate. In light of this, the developers encourage native speakers of various languages to help with translation if they notice any inconsistencies.
For detailed information about all the changes in the latest version of PhotoPrism, check out the changelog or visit the project website.
