locallens@community:~$ cat install.md
Download LocalLens, the offline photo organizer
LocalLens is a free, offline photo organizer for macOS on Apple Silicon and 64-bit Windows. Download it from the latest GitHub release; below is how to install it on each system, what it needs, and the one extra step macOS asks for.
How do I install LocalLens on a Mac?
Download the .dmg from the latest release, drag Local Lens into Applications, then clear macOS's Gatekeeper block once. That step is needed because the app is not signed or notarised by Apple, so macOS refuses to open it until you tell it to.
Any one of these clears the block:
- Double-click
Fix_Local_Lens.commandfrom the same release. If macOS blocks that too, runbash ~/Downloads/Fix_Local_Lens.command. - Right-click Local Lens in Applications, choose Open, then Open again.
- Or paste this into Terminal:
xattr -cr "/Applications/Local Lens.app" && codesign --force --deep --sign - "/Applications/Local Lens.app"Homebrew does the Gatekeeper step for you: brew install ashesbloom/locallens/local-lens. The Homebrew cask can trail the newest release by a few versions, so check the version it installs; the DMG on the release page is always the current one.
How do I install LocalLens on Windows?
Download Local.Lens_3.2.0_x64-setup.exe (or the .msi) from the latest release and run it. If the app reports a missing runtime on first launch, install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (x64) and open LocalLens again.
Will LocalLens run on my computer?
It runs on Macs with Apple Silicon (M1 and later) and on 64-bit Windows. Intel Macs and Linux have no build today; Linux is on the roadmap.
| System | Supported | Install with |
|---|---|---|
| macOS, Apple Silicon | Yes | .dmg or Homebrew |
| Windows, 64-bit | Yes | -setup.exe or .msi |
| macOS, Intel | No | The macOS build is arm64 only |
| Linux | Not yet | Planned; the backend already runs there |
For libraries over about a thousand photos, 8 GB of RAM or more is recommended: face recognition is the memory-heavy part. Sorting by date or place alone needs far less.
Which photo formats does LocalLens read?
It reads 19 formats, including iPhone HEIC and camera RAW. A file is picked up by its extension, so videos and documents in the same folder are left alone.
jpg jpeg png gif bmp tiff tif webp heic heif dng cr2 cr3 nef arw raf avif psd hdr
The list lives in backend/face_engine.py.
How do I update LocalLens?
LocalLens checks GitHub for a newer release and offers to install it from inside the app. That check, and from the release after v3.1.0 a check for replies on the community board, are the only connections the app makes on its own; neither sends anything about your photos.
Installed? Here is every step LocalLens takes with a folder, in plain English.