Repository navigation
Image Organizer Library and Scanning
The Library page controls which folders RulZ watches and how it groups faces.
- Add folder... adds a folder and everything inside it. Adding a folder that is already covered by another one is refused; adding a parent folder absorbs its sub-folders.
- Remove from library stops showing a folder's photos and deletes RulZ's face tags for them. The files on your PC are never deleted.
- Double-click a folder to open it in Explorer.
Your files are only ever read. RulZ never moves, renames, edits or deletes them.
- Automatically every time the app starts.
- When you add a folder.
- When you click Scan now (or press
F5), for example after copying in new photos.
Each scan notices:
| Change on disk | What RulZ does |
|---|---|
| New photo | Detects its faces, adds it to the timeline |
| Edited photo | Re-analyzes it |
| Deleted photo | Removes it from the library |
| Moved or renamed photo | Recognizes it as the same photo and keeps its face tags |
| Folder missing (drive unplugged) | Leaves everything as it is until the folder is back |
Scanning runs in the background and you can Pause it. A paused or interrupted scan continues where it left off next time.
- A thumbnail is saved to speed up browsing.
- Faces are found and each gets a numeric "fingerprint" used to group the same person.
- For each face: expression, head direction and, when the legs are visible, body pose (How It Works).
- Photos are dated from the camera's EXIF date taken, or the file date if there is none.
This slider sets how similar two faces must be to count as the same person (default 0.40).
- Different people end up in one group: move towards Stricter.
- One person is split into many groups: move towards Looser.
Click Apply and regroup to rebuild the unnamed groups with the new setting. Named people and all of your manual corrections are kept.
%LOCALAPPDATA%\RulZ Image Organizer holds the library database, thumbnails, face crops and your preferences (settings.ini). The Library page has an Open button for it. To start completely fresh, close the app and delete that folder. Your photos are not affected.
Advanced: set the environment variable RULZ_DATA_DIR to keep the data somewhere else.