photo-library-rescue

Photo Library Rescue Skill

Photo libraries induce a special paralysis: 40,000 items, emotional stakes, and no obvious start. The rescue order matters — backup before touching anything, then shrink by category (screenshots, bursts, blur, duplicates — the low-sentiment bulk), and only then organize what remains, lightly, because modern search (dates, places, faces, content) does more than albums ever did. The goal isn't a curated museum; it's a library where the good photos are findable and the cruft stopped multiplying.

What This Skill Produces

• The backup-first step — verified, before any deletion; the rescue's non-negotiable opening
• The shrink passes — ordered by volume-per-sentiment: screenshots → bursts/near-dupes → blur/pocket shots → true duplicates
• The light organizing layer — favorites + a handful of albums for purposes, search trusted for the rest
• The monthly habit — the ten-minute pass that keeps the library from re-growing the cruft

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• The platform(s) — one ecosystem or a split (phone + cloud + old hard drive); splits need a consolidation decision first, and the skill sequences it
• The scale and the pain — count, and what actually hurts (storage full? can't find anything? duplicate anxiety?) — the passes reorder by the pain
• Backup status, honestly — is there ANY second copy? Nothing deletes until yes
• Sentiment hotspots — the irreplaceable categories (the kids, the trip, the late relative's photos) — flagged so no bulk rule ever touches them

Framework: The Rescue Order

1. Backup precedes deletion, absolutely: a second verified copy (cloud + local, ideally) before pass one — because bulk deletion with no backup converts a mess into a tragedy. Verify by restoring a sample, not by trusting a sync icon.
2. Shrink by category, lowest sentiment first: screenshots (search screenshot, review-delete in bulk — they're 10–30% of most libraries and 0% of the memories) → burst/near-duplicate sets (keep best-of, platforms surface these) → blur and pocket shots → exact duplicates last (dedupe tools where available, always into a reviewable album before final delete).
3. Organize purposes, not taxonomy: favorites for the genuinely good; albums only for uses (Kids' highlights, House documents, the annual-book candidates) — never year/month albums (dates already do that) and never one-album-per-event (search does that). Ten albums is a system; a hundred is a second mess.
4. The photos-as-documents split: receipts, whiteboards, IDs, and forms photographed over the years get moved to the document system ([folder-structure-designer](../folder-structure-designer/SKILL.md)) or a Documents album — they pollute both search and memories where they sit.
5. The habit closes the loop: monthly ten minutes — favorite the month's best, delete the month's screenshots/bursts, done. Cruft compounds monthly or gets cleared monthly; the choice is the habit.

Output Format

Photo Rescue: [platform(s)] — [count] items

Step 0 — Backup (verified)

[The second copy plan · the restore-a-sample verification · nothing proceeds before this line clears]

The Shrink Passes (in order)

| Pass | How | Est. reduction |

|---|---|---|

[Screenshots · bursts · blur · exact dupes — each with the platform's mechanism]

The Light Layer

[Favorites discipline · the ≤10 purpose-albums · the documents split · search-first retrieval note]

The Monthly Ten Minutes

[The three moves, calendared]

Quality Checks

• [ ] Backup verified by restore-sample before any deletion
• [ ] Passes run lowest-sentiment-first, and sentiment hotspots are excluded from bulk rules
• [ ] Duplicates route through a reviewable album before final deletion
• [ ] Albums number ≤10 and each names a purpose
• [ ] The monthly habit exists with a calendar entry

Anti-Patterns

• [ ] Do not delete anything before the verified backup — the rule with no exceptions
• [ ] Do not start with the sentimental years — paralysis lives there; screenshots first
• [ ] Do not build year/month albums — dates are already an index
• [ ] Do not chase perfect curation — findable-good beats museum-complete, and only one of them ever finishes
• [ ] Do not run bulk rules over the flagged hotspots — the kids' photos get eyes, not filters