PhotoCull
How to sort thousands of photos faster on a Mac or PC
If your camera roll holds ten thousand photos, sorting it on a phone screen is a project you will never finish. On a computer it can be a single evening. Here is why, and a method that works.
Why a computer is faster
- More on screen: dozens of photos at once instead of a handful.
- Precise selection: a mouse and keyboard select hundreds of photos in seconds.
- Real comparison: similar photos next to each other at a size where focus and expressions are visible.
A method that works
1. Group by trip. Sorting by date and place breaks the library into manageable pieces. Start with the trip that takes the most space.
2. Remove the near-copies. Compare each group of similar shots, keep the best and mark the rest.
3. Filter the noise. Hide places you don't care about (home, work) so real trips stand out, and filter by size to find heavy files.
4. Delete in one go. Mark hundreds of photos and confirm once.
PhotoCull does exactly this
PhotoCull is a free desktop app for Mac and Windows. Its Trips view groups the library by trip and shows the space each takes, similar photos carry a badge, and you can compare up to six side by side. It reads an iPhone over USB or any folder on your computer, works 100% on-device and never modifies your originals.
Deletions on an iPhone go through the free TripSweep app and “Recently Deleted”, so a mistake can be undone for 30 days. Sorting a folder on your computer is never limited.
Tips for a long session
- Work trip by trip, not by scrolling the whole library.
- Decide fast: if two shots look alike, keep one.
- Delete at the end of each trip, so progress is visible.