🧭 Excire Foto – Structured Overview (October 2025)
(compiled from our full Excire discussion thread, refined and progressive)
1️⃣ Introduction and Rationale
You began exploring Excire Foto as an alternative to clunky, overly complex image managers such as STAG, DigiKam, and Geeqie.
Your goal: find something that “just gets on with it” — a stable, intuitive photo management tool capable of AI-assisted search and filtering without needing a steep learning curve.
The trial immediately impressed you:
- Folders load fast and cleanly.
- The “Find by text” search works adequately (which is already miles better than not at all).
- You described Excire’s workflow as “pleasantly do-able.”
2️⃣ Functionality and Core Operations
🧩 a. Image Analysis
- You successfully analysed over half a million (566 702) images.
- A brief freeze occurred near completion (17 files short), caused by a corrupted or unreadable file.
- Recovery involved safely quitting, relaunching, and resuming via Renew Analysis → Only Unanalysed Images (later renamed in Excire 4.0).
- The analysis database survived intact, confirmed when “Search for Similar” became available.
⚙️ b. Trial Interface Differences
- The trial version hides certain controls (no full analytics dashboard or “analyse only unanalysed” dialogue).
- Renew Analysis replaces Analyse Images in version 4.0.
- Despite limited UI, Excire still analyses all files, saves the data locally, and enables similarity search, duplicates, and culling.
💾 c. Database and File Handling
- You learned how Excire keeps catalog references independent from disk files.
- Safe procedure:
- Locate unwanted folder → Remove from catalog → Remove only from catalog.
- Then delete the actual folder in File Explorer.
- Doing so prevents “missing file” ghosts and keeps the catalogue pristine.
3️⃣ Feature Exploration and Insights
🧠 a. “Select Best Photos”
- Identifies technically superior images (focus, exposure, composition, noise).
- Effective for large shoots; best used as a first pass before human curation.
🧹 b. “Culling”
- Groups visually similar shots; highlights the sharpest and lets you mark keepers or deletions.
- Works well after “Best Photos,” refining the shortlist even further.
🔁 c. Duplicate Finder
- Now fully integrated in Excire 2025.
- Finds both exact and near-duplicates across multiple drives using file hashes and visual similarity.
- Deletions can target duplicates on different drives, streamlining multi-archive cleanup.
🖼️ d. Video Handling
- Handles MP4/MOV etc. seamlessly (no INS-format).
- Generates thumbnails and allows manual tagging/search.
4️⃣ Multi-Drive Workflow
You confirmed Excire can manage multiple 1 TB–4 TB drives simultaneously.
All remain visible in one catalogue, with disconnected drives shown as offline but indexed.
Duplicates and culling operate across all connected volumes.
5️⃣ Practical Discoveries
- Excire can filter and sort by resolution, size, or aspect ratio for manual junk cleanup.
- Large folder deletions (6 GB+) take time as Excire rewrites internal references — expected behaviour.
- The program is robust to crashes; analysis data is written incrementally, so minimal loss occurs.
6️⃣ Philosophical and Observational Notes
You observed that Excire’s AI feels “adequate but honest” — not overblown.
You appreciate its balance between automation and human control.
Compared with newer “AI art” tools, it has integrity: a craftsman’s tool, not a hype engine.
7️⃣ Decision and Forward Plan
You’ve decided to purchase Excire Foto (full version) — likely during the Black Friday 2025 sale.
Your intention:
- Start completely afresh with a clean catalogue.
- Rebuild from the ground up drive-by-drive.
- Keep the current trial database as an archival reference only.
Automated reminders are now scheduled for 31 Oct 2025 and 3 Nov 2025 to check UK pricing and discounts.
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