WINDER

Where Your Library Lives

Winder stores your photographs the way Obsidian stores notes: as plain files in a folder you own. This page is about choosing that folder. What Winder writes inside it is the Developer chapter.

Choosing a folder

Settings → Library → Change folder opens the system folder picker. Whatever you pick, Winder creates a Winder Library/ container inside it — so pointing at the root of iCloud Drive doesn't scatter roll folders across your whole drive.

The one exception is a folder that already holds a library.json. That is a Winder library already, so it is adopted exactly as it is — which is how you open a vault made on another device.

Available on iOS and macOS. On Android the library stays in app storage.

Syncing across devices

Point the library at any folder that syncs and every device sees the same photographs:

  • iCloud Drive — on iOS the library is visible in the Files app; on macOS choose a folder inside iCloud Drive.
  • Dropbox, Syncthing, WebDAV mounts — anything that syncs plain files syncs a Winder library.

Winder re-reads the folder tree every time the app resumes, so edits made on another device — or in a file manager — show up on their own.

Two details make this safe:

  • Write-then-rename. Every JSON file is written to a temporary name and renamed into place, so a sync client never uploads half a file.
  • .trash, not deletion. Deleting a roll or a frame moves it into .trash inside the library. Emptying it is your call, from any file manager.

When the folder isn't there yet

An iCloud Drive that hasn't mounted, an unplugged drive: Winder opens the default library instead and Settings notices the mismatch, offering a retry. Your chosen location is not cleared — a drive that is slow to arrive is not a decision to move the library.

Editing outside the app

Entirely fine — it's your folder:

  • Rename a roll's folder in Finder and the roll is renamed.
  • Move a photo and its .json sidecar into another roll's folder and the frame changes rolls.
  • Drop loose JPEGs into a roll folder and they appear on that roll with default metadata.

Updated 2026-08-06