Rootmap
Browse your photo collection by GPS location on an interactive map
Getting Started
01 Download & Install
- 1. Open the Microsoft Store listing
- 2. Click Get to install — the Store keeps it updated automatically
- 3. Launch Rootmap
02 First Launch
- • The map shows the world view initially
- • Select a folder containing photos to scan
- • Photos with GPS data appear as pins on the map
Supported File Types
GPS coordinates are read from EXIF metadata embedded by your camera or phone.
Scanning Photos
How to Scan a Folder
- 1. Click Browse to select a folder
- 2. Click Scan to start scanning
- 3. Rootmap recursively scans all subfolders
- 4. Photos with GPS data are indexed in the database
📊 Stats Display
- Indexed - Total photos in database
- GPS - Photos with location data
- Selected - Photos in current view
🔍 Database Search
Toggle Browse DB to search previously indexed photos by filename without rescanning.
Map Features
Interactive Map
Rootmap uses OpenStreetMap tiles in a Leaflet-powered map. Pan, zoom, and click to explore your photos by location.
Scroll wheel or +/- buttons
Click and drag the map
Circle Selection
Draw a circle on the map to filter photos to a specific area.
- 1. Click the circle tool in the map toolbar
- 2. Click on the map to set the center
- 3. Drag to set the radius
- 4. Photos within the circle appear in the results
Photo Pins
Each photo with GPS data appears as a pin on the map. Click a pin to see the photo details. Hover to see a preview.
Faces
Find the People in Your Photos
Rootmap finds the people in your photos with on-device face detection, groups similar faces into people, and lets you name and manage them — then browse every photo a person appears in. All processing is local; no face data leaves your computer.
How to Use It
- 1. Open the Faces tab and start Detect Faces (progress shows in the Activity tab)
- 2. As it runs, people appear as “Person 1”, “Person 2”, … Click one to see their photos
- 3. Rename a person to a real name — it sticks across restarts
- 4. Merge two people (drag one onto the other) when the same person was split into two groups
- 5. Delete a person you don’t want — you can Undo
⚙ Performance (Settings → Faces)
- CPU preset — Background / Balanced / Full Speed. Pick Background to keep using your machine while it runs.
- Compute device — Auto (use a GPU via DirectML if present, else CPU), CPU, or a specific GPU.
- Pause / Resume any time without losing progress.
🔧 Troubleshooting
- No faces found — make sure detection finished (Activity tab); very small or blurry faces may be skipped.
- Same person split in two — use Merge.
- Using too much CPU — set the CPU preset to Background.
Filtering Photos
📅 Date Filtering
Use date presets or custom date pickers to filter photos by when they were taken.
🔄 Sort Options
- Date (Newest) - Most recent first
- Date (Oldest) - Oldest first
- Name (A-Z) - Alphabetical
📤 Export Photos
Select photos in the results list and click Export Selected to copy them to a folder of your choice.
FAQ
Why don't my photos appear on the map? ▼
Photos only appear if they have GPS coordinates in their EXIF metadata. Common reasons for missing GPS:
- • Location services were disabled when the photo was taken
- • The photo was edited with software that strips EXIF data
- • The camera/phone doesn't record GPS (older devices)
- • Screenshots and downloaded images typically don't have GPS
Where is my data stored? ▼
Rootmap stores indexed photo data locally in a SQLite database:
%APPDATA%\Rootmap\photos.db
Your photos are never uploaded anywhere. Rootmap runs entirely on your computer.