Find Photos by Where You Took Them
Browse your photos and videos on an interactive map. Pan to a place and see what you shot there.
Free Forever - Windows 10/11
Early access. If you hit an issue, use Help in the app to submit a support ticket.
Version 2026.10.3
What's new
Update from the Microsoft Store if you already have RootMap. Your library, people and tags carry over.
Map
- • Photo previews show again when you hover over or click a pin.
- • The map keeps up when you pan and zoom quickly.
- • Streets in dark mode and Hybrid place names are back.
Add Photos
- • Deleting a photo or finishing a scan keeps your place in the folder list.
- • Large photos show in the folder preview.
- • You can keep using the app while a scan runs, even on slow cloud folders.
People
- • Big group photos are no longer skipped on slower PCs.
- • Changing the face detection Speed takes effect straight away.
- • Copying someone's photos to the same folder again doesn't make extra copies.
Everywhere
- • Search for people and tags ignores accents and letter case, so "zoe" finds "Zoë".
- • A photo that can't go to the Recycle Bin stays in your library, and RootMap says how many were skipped.
- • Deleting lots of photos no longer freezes the window, and RootMap closes faster.
The Photo Location Problem
Your phone captures GPS coordinates with every photo, but finding those vacation pictures from Paris or that restaurant you visited last summer? Good luck scrolling through thousands of photos.
Phone apps barely show location data, and desktop apps ignore it completely
Searching by date only works if you remember when you visited
Cloud services have location search, but require uploading all your photos
RootMap Makes It Simple
Point RootMap at your photo folders. It scans for GPS data and shows every photo on a map. Pan to a place or draw a circle to see what you photographed there. Filter by date. Export what you need.
Why We Built RootMap
It started with a simple question: "Where did I take that picture?"
Modern phones capture GPS coordinates with every photo, but that data just sits there, unused. Windows Photos doesn't let you search by location. Google Photos does, but only after you upload everything to their servers.
We wanted to browse our photo collection the way we think about memories - by place. "Show me all photos from our trip to the mountains." "What did we do in that neighborhood last year?"
So we built RootMap. A simple desktop app that reads GPS data from your photos, puts them on a map, and lets you explore your memories by location. No cloud upload required. Your photos stay on your computer.
Features
Interactive Map
The map opens on your photos and lists the ones in view beside it. Streets, Satellite, Hybrid and Topo maps, with place search. Pins fill in while a scan runs.
GPS Extraction
Reads GPS and dates from JPG, PNG, HEIC and TIFF photos. Empty coordinates stay empty: no pins in the ocean.
Videos
Thumbnails, dates, duration, and map pins for MP4, MOV and other videos out of the box. No extra install.
Find the People
On-device face detection groups the people in your photos. Name them, merge duplicates, and copy all of one person's photos to a folder. No face data leaves your machine.
Date Filtering
This year, last year, or your most recent years with photos, a custom From/To range, or a timeline heatmap. The list and the map narrow together.
Area Selection
Draw a circle on the map to filter photos to a specific place. Drag it to move or resize it and the list updates as you go.
Photo Export
Select several photos, or everything that matches your filters, and export them to a folder. Great for sharing trip photos.
Keeps Up With Your Folders
Suggests OneDrive, iCloud and Dropbox camera folders you haven't added. Sync With Disk adds new photos and drops deleted ones, and leaves unplugged drives alone.
Library Search
Find indexed photos by file or folder name without rescanning.
See RootMap in Action
Satellite, street, and topo maps
Switch between map styles to find your photos against real terrain. Clustered pins keep thousands of photos readable, and they expand as you zoom in.
Find the people in your photos
On-device face detection groups every person across your library so you can name them and browse by who's in the shot. No face data ever leaves your machine.
A fast library for everything
Browse, filter, and tag your whole collection in a responsive grid - even photos without GPS data. Export any selection to a folder in a click.
Organize with tags
Tag people, places, and events, then jump straight to every photo with that tag. Auto-tags and your own custom tags live side by side.
How It Works
Select Folder
Choose any folder with photos
Scan Photos
RootMap extracts GPS data from EXIF
View Map
Photos appear as pins on an interactive map
Explore
Pan, zoom or draw a circle to see photos; filter by date
Perfect For
🌍 Travel Photography
Relive your trips by browsing photos on the map. See exactly where each memory was captured.
📸 Photo Organization
Finally sort through years of photos by location instead of scrolling endlessly.
🏠 Real Estate
Quickly find photos of specific properties or neighborhoods from your archive.
📖 Memory Books
Creating a photo book? Use RootMap to find all photos from specific locations.
Your Photos Stay Private
RootMap works on your computer. No cloud photo upload, no account. Your photos and face data never leave your machine. The map loads from OpenStreetMap and Esri, and the app sends LTC Labs anonymous diagnostics.
Ready to Explore Your Photos?
RootMap is free. No trial, no premium tier, no limits.
Get it from Microsoft StoreWindows 10/11 - Free Forever
RootMap is one of the free tools we build at LTC Labs. The rest of the time we modernize and rebuild business software →