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First-run Wizard

Set up SnapByFace in the wizard: add reference photos per person, add the photo and video folders to scan, and watch the first index build before reviewing matches.

The wizard runs on first launch and takes you from an empty app to your first matches. The same steps are available later from the workbench when you want to add more people or more media.

Step 1 — Add people

SnapByFace needs one clear reference photo per person. Name each file after the person — the file name becomes their name:

People/
├── Alice.jpg
├── Bob.png

Photos can live in sub-folders; SnapByFace scans them recursively. But the name always comes from the file name, not the folder name.

Supported image formats: JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, WebP, HEIC/HEIF.

For each photo:

  • SnapByFace detects the face (det_10g.onnx) and stores a 512-D embedding (w600k_r50.onnx) for that person.
  • Photos where no face is detected are reported so you can replace them.
  • Photos containing more than one face are reported — use a single-face ID photo instead.

:::tip Use a frontal, evenly lit, unobstructed ID photo. A passport-style shot produces a cleaner embedding than a crop from a group photo, and it reduces both misses and false positives later. :::

Step 2 — Add media folders

Add one or more folders containing the photos and videos you want searched. SnapByFace scans them recursively, including sub-folders.

  • Images: JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, WebP, HEIC/HEIF
  • Video: MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, M4V, WebM, TS

For video, SnapByFace samples frames at a fixed interval — 1 second by default, adjustable from 0.1 to 30 seconds. See Searching Videos.

:::caution The sampling interval is fixed at analysis time. If you change it later, the affected videos must be analyzed again — changing the match threshold does not replace that. :::

Step 3 — Device statistics (optional)

The wizard asks whether SnapByFace may send device statistics: machine code, app version and operating system, used to count installations and support your license.

Your photos, videos and face data never leave this computer. You can turn the statistics ping off at any time in Settings. See Activation and the FAQ for the exact contents of the ping.

Step 4 — Index and review

SnapByFace walks your media and, for every image and every sampled video frame, detects faces and writes embeddings into the local SQLite index. While it runs you can:

  • Pause and Continue the task.
  • Cancel it — files already finished stay indexed.
  • Close the app and pick up where you left off: on the next launch SnapByFace asks whether to continue the unfinished task.

When indexing finishes, the results view opens with two perspectives:

  • By person — every match grouped under each person you added.
  • By media — every image or video with the people matched inside it.

Practical notes

  • Analysis is CPU-bound. The first pass over a large library takes hours — run it overnight, or start with one folder.
  • Adding a person later does not re-analyze media: SnapByFace re-matches the embeddings it already computed.
  • Your original files are never modified. SnapByFace only reads them and writes into ~/.snapbyface/.

Next steps