Homespun

Originals at home.
Compact copies on your iPhone.

Homespun keeps full-quality photos and videos on a server you own, and puts small, good-looking copies back in Apple Photos.

In development. Not yet on the App Store.

All three ways of using it work in testing today: on the iPhone, with your own server, and with Immich.

How it works

  1. Pick the photos and videos you want to slim down.
  2. Store the originals on your server. Each one is checked byte for byte (SHA-256).
  3. Get compact copies back in Apple Photos with the same date, place, and favorites. Live Photos stay live.
  4. Free up space if you want. Homespun asks iOS to remove an original only after your server proves it holds an identical copy. iOS asks you to confirm, and the item stays in Recently Deleted.

Three ways to use it

On your iPhone

Compress with Apple's built-in encoders. No server needed. Your originals stay where they are.

Your own server

Run Homespun Server at home (Linux or Docker). It keeps the originals and makes the smallest copies.

With Immich

Already back up to Immich? Homespun checks your originals there, byte for byte, and never changes them.

Why

Homespun grew out of a personal setup that shrank a 37,000-item photo library to about a fifth of its size while keeping every original safe at home. Photos fit within 2048 pixels, videos within 720p, and nothing is deleted until a verified copy exists.