Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail

Hey HN, I’m the creator of Mail Memories. Like many of you, I've had my Gmail address for more than 20 years. A few years ago, I got curious and wanted to see what photos were buried deep in my account. I ended up finding lots of "lost" pictures of old friends, family members, and a ridiculous number of vintage memes.

I originally built and launched this as a SaaS, but even with code and policies in place that kept users' photos private, I figured everyone would feel more comfortable with a desktop app.

So, I threw out the server architecture and completely rewrote it as a 100% local desktop app for Mac and Windows.

How it works now: The app connects directly to Google's server from your computer, processes everything entirely on your system, and saves photos straight to your hard drive.

You can download your 50 oldest photos for free (no credit card required) just to see what's in there. If you want to download all the pictures in your account, it's a one-time payment of $29. No subscriptions.

If you have an old, pre-2010 Gmail account, definitely give it a spin. You'll be surprised at what you find deep in your archive.

I'd love to hear your feedback on the layout, scanning performance, or anything else.

TL;DR: I turned my SaaS into a local desktop app (Mac/Windows) that recovers decades of forgotten photos from your Gmail. 100% local, no cloud, no subscriptions, no AI.

Show HN: Mail Memories – A desktop app to rescue photos from Gmail
mailmemories.com

idk if other tools do it for free, but cool idea, hope that it gains the deserved visibility

First, I really love this idea, and I thank you for getting it into my head.

That said, if no AI is really important, I guess it's worth $29, though I can't tell if you used AI to build it or not from here.

Like, I just one-shot a script that does the same with Claude, after it listed 5 free projects that do the same, including one GUI. The whole thing took less time than writing this comment.

Now, if it were $2.99, I probably would have just paid you.

Or you can just use Google Takeout: https://takeout.google.com

Deselect everything, select "Mail", create export, wait until it's done, and then download the zip.

My question is why not use IMAP?