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

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

#11

Post by subhobroto »

baron3dl wrote: post #5

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,…

> 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.

I'm assuming the author put in the effort to validate their program handles all kinds of pictures. With that assumption:

- how did *you* validate the one-shot script that Claude handed you works correctly?

- after all said and done, and getting it to work correctly, did you end up spending atleast $30 in time, effort and money?

I am curious how coding agents would affect the future of "micro apps" - apps/scripts that do one thing and just one thing very well.

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

#12

Post by ltiger »

baron3dl wrote: post #5

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,…

Thanks for the feedback! You're right, if you know how to write a script or prompt Claude, you can absolutely spin up a quick tool to scrape attachments in a few minutes.

That said, the $29 price point is for the execution and friction-removal. Turning a raw script into a compiled, code-signed desktop app that handles OS security gates (Mac Dev ID and Windows Smartscreen), dynamically manages Google rate limits, and a provides a beautiful UI for non-technical users takes a lot of effort.

For people who want to rescue their photos without opening a terminal - or who don't even know what a terminal is - this app is a huge win for them.

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

#14

Post by subhobroto »

abirch wrote: post #9
baron3dl wrote: post #5

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,…

My question is why not use IMAP?

That's what they used to do: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48708270

The OP had posted a detailed reply here as well, that they since deleted - I think because they didn't want to deal with all the pushback here.

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

#15

Post by ltiger »

KomoD wrote: post #7

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.

Takeout is great for a total archive backup, but using it just to extract photos is where the UX breaks down for most people.

When you export Mail with Takeout, Google dumps your entire history into a huge .mbox file. If you have a 20-year-old account, you're downloading tens of gigabytes of raw text data, headers, and metadata just to get to the images. Once you have that huge file, you still have to figure out a way to extract and decode the image attachments from the raw email text.

Mail Memories just gives you what you want: the photos.

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

#16

Post by subhobroto »

Thaxll wrote: post #8

For $30 you should sign your binary so you don't have a UAC popup. Also is it not doable with Google takeout ( with Gmail )?

I have not used Windows for decades. With that context:

> For $30 you should sign your binary so you don't have a UAC popup.

How much does it cost to be able to sign a binary so you can deploy it on Windows without a UAC popup? How arduous is it?

> Also is it not doable with Google takeout ( with Gmail )?

It sure is. You do a takeout and iterate over the compressed mbox looking for media attachments. Then you write them out. The edge cases, and the actual value is ensuring you properly grab all the media dispositions.

I also have emails from people who like to zip up a bunch of pictures and then email them to me - my own script takes care of this detail but I wonder if most other tools, including this one does.

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

#17

Post by ltiger »

abirch wrote: post #9
baron3dl wrote: post #5

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,…

My question is why not use IMAP?

It actually does use IMAP! The app connects directly to Google's IMAP servers via SSL straight from your machine.

I intentionally chose a local IMAP pipeline over the official Gmail API because of platform gatekeeping. To use the API for this, Google forces independent developers into a "Restricted Scope" tier, which requires an annual $15,000+ third-party security assessment.

Going the local IMAP route lets me bypass that completely while keeping user data 100% local and secure.

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

#18

Post by KomoD »

subhobroto wrote: post #16
Thaxll wrote: post #8

For $30 you should sign your binary so you don't have a UAC popup. Also is it not doable with Google takeout ( with Gmail )?

I have not used Windows for decades. With that context: > For $30 you should sign your binary so you don't have a UAC popup. How much does it cost to be able to sign a binary so you can deploy it on Windows without a UAC popup? How arduous is it? > Also is it not doable with Google takeout ( with Gmail )? It sure is. You do a takeout and iterate over the compressed mbox looking for media attachments. Then you write t…

> How much does it cost to be able to sign a binary so you can deploy it on Windows without a UAC popup?

You can get a cert for $130-300/yr, and then you can use signtool to sign it.

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

#19

Post by ltiger »

murats wrote: post #10

I like the idea. Google Takeout works, but a focused app that helps you actually find and recover old photos could still be useful.

Thanks!

Yes, use Google Takeout if you want a full account archive. It's a pain if you just want to get your photos, though.

You have to deal with huge .mbox files, download gigabytes of unnecessary text, and sometimes you have to wait days for the export.

The short version is that Mail Memories lets you get the images you want instead of an all-or-nothing data dump.

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