Bytesweep Bytesweep 3.1.0: The Library: find a file by describing it, and a picture by what it shows
Bytesweep 3.1.0, for Mac and Windows, adds the Library: your pictures, videos, music, documents and downloads in one list, searched with a sentence, with downloads grouped by where they came from, text copied out of pictures, and pictures found by colour, by what is in them or by a description.
Bytesweep 3.1.0 adds one new page, the Library. It lists your pictures, videos, music, documents and downloads in one place, and it finds them from what you remember instead of what they are called. The Mac update is out now. The Windows update has been sent to the Microsoft Store and arrives there once Microsoft has approved it.
The Library
- Search with a sentence. Type "pdfs from gmail last month", "videos over 1 gb" or "screenshots this month". Bytesweep reads the sentence as filters and shows each one as a chip you can take back out. Sentences are understood in English; the menus for time and size do the same filtering in every language.
- Downloads, by where they came from. Downloads are grouped by their source: Gmail, Slack, Google Drive, WhatsApp, ChatGPT, Claude, GitHub, AirDrop on a Mac, and the site's own name for the rest.
- Copy the text out of a picture. Choose a screenshot, a photo or a PDF and press Copy Text. The words are read on your own computer.
- Search inside files (Mac). A file is also found by the words inside it, including the text macOS has read in your screenshots.
- It only looks. The Library changes nothing. To remove a file, add it to your cleanup list and review it there, with the usual 7-day undo.
Find a picture by what it shows
- By colour. "pink" or "blue" lists the pictures that colour stands out in. This works on Mac and Windows with nothing to download.
- By what is in it (Mac). "beach", "dog" or "receipt" finds the pictures that show one, using Apple's own picture recognition.
- By a description. For "pink shirt" or "dog on a beach", the Library offers a one-time download of about 77 MB, a model called TinyCLIP under the MIT licence. On Windows the same download is what finds things such as "dog" or "beach". It runs on your computer, needs no connection once it is there, and can be removed from the same page.
- Private. Pictures are looked at on your computer and never uploaded. The download is the only thing the Library fetches, once, from bytesweep.app, and only when you press Download.
Good to know
- Descriptions and sentences are understood in English.
- On Windows, the Library does not search inside file contents.
- Folders that belong to a software project or a developer tool are not listed, and on a Mac the Photos library is left to Photos.