Your working photo catalogue lives on your Mac.
Memories stores its managed photographs, previews, face embeddings, search index, and analysis results in an encrypted local library. Your catalogue remains centred on the source computer.
Encrypted at rest
The managed library, catalogue, face vectors, and search artefacts use authenticated encryption or SQLCipher storage. Account credentials and the local library binding use operating-system-protected storage.
Photo intelligence runs locally
Face detection, face matching, preview selection, and photo analysis run in local app processes. Encrypted model assets are opened for inference without writing plaintext model files to the installed library.
Sharing is a deliberate action
Your imported library is not uploaded to Firebase. When you turn on album sharing, Memories serves the chosen album through its HTTPS address while the app and source Mac are online.
Your files remain yours
Ending a trial or subscription does not erase the encrypted local photo library. App features pause until access is restored, and original source files outside Memories are not modified.
Try the workflow
Start with a small collection and see how the encrypted album fits into your existing photo library.
Start with your own photographs.
Memories is available for Apple silicon Macs running macOS 14 or later. Check your Mac App Store for availability and local pricing.
Get Memories for Mac