Mail Memories
Productivity
photo recovery
SHOW HN2026
How HN took it
5 positive, 10 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 8 critical, out of 25 comments about the project. Thread score -0.02.
Idea: 3 for, 1 againstDesign: 0 for, 3 againstExecution: 0 for, 3 againstPricing: 0 for, 1 againstPrivacy: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Local-first, no cloud or subscription approach
From 1 comment
> 100% local, no cloud, no subscriptions, no AI. The world needs more of this
artisinal on HN
Good idea that fills a gap Takeout leaves
From 2 comments
I like the idea. Google Takeout works, but a focused app that helps you actually find and recover old photos could still be useful.
murats on HNidk if other tools do it for free, but cool idea, hope that it gains the deserved visibility
tribal808 on HN
Maker handled criticism gracefully
From 1 comment
This place can get a little snarky but congrats on shipping!
jborichevskiy on HN
Objections
Priced too high at $30 for what free tools or scripts can do
From 4 comments
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…
baron3dl on HN> 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…
subhobroto on HNThe website is clearly vibecoded, and that makes me assume the app is also vibecoded. When I open the installer, Edge gives me a warning that the file is not safe. I know that…
boca_honey on HNWatching this thread unfold over 24h was illuminating. The biggest pushback seemed to be the price: people are upset it's priced at $30. Some suggested $3. A few suggested open…
subhobroto on HN
Site looks AI-generated
From 3 comments
The website is clearly AI-written (along with the text), and the screenshot also looks quite like the styles that LLMs love
Tiberium on HNIf I have to look at yet another website with this same fucking AI-generated theme I'm gonna have to kill somebody.
TazeTSchnitzel on HN“I found photos of my niece I thought were lost forever. Thank you so much!” Emily D. Be honest, is "Emily D" a real person you got organic feedback from? Small thing that makes…
ks2048 on HN
Windows installer triggers security warning or UAC prompt
From 2 comments
The website is clearly vibecoded, and that makes me assume the app is also vibecoded. When I open the installer, Edge gives me a warning that the file is not safe. I know that…
boca_honey on HNFor $30 you should sign your binary so you don't have a UAC popup. Also is it not doable with Google takeout ( with Gmail )?
Thaxll on HN
Claimed technical effort overstated versus simple IMAP use
From 2 comments
> 98% of my time went into wrestling with IMAP parsing architectures, optimizing memory, and code-signing certificates instead of designing custom CSS layouts from scratch You're…
KomoD on HN> The details are interesting! How did you find all of this out? Did you download the tool in a VM and disasm it? I downloaded the installer, opened it with 7zip, and extracted…
KomoD on HN
Requests
Lower price
From 2 comments
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…
baron3dl on HNWatching this thread unfold over 24h was illuminating. The biggest pushback seemed to be the price: people are upset it's priced at $30. Some suggested $3. A few suggested open…
subhobroto on HN
Open source the code under MIT
From 2 comments
It worked fist shot, and found 3k+ photos, which feels about right. Validated with Vibes. It's going to take more than $30 in time to look at them all, and it's 3k+ more photos…
baron3dl on HNWatching this thread unfold over 24h was illuminating. The biggest pushback seemed to be the price: people are upset it's priced at $30. Some suggested $3. A few suggested open…
subhobroto on HN
Fix the misleading read-only storage claim on the site
From 1 comment
“I found photos of my niece I thought were lost forever. Thank you so much!” Emily D. Be honest, is "Emily D" a real person you got organic feedback from? Small thing that makes…
ks2048 on HN
Questions
Why not use IMAP or Google Takeout instead
From 2 comments
My question is why not use IMAP?
abirch on HNFor $30 you should sign your binary so you don't have a UAC popup. Also is it not doable with Google takeout ( with Gmail )?
Thaxll on HN
Does it handle all image types and zipped attachments
From 2 comments
> 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…
subhobroto on HNI 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…
subhobroto on HN
Would a hosted version require the user's Gmail password
From 1 comment
I was monitoring this thread because of the comments. Unsure how I came across this post to begin with! (was it on the FP?) You really handled all the feedback well and if you…
subhobroto on HN
Alternatives named
Google Takeout
From 2 comments
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.
KomoD on HNFor $30 you should sign your binary so you don't have a UAC popup. Also is it not doable with Google takeout ( with Gmail )?
Thaxll on HN
Python or Claude-generated scripts
From 2 comments
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…
baron3dl on HNInteresting! I already have a Python script that can download anything from Gmail. Making it a product?! Really have not thought about it! Which is why I am probably broke Ha Ha
t_mahmood on HN
unattach.com
From 1 comment
I have the same issue and found this worked great https://unattach.com/ (no affiliation, just a user)
zazerr on HN