File Explorer screenshot from PCMagPCMag is a long-running tech publication known for no-nonsense how-tos and product reviews. In this short piece (by Jill Duffy & Ruben Circelli, 7 May 2025) they lay out a “good-enough” framework for photo organization built around just three questions—when you shot the picture, who is in it, and where you took it. The tone is deliberately practical: focus on speed, accept imperfection, and tidy up more later if you feel like it.
If you’re an everyday shooter with thousands of phone snaps—and zero desire to learn pro cataloguing tools—this minimalist approach is squarely aimed at you.
The 3 key questions (and why they matter)
When did you take it? PCMag says this is the single most useful fact to capture. Their “good-enough” fix is simply to batch photos into year and month folders so future-you can time-travel quickly through your archive—even if a few shots land in the wrong month.
Who’s in it? After dates, people matter most. The article suggests two low-effort tactics: let a photo app’s face recognition tag friends automatically, or append names directly to filenames (or folder names) so a quick search for “Bob” or “Mom” shows every shot you need.
Where did you take it? Place often overlaps with time, but PCMag still recommends spelling it out. Create travel sub-folders like
2025 Tuscany Rome Italy, covering every location name you might remember later. If your camera’s metadata already has GPS data, great—otherwise folders work fine.
Tools mentioned
- Apple Photos (macOS / iOS) – built-in face recognition for tagging people
- Dropbox – batch-renaming tool for adding names or locations to many files at once
- Windows File Explorer – cited for its simple year-and-month folder view
Steps to follow
Create top-level folders by year (e.g.
2025,2024,2023).Inside each year, add sub-folders like
2025 Januaryso the month is obvious even if a folder gets moved.Move every photo into its correct dated folder; don’t sweat the odd mis-dated file—you can clean up later.
Identify the people:
- Let face recognition suggest matches in Apple Photos or similar, or
- Add names directly to the filename (quickest for a small batch).
For travel shots, make descriptive sub-folders such as
2025 Tuscany Rome Italyso later searches on either “Tuscany” or “Italy” still work.
Advice (do’s & don’ts called out in the article)
- Aim for better, not perfect—partial organization beats none at all.
- Always include the year in any folder name, even inside a year folder.
- Use consistent naming so a simple search (“Bob”, “Italy”) surfaces everything.
- Don’t bother diving into metadata unless photography is your hobby.
Read the full write-up on PCMag for the complete context, examples, and screenshots: https://www.pcmag.com/explainers/easy-ways-to-organize-your-digital-photos (published 7 May 2025). You can explore more how-tos at https://www.pcmag.com/.