Comparison

cairn vs immichSlides

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

cairn

This app synchronizes your iPhone photo library with your Immich server. It automatically moves photos deleted from your phone to your Immich trash, ensuring consistency. The app prioritizes safety with features like a quarantine window and trash-to-restore functionality.

Highlights
  • Syncs iPhone deletions to Immich
  • Moves deleted photos to Immich Trash
  • Configurable quarantine window
  • Trash-to-restore functionality
  • Percent cap and floor for safety
  • Exclusion options for specific photos
  • Restrict indexing to specific albums
Features
Read full description

cairn reconciles your iPhone photo library against your own Immich server. When you delete a photo on your phone, cairn moves the matching photo on Immich to Trash. That's the whole job. cairn doesn't upload photos, show albums, edit metadata, or run AI — the Immich app already does those things. cairn closes the one loop the Immich app doesn't: photos that live on the server after you've deleted them from your phone. HOW IT WORKS — Content identity is SHA1 (the same identifier Immich uses server-side). — cairn subscribes to iOS's deletion log, so it sees soft-deletes as you make them. — A configurable quarantine window holds confirmed deletions before anything moves, so an accidental mass-offload has time to be caught. — Every run shows you the candidate list first. Nothing happens on the server until you confirm. SAFETY MODEL — Trash, not delete. cairn moves assets into your Immich Trash — Immich retains them for 30 days, and restore is one tap. — Percent cap + floor. If a single run would move more than a threshold of your matched photos to Trash, it aborts without touching the server. — Breadcrumbs. Every run is tagged on Immich (cairn/v1/run/[id]) so you can find it server-side. — Forensic journal. Local append-only log records every step — planned, tagged, trashed, restored, failed. — Exclusions. Protect specific photos from ever being flagged. — Indexing scope. Restrict cairn to a specific set of Photos albums. Photos outside the scope are silently ignored — never hashed, never proposed for trash. Useful if you want to manage just one album and leave synced family albums alone. PRIVACY — No analytics, no telemetry, no crash reporting, no ads. — No cairn backend. Your iPhone talks directly to your Immich server using your API key. — Credentials stay in the iOS Keychain. Nothing leaves your device besides requests you configured. REQUIREMENTS — An Immich server you run or control. — An Immich API key. cairn requests these scopes: asset.read, asset.view, asset.download, asset.delete, tag.create, tag.asset, tag.read. The Setup screen lists them when you paste your key. cairn is not affiliated with the Immich project. It talks to Immich over its public API; compatibility only. Source is MIT-licensed at github.com/glarue/cairn.

About

immichSlides

Features
Read full description

Some photos deserve to be part of the room, not just part of the archive. immichSlides turns your Immich library into a quiet, private slideshow for the screens you already own: Apple TV in the living room, an iPad on a shelf, or an iPhone on a nightstand. Pick albums and people from your own Immich server. The app handles the slideshow, while you stay in control of what plays. Why you’ll use it: • No need to rebuild your library Your albums and people are already in Immich. Choose albums and people in the app without reorganizing, exporting, or creating a separate photo collection. • Fewer awkward surprises When you choose one person, stricter filtering helps reduce group shots, extra people, and photos meant for a smaller audience from appearing on a shared screen. • A better screen for your memories Turn an iPad, iPhone, or Apple TV into a high-quality photo display instead of buying another dedicated digital frame. • Privacy protection for your photo display Use a 6-digit PIN to protect your Immich connection and slideshow selection, so others on a shared device can’t casually change what appears. • Photo details stay with the image Show camera, lens, focal length, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, date, and location while photos play. Before you download: • Requires your own Immich server and API key. • Independent app for Immich; not an official Immich app. • Not a full replacement for the Immich client. • Does not upload, delete, edit, back up, host, or share photos. • Single-person filtering reduces unwanted mix-ins but cannot guarantee perfect results. • Free, with no ads.

Screenshots

cairn4 screens
immichSlides4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: cairn at weekly against immichSlides's every 6 weeks. immichSlides's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

cairn ships an update weekly, immichSlides every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 15, 2026 and July 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
cairn versus immichSlides: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParametercairnimmichSlides
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Apple TV — better
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGraham Larue建忠 赵

In-app purchases

None

cairn

No in-app purchases

None

immichSlides

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is cairn free?
cairn is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is immichSlides free?
immichSlides is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do cairn or immichSlides have ads?
Neither cairn nor immichSlides shows ads.
Which is updated more often, cairn or immichSlides?
cairn ships an update weekly, and immichSlides every 6 weeks. Most recently, cairn was updated on September 15, 2026 and immichSlides on July 29, 2026.

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