cairn vs immichSlides
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
immichSlides
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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
Verdict
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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
cairn ships an update weekly, immichSlides every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 15, 2026 and July 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | cairn | immichSlides |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Graham Larue | 建忠 赵 |
In-app purchases
cairn
No in-app purchases
immichSlides
No in-app purchases





