Support — Picdex

Picdex won't start

In the order worth trying:

Look in the tray first. If you chose to keep Picdex in the tray when you closed its window, it is still running and the window is only hidden: its icon sits by the clock (Windows 11 may put it under the ^ arrow). Click the icon to bring the window back.
Just quit Picdex? For a few seconds after quitting, starting Picdex opens nothing; start it again once they are over.
If Picdex shows a screen that names the problem, start there. The catalogue is damaged offers to put back the newest saved copy of your catalogue and keeps the damaged file beside it. Every such screen has Open logs.
Restart the computer once, then start Picdex again. This clears a likely cause — a previous copy still holding the library open.
Check free disk space. Picdex needs room for its library, which keeps its own copy of every screenshot you add; on a nearly full drive it can fail to start with no useful message.
Check your antivirus quarantine. Picdex is a new application from a small vendor and is not code-signed, so Windows or some scanners may hold it as an unknown program on first run.
If Windows said access denied, the folder Picdex writes to is locked. That folder is %LOCALAPPDATA%\Picdex, or the library folder you chose on the Admin screen.
Still nothing — send me the log. It is in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Picdex\logs: paste that path into the Explorer address bar and attach the newest file.

Picdex opens, but nothing gets recognised? Recognition never starts on its own when Picdex opens: press ▶ Start recognition on the Admin screen, or Start recognition on the empty Catalog.

A title has no year or details

Picdex fills in year, format and alternative names from dictionaries that ship with the app, for anime, light novels, films and series. If a title is not in them, the card still works — it shows the name Picdex read and your own screenshot — it just has fewer details.

Manga, manhwa and manhua have no built-in dictionary, so their cards always look like that: the name Picdex read and your own screenshot, without a year or other details.

The picture on every card is your own screenshot. Picdex does not download cover art from anywhere.

It matched the wrong title

Picdex reads the text in a screenshot and makes its best guess. It is wrong some of the time — on my test screenshots, mostly from Instagram, it puts about 65% of works under the right title in the right category, some of them after your OK in the review queue — and the app is built on the assumption that you will correct it. I am working on raising that number.

Open the screenshot's card in Review and pick the right suggestion, or type the right name. On a title's page you can also detach a screenshot that does not belong, rename the title, or merge two titles. Your correction stays: reading the screenshot again keeps your decisions, and the same words on a later screenshot go to the title you chose when they are read as the same kind of work.

If it is wrong often, please send me examples. One screenshot plus the title it should have found tells me more than any description of the problem. That is how recognition gets better.

Where my files are, and moving to another PC

The screenshots in your folders stay exactly where they were; Picdex never moves or renames them. It works from its own copy of each screenshot you add, and everything it creates, those copies included, lives in one folder:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Picdex

Back up: quit Picdex first: choose Quit in its tray icon's menu (right-click the icon by the clock), or Close Picdex when the window's × asks. Then copy that folder. If you chose a different library folder on the Admin screen, copy that one too.
Move to another computer: quit Picdex on the old computer (Quit in its tray icon's menu, or Close Picdex when the window's × asks). On the new one, install Picdex but do not start it yet, copy the folder to the same place there, then start Picdex. If your library was in a folder you chose yourself, copy that folder too — to the same drive letter and path if you can, otherwise choose it again on the Admin screen. If Picdex then says Nowhere to write, the folder it remembers cannot be reached on this computer (for example, its drive is missing): quit it, delete data-root.txt from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Picdex, start it again and choose the library on the Admin screen.
Uninstall: quit Picdex first (Quit in its tray icon's menu, or Close Picdex when the window's × asks), then uninstall it in Steam. That removes the app; your screenshots are untouched, and the folder above stays until you delete it.

If your library looks empty after moving machines or reinstalling, Picdex is looking at a folder without it: either the folder above did not come with you, or the library folder you chose is somewhere else now — choose it again on the Admin screen.

More than one computer?

Yes. It is tied to your Steam account, not to a machine. Install it on every computer you own. There is no activation and no licence key.

Windows only, and does it work offline

Picdex is a Windows 10 64-bit (or newer) application. There is no macOS version and no Linux version.

Offline: yes. Recognition, the title dictionaries and your pictures are all on your disk, and Picdex makes no network request unless you turn one on. One optional feature uses the internet, off by default: dictionary updates from the manami project. No screenshot ever leaves your computer.

Known issues — version 0.1.0

Picdex is not code-signed, so Windows or your antivirus may warn about an unknown publisher the first time it starts.
Dragging a folder into the window does not add it. Use Add folder… on the Admin screen instead.
HEIC photos from an iPhone camera are not accepted. iPhone screenshots are PNG and work normally.
Picdex does not keep the computer awake. If Windows is set to sleep after some idle time, it goes to sleep during a long recognition run too; to leave a large folder running, change that setting in Windows.
Adult anime and manga can land on the ordinary Anime or Manga tab instead of 18+; to move one, press ✎ by Categories (where shown) on its title page, tick 18+ anime or 18+ manga, untick Anime or Manga and press Save categories.

If your problem is on this list you do not need to write to me — it is already known.

Refunds

Refunds are handled by Steam, not by me. Steam issues a refund for any reason if you request it within 14 days of purchase and have used the product for less than 2 hours. Steam counts the time Picdex runs, including while it sits in the tray after you close its window; choose Quit in the tray icon's menu to stop it.

You do not need to ask me first, and I cannot process it for you — I have no access to your purchase. Request it from your Steam account. If Picdex did not do what this site says it does, that is a perfectly good reason to use it.

How to reach me

Steam Community Discussions is the best place: other buyers see the answer, so the same question gets solved once. Use the Discussions tab on the Picdex store page.

support@picdex.dev

Please include, in the first message:

your Windows version;
your Picdex version — it is shown at the bottom of every screen of the library (if Picdex does not start, say so instead);
roughly how many screenshots are in your library;
what you did, and what happened instead;
if the app failed rather than misbehaved, the newest file from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Picdex\logs — or press Collect diagnostics on the Admin screen and attach the report it writes into that folder.

That usually turns three rounds of questions into one reply.

Asking for the source code of the FFmpeg library that ships with Picdex, as offered in THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.txt next to Picdex.exe, is ordinary support mail: write to the address above and I reply within seven working days.