# Les Pas: a Nextcloud-backed photo gallery that keeps the server work out of the way

> Les Pas is a free Android gallery app written in Kotlin that stores photos, GIFs and videos on your own Nextcloud server and syncs them across devices, with remote albums that live only on the server, joint albums you can edit with other Nextcloud users, AI object search, a slideshow that runs on a map and GPX geotagging. It is Apache-2.0 licensed, distributed through F-Droid and GitHub rather than Google Play, and the developer has ended his Play developer account over the home address policy.

**scubajeff/lespas** — Les Pas, photo album app for Nextcloud user

- Repository: https://github.com/scubajeff/lespas
- Stars: 552 · Forks: 32
- Language: Kotlin
- License: Apache-2.0
- Published: 2026-10-22 · Updated: 2026-10-22 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/scubajeff-lespas

## Why Les Pas is no longer on Google Play

The most consequential fact about this project is not about photos. The project description states it plainly: the latest Google Play developer policy requires the developer to hand in their home address, the developer disagrees with that as an open source, free app author, and has therefore terminated the developer account. The app is no longer available from Google Play.

Two channels remain, and the project states the practical consequence of each. The latest version is available from F-Droid and from the GitHub releases. The GitHub build has the same app signing key as the Google Play version, so installing the GitHub update over the Play install works without a reinstall. If you choose the F-Droid update channel instead, you have to uninstall the Google Play version first and reinstall from F-Droid, because the two are signed with different keys and Android will not let one replace the other. The documentation reassures on the data side, pointing to a solid backup and restore mechanism so your data and settings are not lost in the process.

That policy is worth understanding as a class of decision rather than as an anecdote. A maintainer of a free app with no revenue stream has to decide whether to accept a disclosure that has nothing to do with the software, and this developer decided no and gave up a distribution channel to do it. The cost is real, since F-Droid installs are manual and the Play audience was larger, and the benefit is that the app can keep existing without a home address on file with a platform.

Les Pas is Apache-2.0 licensed, is written in Kotlin, and the last push was on 2026-08-31, the same day as the 2.11.5 release, with 2.11.4 from 2026-05-26 and 2.11.3 from 2026-05-16 before it. The repository is not archived and the default branch is master.

## Nextcloud as storage, without touching the server configuration

Les Pas is described as a free, modern, lightweight and fast gallery app that organises your photos, GIFs and videos into albums for easy viewing and sharing, with built-in two-way sync with your Nextcloud server.

The design decision that makes it interesting is stated early: although it uses Nextcloud as the storage backend, you do not have to install any Nextcloud app on the server for Les Pas to function. The project calls it a good solution if you have limited knowledge of, or authorization to alter, your Nextcloud configuration.

That is a real constraint addressed properly. Most Nextcloud client apps either need a companion server app or need write access to specific paths. A photo gallery that syncs with WebDAV through the standard Nextcloud API and keeps the album structure in its own local database sidesteps both problems, and it means the app can be used with a plain Nextcloud account without an administrator installing anything for you.

The sync model is two-way and multi-device. You can edit albums on the Nextcloud server and on all your mobile devices simultaneously, and the app authenticates against your server with your Nextcloud credentials, which is the privacy-focused choice since there is no separate account to manage.

The feature that changes the storage arithmetic is Remote Album. In that mode all the media files are stored on the Nextcloud server only, freeing up the phone's storage. For a user with a few years of photos and a phone with 128GB, that is the difference between keeping everything local and curating a smaller local set. There is also support for Nextcloud external storage, so a NAS or another mounted target can hold the media.

## Media handling, gallery backup and the file formats the project cares about

On the media side the project lists a wide format support: standard media formats plus Panorama Photo Sphere, RAW and HDR photos, and Google Motion Photo. RAW and HDR support is what separates a gallery built for phone camera output from one built for a digital camera, and the GPX import feature exists for the same reason, letting you add GPS location data to pictures shot on a camera that did not record it.

The gallery management model is that the app manages media files in the phone's gallery and backs them up to the server automatically, and each media folder on the phone has its own backup setting. Per-folder settings matter more than they sound, because most people have a camera roll they want synced and a downloads folder full of screenshots they do not, and a global switch forces you to choose one behaviour for both.

Search is the other thing a photo gallery is judged on, and Les Pas has two kinds. You can search for photos by objects with AI, which is the find-the-picture-of-the-dog feature that every modern gallery claims, and you can search photos by location, which relies on the geotagging the app can add from GPX files or read from EXIF.

Privacy touches the file handling rather than the metadata. Media files and thumbnails are all saved in the app's private storage, so they stop being scanned by malicious apps, and there is an option to strip a photo's EXIF before sharing to other social networks, which is the setting that matters when you post a picture taken at home. There is also an option to hide an album both on the phone and on the server, and captions can be added to photos.

The app also integrates with external editors, with Snapseed, Photoshop Express, ImageToolbox and Open Video Editor named as the ones it works with, and it runs on Android TV for big-screen viewing.

## Sharing, joint albums and the slideshow features that go beyond a file manager

The sharing model is built on Nextcloud's own user model rather than on public links, and that is the notable part.

You can share albums and album slideshows with other Nextcloud users, groups and circles. The distinctive feature is called Joint Album, where you and other Nextcloud users can edit the same album together. The project is explicit about the positioning here, saying that any app doing the basics is merely a media file manager with a fancy UI, and that Les Pas does not stop there.

The slideshow features are where that claim gets tested. There is an album slideshow with background music, and there is a Slideshow on Map feature which runs the album slideshow on a map, so a trip album plays out geographically rather than chronologically. You can export a GPX file from an album to share the route of the adventure. And there is photo blogging in three ready-made templates, where you choose pictures and captions and publish them as a blog, with the details in a separate instruction repository for the pico_lespas publishing workflow.

The Live Wallpaper integration is the other unusual entry. Les Pas works with the Muzei Live Wallpaper app to deliver a Today in History picture onto the phone's home screen, which turns the gallery into something that pushes at you daily rather than something you open deliberately.

Taken together, these features point at a specific user: someone with a large, decades-long photo library, a Nextcloud server they control, and an inclination to treat photos as a collection to be revisited rather than a camera roll to be scrolled. The Wes Anderson inspired theme is a small signal about the intended tone, and the Remote Album feature is a large one about the storage model.

## Where Les Pas is the wrong choice

The first limit is the Nextcloud requirement. Even though no server app needs installing, you need a Nextcloud server, and Les Pas is the only part of the stack you are not choosing. If your storage is on Google Photos, Dropbox or an iCloud library, this app is not for you, and the sync model it is built around has no equivalent there.

The second limit is the distribution situation, and it is a real friction rather than a philosophical objection. F-Droid requires you to install the client, enable it for the app, and then wait for the build to be available, which can be hours or days after a release. GitHub releases mean you track the repository yourself and install the APK by hand, and you have to allow installation from that source. The same signing key means the GitHub path can upgrade in place over a Play install, which is the smoothest route if you are already a Play user.

The third is that the app is Android only, and the TV support is Android TV rather than a television platform in general. There is no iOS version mentioned, and no desktop client.

The fourth is the privacy model itself. The app is private in the sense that your photos live on your server and are not scanned by other apps, but the AI object search is a feature whose processing location the project description does not specify. If your library contains images you would not want sent to a service, that is a question to resolve from the app's own settings rather than from the project page.

Compare that with the default gallery on the phone plus a cloud sync service. The comparison is not flattering for Les Pas on convenience, and it is not intended to be, because the alternative hands your library to a company that also runs the largest advertising network on the internet. The trade is operational work and app-install friction against control, and for a user who already runs Nextcloud the app is a natural fit for that setup, while for anyone without a server it is a much larger decision than installing a gallery.

## Licence, project shape and what to check before you install

Les Pas is released under Apache-2.0, with the LICENSE file in the repository root. That is a permissive licence with an express patent grant, which is the licence an independent developer chooses when they want people to be able to fork and redistribute the app without asking. It matters here more than usual because the project is funded by downloads rather than by licence fees, and the open-source status is part of the reason the developer was willing to argue with a platform policy about a home address.

The project layout is a standard Android Gradle project. The top level has `app/`, a `build.gradle`, `settings.gradle`, `gradle.properties`, the `gradlew` and `gradlew.bat` wrapper scripts and a `gradle/` directory, so it is a self-contained build. There is a `fastlane/` directory holding the release metadata, with per-language images under `fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/`, which is where the feature graphic and the phone and TV screenshots referenced in the project description come from. A `CHANGELOG.md` at the top level is where the release notes live, and a `.github/` directory for the workflow files.

The release history is regular. 2.11.3 came on 2026-05-16, 2.11.4 on 2026-05-26 and 2.11.5 on 2026-08-31, and the last push was on the same day as 2.11.5, so the tree and the newest tag agree. The repository is not archived.

What to check before you install is a short list. Decide your update channel first, because it changes whether this is a five minute job or a reinstall, and if you are coming from the Play version, take a backup through the app's own mechanism before uninstalling so that the F-Droid route does not cost you anything.

Then check that your Nextcloud instance is reachable over the network the phone uses, and confirm the credentials work, because the authentication is your Nextcloud account and a wrong server address gives a login failure that looks like a wrong password. If you plan to use the AI object search, look for where that processing happens in the settings before you point it at a large library. And if you care about the local media library, enable per-folder backup rather than the global default, so that your downloads folder does not fill the server.

## Conclusion

Les Pas fits a Nextcloud user who wants their photos organised into albums on their own server, who wants the phone's storage freed by remote albums, and who wants an AI object search and a map slideshow without sending their library to a cloud vendor. It does not fit someone who wants a Google Play app, because the developer has terminated the Play account and the app is distributed through F-Droid and GitHub instead. Before you install it, read the release notes in CHANGELOG.md and check the F-Droid build signature, and if you are moving from the Play version, plan the reinstall from F-Droid and use the app's own backup and restore rather than expecting your albums to survive the channel change automatically.

## FAQ

### What is Les Pas and what does it do?

Les Pas is a free Android gallery app written in Kotlin that organises photos, GIFs and videos into albums and keeps them in sync with a Nextcloud server. It has built-in two-way sync, remote albums stored only on the server, AI object search, location search, GPX geotagging, joint albums shared with other Nextcloud users and slideshows on a map.

### Do I need to install a Nextcloud app on the server to use Les Pas?

No. Although it uses Nextcloud as the storage backend, you do not have to install any Nextcloud app on the server for Les Pas to function, which makes it a fit for users who have limited knowledge of or authorization to alter their Nextcloud configuration. It authenticates with your Nextcloud credentials and works with Nextcloud external storage.

### Why is Les Pas no longer on Google Play?

The developer states that the latest Google Play developer policy requires handing in the developer's home address, that he disagrees with this as an open source developer, and that he has therefore terminated his developer account. The app is distributed through F-Droid and the GitHub releases instead.

### Can I upgrade from the Google Play version of Les Pas?

The GitHub build uses the same app signing key as the Google Play version, so you can install updates from GitHub over an existing Play install. If you switch to the F-Droid channel you have to uninstall the Google Play version first, and the project says the app has a backup and restore mechanism so your data and settings are not lost.

### What licence is Les Pas released under?

Les Pas is released under Apache-2.0, with the licence text in the repository root. The recent releases are 2.11.3 from 2026-05-16, 2.11.4 from 2026-05-26 and 2.11.5 from 2026-08-31, with the last push on the same date as 2.11.5.

## Sources

- [Issues](https://github.com/scubajeff/lespas/issues)
- [License: Apache-2.0](https://github.com/scubajeff/lespas/blob/master/LICENSE)
- [README](https://github.com/scubajeff/lespas/blob/master/README.md)
- [Releases](https://github.com/scubajeff/lespas/releases)
- [scubajeff/lespas on GitHub](https://github.com/scubajeff/lespas)

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Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/scubajeff-lespas