My 12-Year, 48,500-Photo Mess: How I Finally Separated my Québec and Florida Lives

An honest review of PhotoGlobe Sorter from a Canadian Snowbird (who's no computer whiz).

"Every April, I drive our RV 2,500 km from Naples, Florida, back to Brossard, Québec. Every October, I drive back south. For 12 years, my digital life has been a complete mess. I'd find photos of my granddaughter making a snowman in March, and the very next file, IMG_4073.jpg, would be my golf swing in Naples from two days later. It was impossible to find anything. For 12 years, I just kept dumping them into one giant 'Photos' folder on our old Windows PC. This is the story of how I fixed it... for good."

Hello, my name is Gilles. My wife and I are "snowbirds," as they say. We spend our beautiful summers in Québec, near our family, and our winters in a lovely condo community in Naples, Florida. We are very lucky.

But this lucky "two-life" situation created a digital nightmare. I take photos of the grandkids' hockey games, our summer hikes up Mont-Saint-Bruno, and then *thousands* of photos of the beach, the golf course, and our friends in Florida. They were all mixed up. This article is my review of a small, €39 (about $58 CAD) program called PhotoGlobe Sorter that completely solved my biggest retirement headache.

My Problem: The 'Two-Life' Photo Chaos

My biggest frustration? My wife, Marthe, would ask for a specific memory. "Gilles, find that photo of our 10th-anniversary dinner in Key West. Remember? From 2018."

An hour later, I'd give up. I'd search Florida 2018. Nothing. I'd search Key West. Nothing. Why? Because the photo was filed under DSCN0451.jpg in a folder named Import 2019 (when I finally got around to it), right next to photos of our grandson's first birthday in Brossard.

I didn't need a fancy program. I just needed a simple, automatic way to manage my photos from Québec and Florida. I needed a tool that was smart enough to know that a photo taken in Naples belongs in a "Florida" folder, and a photo taken in Brossard belongs in a "Québec" folder. That's all!

Finding a software to sort photos by location and date that wasn't a complicated monthly subscription was my goal. I was failing. This how to sort 12 years of photos problem was my white whale.

What I Tried Before (And Why It Failed)

Believe me, I tried the "free" options first. I'm retired, I'm careful with my money. I was looking for the best photo organizer for retirees, not a professional studio tool.

Alternative I Tried	Why It Was a Dud (for me)
Sorting Manually	Are you kidding? I'm 71, not 30. That's not retirement, that's a full-time job. I'd rather be golfing.
Google Photos	I just don't like "the cloud." I don't want my personal family photos on some server in California. And I *hate* subscriptions. I don't want another monthly bill. I needed an alternative to Google Photos without a subscription.
Windows Explorer (Right-click > Sort by)	It's a lie! Half the time, the "Date Taken" is blank, or it shows "Date Modified." It's useless for sorting my old camera photos and my wife's iPad photos together.

I found PhotoGlobe Sorter after searching (for about the tenth time) for "easy photo sorting software for seniors". The website looked simple. But one feature made me stop.

It wasn't the price (though the €39 one-time fee was very attractive). It was the promise that it could "organize photos by Country and State automatically."

That was it. That was the magic phrase. It understood that "Florida" (a State) and "Québec" (a Province, or "Region" as they call it) were the two things I needed to separate. This was the tool I'd been looking for.

My Step-by-Step: Sorting 12 Years in One Afternoon

I'm no computer whiz, so I was nervous. But I bought the licence. Here’s exactly what I did to organize my 48,500 photos.

Step 1: The 'Structure' (The "Brains" - 10 Minutes)

This is the most "technical" part, and it was still dead simple. You go to "Organize Photos" and there's a "Structure Builder." You just drag and drop the little blocks to tell it *how* you want your folders.

My magic formula for my "two-life" problem was this:

Country → Region/State → Year → Month

This was my "Aha!" moment. This would create a `Canada` folder and a `USA` folder. Inside `Canada`, it would make a `Québec` folder. Inside `USA`, it would make a `Florida` folder. Then, inside those, it would sort everything by date. Brilliant!

Step 2: The 'No-GPS' Photos (About 1 hour)

The software sorts using the GPS data in your photos. My iPhone does this automatically. But my trusty old Canon S95 camera (from 2010-2016) did not. So the software listed about 5,000 photos as "Unknown Location."

But they have a tool for this! It's called "Geotagging." I selected all 2,000 of my old "unknown" Florida photos, clicked on Naples on the map, and hit "Apply." Done. I did the same for my old Québec photos. It took me about an hour while I listened to the radio. You only have to do this *once*... ever.

Step 3: The Big Sort (55 Minutes, 12 Seconds)

This was the scary part. I selected my giant, messy "My Pictures" folder as the "Source." I plugged in a brand new 1TB external hard drive as the "Destination." I took a deep breath and clicked "Start Sorting."

A progress screen popped up. It showed me it was processing 14.7 photos per second. I went and made a coffee and sat with Marthe on the balcony. We came back in under an hour.

Total time for 48,500 photos: 55 minutes and 12 seconds.

Step 4: The Result (I Honestly Got a Bit Emotional)

I opened the new hard drive. My heart was pounding a bit. And there, on the screen, were two folders:

\Canada
\USA

I double-clicked \USA. Inside was one folder: \Florida.
I double-clicked that. Inside: \2013, \2014, \2015...
I double-clicked \2018. Inside: \05_May, \06_June, \11_November...
I clicked on the folder for our anniversary. And there it was. The Key West photo. I found it in 15 seconds.

What I Absolutely Love (The 'Snowbird' Highlights)

1. It Just Works. Period.
   It did exactly what it promised. It separated my photos from Québec and Florida perfectly. This one feature is worth the entire price. It solved my 12-year problem.
2. 100% Offline and NO Subscription!
   This is my favourite part. I hate monthly bills. This is a one-time fee photo sorter. I paid my ~$58 CAD once, and I own the software forever. My photos never leave my computer, they don't go to "the cloud." This is the best offline photo management software for Windows I could find.
3. The Structure Builder is My Favourite Toy.
   The magic formula (`Country` → `Region/State` → `Year`) is my dream. I can find *anything* now. My golf games from 2019? Easy: `\USA\Florida\2019`. Grandkids' first snow day in 2021? Easy: `\Canada\Québec\2021\01_January`.
4. The PDF Report (A Fun Bonus).
   I didn't think I'd care about this, but after the sort, it generates a PDF report. It showed a "heatmap" of North America. There were two giant red dots: one over Brossard, QC, and one over Naples, FL. It was a perfect map of my retired life. My wife got a real kick out of that.

What's Not Perfect (A Few Grumbles)

Now, it's not all sunshine. To be honest, here are a few things that bothered me:

• It's Windows Only.
  My daughter and her family all use Apple MacBooks. They can't use this software. She's the one who really needs this (her "Desktop" folder is a nightmare!), but it's not available for her.
• The Price is in Euros (€39).
  This was just... weird. I'm in Canada, buying software from a website in English, and the price is in Euros? My Visa card charged me **$58.14 Canadian Dollars**. It's still a fantastic bargain for a lifetime licence, but it was confusing at checkout.
• It's a "Tool," Not an "Album".
  This is important. This software is a "sorter." It's a tool, like a hammer. It's not "pretty" like Google Photos or Apple Photos. It doesn't make slideshows or albums. It just builds your folders perfectly. For me, this is a *good* thing. It's simple and does one job well.
• You Have to Do That *One* Hour of Prep.
  The manual "Geotagging" for my old photos *was* a bit of a chore. You have to set aside an hour or two to get your old, non-GPS photos tagged. But, you only do it once. Ever. It's worth the small effort.

Is This For You? (My Final Advice)

FAQ - Questions I Had Before I Bought

These are the questions I had. I hope my answers help you.

Q: How does it know the difference between Québec and Florida?
A: It reads the hidden GPS data in your photos (from your smartphone, usually). It sees "Naples, Florida, USA" and "Brossard, Québec, Canada." If a photo has no GPS (like from my old camera), you use the manual "Geotagging" tool to tell it where it was taken.

Q: Is it hard to organize photos by province and state?
A: No, that's the easiest part. It's a block called "Region/State" in the Structure Builder. You just drag it where you want it. It automatically knew "Québec" and "Florida" without me doing anything.

Q: Is this really easy photo sorting software for seniors?
A: I can say yes. I am 71 and I am not a "computer person." I figured it out in 10 minutes. The interface is simple. It's not overwhelming.

Q: What if I have 50,000 photos? Is that too many?
A: No. It handled my 48,500 photos in under an hour. The website says it's built for massive collections.

Q: Is it *really* a one-time fee? No tricks?
A: Yes. I was suspicious too. But it's true. I paid my ~$58 CAD once, and that's it. No more bills. Ever. All updates are included. This is rare and wonderful.

Q: Can it find a specific photo in my massive archive?
A: It's not a "search" tool. It's an "organizing" tool, which is better. It doesn't "find" your Key West photo. It *structures your archive* so *you* can find it in 15 seconds, just by clicking `USA > Florida > 2018`. It's a permanent fix.

My "New" Life, 6 Months Later...

The best part isn't the clean hard drive. It's the peace of mind. I no longer dread importing photos.

I just spent all winter in Florida (2025). I took about 1,500 photos. When we got back to Brossard in April, I plugged in my camera and my iPhone. I ran PhotoGlobe Sorter and pointed it at my "Sorted Photos" drive. It took **5 minutes**. It automatically found all the new photos, and *poof*... they were all filed away in `\USA\Florida\2025\`. It's no longer a chore. It's a 5-minute task twice a year.

"I'm finally *enjoying* my memories instead of just 'storing' them (and losing them). Marthe and I actually sit down and look at our old travel photos now because we can *find* them. This simple tool gave us our own history back."

Final Verdict: The Best $58 I've Spent on my Computer, Bar None