Hi, I'm David. Here's why I'm building MergeMyLibrary.

By David Jackson · Last checked 7 October 2026

Who am I?

I'm 48, I'm from England, and I teach English online. I'm not a developer.

I built two websites with Replit, an online tool that helps you build apps with AI: talkwithdave.co.uk, and PlanWise ESL, a lesson generator my students love. I've been learning to build with AI ever since.

Why am I building this?

To cut my own costs. I was paying for Google One and for Microsoft 365 at the same time, with years of photos in each. My phone had been backing up to both.

When I finally checked, 56% of my Google photos were already in my OneDrive. I was paying twice for the same pictures. I wanted everything in one place, every photo on the right date, nothing lost, and then one bill instead of two.

Moving Google Photos into a OneDrive that already holds some of the same photos turned out to be a miserable job by hand. So I'm building a tool that does it properly.

Haven't I tried something like this before?

Yes. In 2017 I paid freelancers on Fiverr to build a duplicate photo remover for Windows. It was my first go at a business. It sold for £9.99, and I stopped working on it in 2018.

Now I'm rebuilding from scratch, with AI, in public. The difference this time: I'm building it for myself first, because I need it. And my first rule is simple: the merge only ever adds photos, and nothing gets deleted without you saying yes.

How am I building it?

• On my own photos first. Every step is tested on my real library before anyone else's. So far: 3,856 photos and videos copied into my OneDrive, every one checked. All the numbers are on the numbers page.
• With AI, on a budget. I use Claude, an AI assistant, to help write the code, on a cheap plan and the old laptop I also teach my students on. No investors, no big team.
• In public. I post every number on X, including the mistakes, at @daveynj113.
• Checked, then checked again. The app checks every photo after it copies it. On top of that, I checked 300 of its matches by eye myself. I make every decision.

Is MergeMyLibrary made by Google or Microsoft?

No. It's independent: a one-person project. It works with Google Takeout (Google's own download tool) and with OneDrive, but neither company makes, backs or sponsors it.

Where are things now?

The merging part works on my own library. The website you'll use is still being built. I'm aiming to open a small test in early 2027 and to launch by May 2027, in the US first. The plain facts, prices and safety rules are on the facts page, along with the money-back promise: a full refund if a merge doesn't finish.

How can I contact David?

Email me at dave@mergemylibrary.com. I read everything myself. Or say hello on X: @daveynj113.