PhotoSpring devices with serial numbers starting with 03 or 04 (models PSF-101 or PSG-101) have a SD Card slot which you can use to import photos and videos from an SD card. For micro SD cards, you can use a full size SD card adapter.
The SD card should have the following characteristics:
- It should be formatted using Fat32 - which is standard for SD cards 32gb or less. If you have reformatted the card using ExFat or APFS (Apple) formats the card will not work on your frame.
- While there isn't a limit to the card size, since frames only take Fat32, this means cards over 32gb have a lower chance of working on PhotoSpring frames. Therefore, larger drives may work but they are not recommended.
Here's how you import photos:
- Add the photos and videos you want to import to the SD Card.
- Insert the card into the SD card slot on on the side of your PhotoSpring frame. A popup may appear asking if you want to Open PhotoSpring whenever the SD Card is detected. Tap the "Use by default" checkbox and then tap OK.
- PhotoSpring will scan the card. Depending on the number of photos and videos you have this can take some time. At the end of the scan PhotoSpring will present a popup indicating how many photos or videos it can import and the total size.
- Tap import to start the import. Importing photos and videos will then begin. Depending on the number and size of the files you are importing this may be a good time to grab a drink. The popup will display the number of files that remain to be copied and the status of any photos that weren't copied.
- When the import is done it will give you a summary of:
- The files imported
- Files skipped because they are already on the frame
- Files skipped because the frame is full
- Important: Please remember to eject your SD Card first before removing it! The eject button will appear at the bottom of the import screen whenever the import is finished or aborted.
Common Questions:
- Card inserted by not detected. If you insert a card into the slot and it is not detected, most of the time it means the card is not supported. However, sometimes a hardware glitch may occur so you can take the card out and put it back in. Or you can go to Menu-->SD USB. Then insert the card.
- Unsupported type. PhotoSpring works with SD cards formatted with Fat32. This is the format SD cards 32gb and smaller come with originally. If you reformatted the SD card later with a different format then it won't work with PhotoSpring. To make it work with PhotoSpring you will need to reformat the drive again with Fat32. However at this point we recommend just inserting the drive into your computer and uploading to the frame via web browser.
- Not all files were imported. There may be several reasons for this:
- File type was not supported. If this happens you may want to try uploading the file frame via web browser. This pushes the files through our servers which handles a lot more file formats and converts them to JPG or MP4 for the frame. PhotoSpring will import the following file types for USB/SD:
- Video:
- Supported: mp4, m4v, 3gp, m4v, gif
- Not supported: avi, mov, fav, mpg, wmv, ogv
- Photos:
- Supported: jpg, jpeg, bmp, webp, png, gif
- Not Supported: heic, tif
- Video:
- File was previously imported and currently resides on disk. PhotoSpring will not import duplicates
- File type was not supported. If this happens you may want to try uploading the file frame via web browser. This pushes the files through our servers which handles a lot more file formats and converts them to JPG or MP4 for the frame. PhotoSpring will import the following file types for USB/SD:
- Can I keep adding photos to the card or do I need to delete it each time?
- PhotoSpring will keep track of each photo or video it has previously encountered during its scanning phase. It will not import photos previously imported. If you need to import a specific photo you can force PhotoSpring to import by changing the name of the photo/video.
- What happens if I have duplicate photos on the drive?
- PhotoSpring will import all photos it has not previously imported. It does this by checking the file path and name of the file. However, if a copy of a photo already exists but has a different name PhotoSpring will detect this and not import the file.
- I accidentally deleted a file from the frame that I imported from USB. Now I can't import that photo again.
- PhotoSpring will not import photos it has previously imported. The frame keeps track of the files it has imported in a list using the file directory and name of the file. If you delete a photo from the frame and want to import it back in then the easiest way is to change the name of the photo on the thumb drive. If you don't know which photo you deleted then change the folder directory of the photos you imported.
- Why is SD Card import so slow?
- The SD Card is convenient as an intuitive way to load photos. However if you are use to broadband Internet it may seem slower. Here's a comparison of approximate device speeds compared to other ways to transfer photos in.
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Transfer Method Speed Feels Like SD Card 96Mbps Base speed USB 120Mbps Base speed Wifi w/DSL connection 2Mbps to 15Mbps Slower Wifi w/Broadband connection 20Mbps to 200Mbps Much faster due to compression