PhotoSpring devices with serial numbers starting with 03 or 04 (models PSF-101 or PSG-101) have a USB port which you can use to import photos and videos from a USB thumb drive.
The USB drive should have the following characteristics:
- It should be formatted using Fat32 - which is standard for USB thumb drives. If you have reformatted the drive using ExFat or APFS (Apple) formats the drive will not work
- There is a limit of 32GB for each drive. Some 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 USB drive.
- Insert the drive into the USB port on on the side of your PhotoSpring frame. A popup may appear asking if you want to Open PhotoSpring whenever the USB is connected. Tap the "Use by default" checkbox and then tap OK.
- PhotoSpring will scan the drive. 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.
- Important: Please remember to eject your thumb drive first before removing it! The eject button will appear at the bottom of the USB Import screen whenever the import is finished or aborted.
Common Questions:
- Unsupported Type. PhotoSpring works with USB drives formatted with Fat32. This is the format your USB thumb drive comes with originally. If you reformatted the thumb drive later 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.
- File was previously imported and currently resides on disk. PhotoSpring will not import duplicates
- Can I keep adding photos to the USB drive 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.
- 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 USB import so slow?
- USB 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 USB speeds compared to other ways to transfer photos in.
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Transfer Method Speed USB 120Mbps SD (coming soon) 96Mbps Wifi w/DSL connection 2Mbps to 15Mbps Wifi w/Broadband connection 20Mbps to 200Mbps