# Welcome to Piktures Piktures is a super simple gallery with some innovative features ## Download Piktures {% embed url="" %} Download Piktures from Google Play store {% endembed %} ## Piktures is a super (gallery) app * Access to your photos and videos, including on your SD card * Access to your cloud media, on Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive * A secret space, to hide your most private content * A photo editor, to crop, resize, adjust parameters and apply filters * A video player, to enjoy your videos and personal movies * A GIF Player, and an animated GIF maker * A QR code scanner **DISPLAY OPTIONS:**You can view your list of photos, with a standard grid, a mosaic view, a list view, and even a calendar view. **CLOUD ACCESS:** Piktures allows you to access your photos stored on multiple cloud services. It supports Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox, and many more cloud storage services are coming soon. **USB DRIVE ACCESS:** Piktures allows you to access photos and videos stored on a USB-drive when the disk is using the FAT-32 file format. **SECRET SPACE:** A secret space on your phone helps you hide your most private photos. They are protected via a PIN-code and can be organized with folders. **ADVANCED PHOTO EDITOR:** Improve photos quickly. Use our intuitive and powerful photo editor to apply filters, adjust lighting, crop, center, and resize. **ADVANCED SHARING OPTIONS:** You can decide to compress your photos before sharing, and even remove the GPS data from your photo for more privacy. **WI-FI DIRECT TRANSFER OPTIONS:** You can share your photos and videos with other Piktures users in your vicinity without the need for mobile data. The images go directly from your device to their device. **FAST AND POWERFUL SEARCH:**Your photos are quickly accessible by places, dates, and tags. You can create your own personal tags. **CAMERA AND QR CODES:** Piktures also comes with a convenient QR code scanner and its own dedicated folder to retrieve your previously scanned QR codes. **FREE & PREMIUM VERSION** The premium version is meant for power users who have multiple cloud accounts. ## Help center {% content-ref url="/pages/-M7nX94M8b0lGdBtz7qM" %} [Our principles](/our-principles/product-principles) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-M7nX\_Fc8wymVHQUCo8P" %} [The list of albums](/album-list/album-list) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-M7qETQwivyD0k7g0o4I" %} [SEARCHING](/searching/location-filter) {% endcontent-ref %} # Changelogs The history of what is coming to Piktures and what has just changed to Piktures; version after version ## Coming soon :rocket: We are currently working on some major changes which will include: * A set of options to view your albums (square, rectangular, list) * Webdav support which will allow you to access your Nextcloud, Box, or Yandesk Disk accounts as well as a personal network storage * A search feature (free text) alongside the Filter feature * A file transfer feature for your Secret space * Dark mode, and so much more... ![A visual concept for the new album list view](/files/-M7qOIGN8uuTpfod7io1) ## Version 2.8 - May 2020 This major version introduces a major changes on the way you can manage your albums * We now have three sections: Bookmarks, Smart views and Albums * The Bookmarks sit at the top on the screen. You can add as many bookmarks as you want. You can decide the order you want them to be, manually * The Smart views include the All items, Favorites, QR Code album, and Recycle bin {% embed url="" %} How to bookmark folders and manually change their orders {% endembed %} # Release note Version 2.16 comes with a video editor !! ## The video editor :rocket: We are releasing a video editor, fully integrated to Piktures The video editor comes with: * **An integrated experience**. You can edit as part of the app, without the need of launching a new app * **Trim:** You can easily trim the video with your fingers. * **Audio removal:** The audio part of videos is not always great. You can do that easily with the editor. This is the first release, so please be kind. Tell us what works and what doesn't and we will quickly adapt it Thank you for your patience ! # Nouvelle version La nouvelle version 2.16 de Piktures Avec la version de Piktures, vous avez droit ) un éditeur vidéo !! L'éditeur vidéo propose : * **Une expérience intégrée**. Vous pouvez éditer vos vidéos directement dans l'application, sans avoir besoin de lancer une nouvelle application. * **Découpage** : Vous pouvez facilement découper la vidéo avec vos doigts. * **Suppression de l'audio** : La partie audio des vidéos n'est pas toujours optimale. Vous pouvez la supprimer facilement avec l'éditeur. Ceci est la première version, alors soyez indulgents. Dites-nous ce qui fonctionne et ce qui ne fonctionne pas, et nous nous adapterons rapidement. Merci pour votre patience ! # Version 2.13 The new video player is out We are releasing a brand new video player ! We know that you were not all super happy with the video player we used to have. The old player was working outside of the core experience, the control buttons were not accessible easily, and the volume and brightness experience was sometimes frustrating. This new player is fixing those issues and adds new things like the zoom! The new video player comes with: * **An integrated experience**. You can delete and move videos in the same screen as you are playing them. * **A zoom:** You can now pinch to zoom on your videos * **A better volume and brightness control**: You can now mute easily the video. You can configure a mute by default in the settings * **A new landscape mode:** The landscape mode is also improved. This is the first release, so please be kind. Tell us what works and what doesn't and we will quickly adapt this new player. Thank you for your patience ! ![](/files/XqeFYyVEZqDmh2P332rX) # Version 2.11 We have released a new version with many improvements that will make your life easier **The main changes:** * **New Settings to choose your video player for Plus users:** If you have the Plus, Premium or Prime option you can now choose the video player of your choice by default. * **New Settings to choose your photo editor for Plus users:** If you have the Plus, Premium or Prime option you can now choose the photo editor of your choice by default. * **QR code scanner accessible with long press**: You can long press on the Piktures icon in the home-screen and you will have access to the QR code scanner from there. * **Update to the Move screen:** We have made an update to the Move screen allowing you to navigate inside folders and create folder inside a hierarchy. **The UI changes from Version 2.10** * **There is a bottom bar:** It lets you access directly the section you want. From searching a photo, to selecting the Secret Space. You can disable or re-enable it in the Settings. * **All the screens are now full screens!** In particular, the list of folders takes the full screen to give some space for extra buttons such as the search button for your folder. * **You can still slide**: To move between sections, you can just swipe left and right. This is still the experience we want to push to Piktures. {% embed url="" %} Option to choose your video player {% endembed %} # Version 2.10 We have released a new navigation with a bottom bar. And you can remove it if you want. The big changes: * **There is a bottom bar:** It lets you access directly the section you want. From searching a photo, to selecting the Secret Space. You can disable or re-enable it in the Settings. * **All the screens are now full screens!** In particular, the list of folders takes the full screen to give some space for extra buttons such as the search button for your folder. * **We have removed the hamburger button**: We have replaced it by the button to access the Piktures Store. For people who used this button, you can slide to the left to access the list of folders, or you can click on the bottom bar. * **You can still slide**: To move between sections, you can just swipe left and right. This is still the experience we want to push to Piktures. {% embed url="" %} The slide experience {% endembed %} # Beta testers Here is the page for the beta testers We have one beta testers programmes running at the moment **1 - Beta for Piktures app** This is the traditional beta programmes where participants receive versions that are partially tested. Please participate only if you understand that this is for testing purposes only and not in order to receive the version before everybody else. PARTICIPATE HERE -> # Help Quick access to the main sections {% content-ref url="/pages/-M7q\_NHWyi2n15vny50D" %} [The album organization](/album-list/album-list) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-M7qaDQVlWvp2fdxmBh4" %} [ The bookmarks](/album-list/bookmarks) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-M7sg9E2-o3Io9dhLjp\_" %} [ Sorting the list of albums](/album-list/album-list-sorting) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-M7rira6lrooazj4BMoG" %} [Creating a new album](/album-list/new-album) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-M7rjpkAI3LaP-eV7NS\_" %} [🗑️ Delete an entire album](/album-list/delete-album) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-M7q6Y3Ojsgc\_myJKs3X" %} [🖊️ Renaming an album](/album-list/renaming-an-album) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-M7qBoYpNKNA7-aCfps3" %} [Hide and unhide albums](/protect-photos/hide-and-unhide-albums) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-M7qBYGeDuKNcNBSSXpu" %} [㊙️ The Secret Space](/protect-photos/secret-space) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-M7q7-eLIh5Hs0Cy715y" %} [Debug mode](/debug/debug-mode) {% endcontent-ref %} # Our product principles The principles that are at the core of our product are privacy, openness, personalization, and longevity. ## **Privacy** Piktures does not transmit any personal media outside of the app. The traffic sent outside is composed of anonymous usage data and crash logs. Customers' issues are challenging to understand due to the fragmentation of the Android platform. They are so many different versions and devices that Piktures might work correctly on a model while crashing regularly on another device. The anonymous data helps us understand how Piktures users are affected and the problems they are facing. The Piktures account enables you to retrieve your access to your Secret Space if you have forgotten its PIN code. There is no need to provide your name or other personal data. Privacy also means that the information you add to your photos is stored in the photos' metadata, not outside. With Piktures, when you tag your photos, the tags are stored in the photo's metadata, not on a server. It means that without the need for any service, the information you have created stays forever. Privacy also means providing you with tools to protect the information you don't want to leak. For instance, if you take photos from your home address, Piktures allows you to remove the GPS data from your photos when you share them. ## **Personalization** There are few things more personal than the pictures you take. We believe that a gallery app should let your photos shine and allow you to personalize its experience. Piktures V3 offers an unprecedented level of personalization. You can customize the way you view your folders, how you display your albums, the way you sort them, or the first screen you see when you open the app. There are simply no other gallery apps that offer this level of configuration. ## **Built to last** Piktures has been designed to last longer than ourselves; this means that the app does not need any external services to function; it does not rely on our company paying their bills to keep on running. If something sad happens to us, you will continue being able to enjoy Piktures without our support. The only feature that requires a back-end is the Secret Space, and it is needed only for setting it up and retrieving your PIN code. It does not need the back-end to work once the set-up is complete, as long as you don't lose your PIN code. ## **Openness** While Piktures is not open-source, it has an open philosophy. Piktures does not force any particular tool to complement its experience. More concretely, Piktures gives you the power to access your cloud photos, choose your photo editor if you are not happy with the embedded one, select a favorite camera app, or even play your videos with a different player. The underlying philosophy is that we provide you with a good option, but if you prefer something else, we let you use it. Unlike many gallery apps, Piktures does not have a cloud storage of choice, and we do not provide cloud storage on our own. We believe a great gallery app should access the photos where they are stored instead of forcing you to save them in a single place. This is the philosophy behind Piktures, and this is why we are continually developing new "photo access." Piktures comes with its Photo Editor that is quite complete. but if you do not like it or want to use a more sophisticated one from time to time, Piktures lets you use an alternative photo editor Piktures comes with its video player, but we are letting you use the one you prefer if you need a more advanced one, like VLC or MX Player. Piktures is allowing you to launch your favorite camera app if you want to have more options than the default Camera app that comes with your device. We also provide an embedded QR Code scanner that can be very useful and that Piktures uses to pair devices without an intermediate server. # The album organization Piktures has a unique way to organize your albums ## **The structure** One of the reasons why people use Piktures instead of their native gallery app is because they like to organise their photos with multiple albums and they like to access them easily. The problem you have with a long list of albums is that it is usually not easy to access them quickly. Sorting photos alphabetically, or searching albums with a search box is fine but not great. This is why we have introduced the concept of bookmarks that are located at the top of the list of albums. Those bookmarks are sorted manually. ![Bookmarks](/files/-MCfs9C2Duol_KVaQ2Bx) # The bookmarks A fast access to your favorite albums ## **The bookmarks** The bookmarks are the albums that you want to access fast. This section is always positioned at the top of the screen and is therefore immediately visible when you open the list of albums. To bookmark an album, you just need to click on the bookmark button in the top right corner of that album. ![The bookmark button is in the top right corner](/files/-M7sW7rM8eHp-DVeh5Fe) To remove an album from the list of bookmarks, you just need to click again on that button. When you bookmark an album, it is bookmarked in this particular space. If you bookmark a Dropbox album, it goes to the bookmarks of your Dropbox access. If you do this with a Secret folder, it stays in your Secret Space. ### **Organising your bookmarks** To organise the bookmarks, you need to enter into the Edit mode for the list of albums. To set the bookmarked folders in a particular order, you can move them around either by sliding the folders or clicking on the up/down button. ![Sliding bookmarks up and down](/files/-M7sWQzZXNr0adiRJZRw) ### **Collapsing sections** If you don’t want to see a particular section, you can collapse the section by pressing on the up/down arrow. This is particularly useful for the albums view which list all the albums as you might not want to see them all the time. ### **A simple manual sorting experience** It is really easy to bookmark and move your albums up and down # Special albums Those are special albums that are bookmarked by default ### **The All items view** All the media items that Piktures support are listed in this album. It is a very convenient album that will always show the latest items at the top. ### **The Camera album** This is the most used albums on your device to store photos, simply because all the photos that you take with your camera appears there. On some devices, you can find two distinct camera albums: the Camera album on your phone memory and the other on the SD card. ### **The Download album** This is the download folder from your phone that is shared by the Android operating system. Unlike a File manager, Piktures is only displaying media content. ### **The Favourite items view** The Favourite items is a view, not an album. When you mark a photo as favourite by clicking on the “star”, it gets included into this view. ### **The QR code folder** When you shoot a QR code with the embedded QR Code scanner, the photo is stored in the QR Code folder so that you can easily retrieve those QR codes. ### **The Screenshots folder** This is the screenshot folder from your phone that is shared by the Android operating system. ### **The Recycle bin** When you delete a photo or a video, they are first moved to the recycle bin. From there, they can be restored or deleted forever. The Recycle bin is basically a temporary folder to store files before they are deleted permanently. # Sorting the list of albums While bookmarks are manually sorted, the rest of the albums can be sorted in a number of ways To sort your albums, you have to click on the Sort option, located in the Header of the list of albums. It will show a list of sorting options: * Alphabetical sorting (ascending and descending) * Sorting by modification date (ascending and descending) ![Sorting your albums alphabetically or by date](/files/-M7sgyri2C1BU9JDBvOi) # Creating a new album How to create a new album with Piktures You can create new albums by following 2 steps: **First step: Select multiple photos.** To go to the Select mode, you can either long-clic on a photo or clic on the select button. Then you can clic on individual photos to add them to your selection. You can also swipe through multiple photos to do a fast multi-selection. **Second step: Create new album** You then need to click on the Album button. This will allow you to move or copy your selection to an existing album or CREATE A NEW ALBUM. # 🖊️ Renaming an album How to give a new name to your album To rename an album, please click on the album settings. You will see that the album title becomes editable. You just need to type the new name and click on the Enter button on your keyboard. The album is renamed. # 🗑️ Delete an entire album How to delete an entire album To delete an album, select all the photos in an album and then delete all the files. There is no button to delete an album # Choosing the album display Piktures allows you to enjoy your photos and videos from a list of options To change the display of your album, you have to click on the Display option, located at the bottom right part of the album cover. It will show a list of display options: * Grid (between 3 squares to 6 squares) * Mosaic (between 3 rectangles to 6 rectangles) * List You can decide to make this display global to all the albums or for this album only. ![The display option menu is accessed from the bottom right corner of the cover](/files/-M7seehk0gpUpQZlRuLq) ### **The Grid view** Displaying your photos in a Grid view ### **The Mosaic view** Displaying your photos in a Mosaic view ### **The List view** Displaying your photos in a List view # Sorting items in an album Piktures offers multiple ways to sort your photos and videos inside an album To sort photos and videos inside an album, you have to click on the Sort option, located at the bottom left part of the album cover. It will show a list of sorting options: * Sorting by shooting date (ascending and descending) * Alphabetical sorting (ascending and descending) * Sorting by modification date (ascending and descending) You can decide to make this sorting global to all the albums or for this album only. ![The sorting menu is accessible from the bottom left part of the cover](/files/-M7sdKf1gJ9ehTSe6CUF) # Taking photos You can launch a camera app from Piktures In Piktures, you have the possibility to launch multiple camera apps. Most people just have one camera app, the camera which comes with the system. However, advanced users and photo fascionistas love to have multiple camera apps for different occasions. When you click on the + button (known by Android fans as the FAB button), a list of camera apps is displayed and you will have the ability to choose which one you want. It is limited to 4 external third party camera apps right now but we will extend this to all the camera apps you have in the future. # 🖼️ Changing the album cover The cover appears at the top of your album ## How to change the cover You first need to click on the More button (the three dots) in the top right corner. Then **Album Settings** ![The Album settings option is accessible via More](/files/-M8-tM7tkMuxO0rUYNxs) When you are in the **Album Settings,** you can then click on the **Set cover button** ![The Set cover button allows to change the cover](/files/-M8-tY4xYCngpz3qi0B-) You can then choose between any of the photos in this album # Selecting large set of items ## How do I select large groups of photos to move, copy, delete or share? To select large groups of photos, you have to enter into the Select Mode. The Select Mode is accessible through 2 ways: * Either by clicking on the Select button on the Header * Or by long-clicking on a photo Once you are in the Select Mode, you can * Select photos and videos one by one, * Select them all by clicking on the more button (the 3 dots) and "Select All" * Swipe them to select a large number of them quickly # Moving photos to the SD card ## How do I add folders on my SD card to the set of albums in Piktures? First you need to enter in the Select Mode. To do so, either long click on a photo or click on the Select button (in the Header) When you select multiple photos and click on the Folder button (in the header), you will be given the option to Create a New Album or move/copy to an existing album. If you Create a New Album and if tou have an SD Card, there will a ticker to enable the creation of this album on the SD Card. The new album will be located in the Pictures folder on the SD Card. # 🖊️ Renaming an item How to rename a photo or a video with Piktures ## Renaming a photo or a video ![A few steps to rename a file](/files/-MKyz5z7MIT5DmkI6bx_) # 📍Location filter Piktures comes with the simplest Location Filter you have never seen on a Gallery app. Sliding on the right shows the Location Filter listing all the countries and cities you have taken photos. Clicking on this location filter shows all the photos you have taken there. # Calendar view ## The calendar view By clicking on the Calendar button on the Header, you will be directed to the Calendar view. It is a unique experience as you simply have to slide up and down to navigate through the years. The days with photos are the days you took photos. Clicking on a day shows you all the photos and videos you took that same day. Enjoy :)
# Hide and unhide albums How do I hide a particular album? How do I hide a folder and all its subfolders? **How can I hide a folder** There are multiple ways to hide a folder1 - Click on the Album Cover. You will see Hide this album button.2 - You can also click on the Edit button on the top bar of the Album list.You will see all the folders and will be able to hide some of them. This is shown in the screenshots below ![Click on the Edit button](/files/-MClKuyHc4LZT54r_OFQ) ![Click on Hide ](/files/-MClL-MKs8MqdIvdiC5V) **How can I unhide a folder** You just need to do the exact opposite of what was presented above. \ **How can I hide completly a folder and all its subfolders?**This is done through the use of the excluded folders feature. You will want to do that when you have a Music Player generating tons of photos because of the album covers of the music tracks you have for instance.This feature is accessible from the Settings page ![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/groovehq/uploaded/azckg5miqvtldvb6jb591n5hup2s29isysp6i7mg8t3aeo6c6v?1459785447) **What about nomedia?**We are not using .nomedia file to hide folders.The nomedia capability is supposed to be used for apps that want to hide their own filed (like cached photos), not manipulate other apps's folders. **What is the difference between hiding and securing?**Hiding will just make the folders invisible inside Piktures. It does not hide the files from other apps like File Explorer apps or other Gallery apps.Securing actually encrypt and move your photos to a secret space inside your phone. It ensures maximum confidentiality of your most private photos. # ㊙️ The Secret Space The secret folder in your device that helps you hide your photos and videos behind a PIN-code ## What is the Secret Space? **The Secure Drive is a private folder stored on your device.** When you move a photo to the Secure Drive, the photo is encrypted and moved to this invisible folder. You have a double security : the photos are not visible from a file manager or another app and the photos are encrypted with a unique key that only you have access to. ## How does the Secret Space work? There is a private folder located in the .Piktures folder. The dot (".") in front of the folder makes it invisible to most file managers and apps. Inside this folder, all the secret photos and secret videos are located. Their names have been changed and the content is encrypted with a private key which is unique to your email address and your device. The benefits of this implementation is the strong security. This implementation offers a much stronger security than a naive implementation with a .nomedia file added to a folder. The files are encrypted and cannot be decrypted without the key. The drawbacks is that when the photos and videos are secured, they are actually encrypted on-the-fly and moved to a subfolder inside the .Piktures folder. The encryption and decryption is slower than a simple move. However, this is the only way to ensure a truly Secure Drive. ## Setting up your Secure Drive **Step 1** - Slide on the Left. ![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/groovehq/uploaded/5nm9iwourybjs7v6xbmhd5m9e13tn4ydq2usg95xgwumzpdx2p?1478527480) **Step 2** Slide on the left again ![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/groovehq/uploaded/3fzddp7cu9jnjhujyrp3xrx3hef7ua4vccpz7o6z8azt50sfus?1478527609) You then need to click on Secure Drive ## How to secure photos in the Secure Drive **There are 2 ways to Secure photos** 1. You select one ore multiple photos and you click on Secure in the option. ![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/groovehq/uploaded/9kusims726ttuiyahgsw71owkckmhdy7b7ktwxer3uqskxdtz8?1475575150) 2\. You go to the Secure Drive and click on the + ## Why do you need my email? To be able to offer a super secure feature, we need to have a unique identifier that will be associated to you only. We could have used your phone number but many people have tablets without SIMs so the best option for a unique personal ID was email. This email address is verified so that we are sure that it is you holding it. Thanks to this email address, a unique key is created to secure your files via encryption. ## How do I change my PIN code for the Secure Drive? STEP 1 - CLICK ON THE DEVICE INFO BUTTON ![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/groovehq/uploaded/24k79wxxm9kurs6p5g79fk4zdv31l9uvme1c1dhs2st5jyorf9?1460712085) STEP 2 - CLICK ON CHANGE PIN CODE ![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/groovehq/uploaded/1y0ohocua4xtl5aijkxlqmyvtr68xg3y8ippuho2gaes1mw8ku?1459783372) # ㊙️ The new Secret Space The Secret Space is changing. We had to change how the files are stored with Android 11. We decided to implement a few new features. ## Why we are changing the way the secret files are stored? Android 11 focuses a lot on security and privacy. There is a new approach to access files on the system, similar to iOS. It is **Scoped Storage**. *"To give users more control over their files and to limit file clutter, apps that target Android 10 (API level 29) and higher are given scoped access into external storage, or scoped storage, by default. Such apps have access only to the app-specific directory on external storage, as well as specific types of media that the app has created."* *Piktures used to store the Secret Space in a directory outside of its app.* **CONSEQUENCES** * *The Secret Space photos are impossible to access by any other apps. There is **no longer the risk that another app deletes them**. This was happening to some users. Some Cleaner apps were deleting the Secret Space to "save space" which was causing our users to lose their riles* * *The Secret Space is now stored on the Piktures dedicated space on the device. It means it is fully secured and not accessible by any other apps. It only means that **if you delete Piktures, you delete your Secret space as well.*** # Migration issues It is possible that issues ocured during the Secret Space migration process # ㊙️ Please back-up your Secret space regularly Be careful with the Secret Space. It is linked to the Piktures app, if you delete Piktures, the Secret Space is gone. You might prevent this by exporting your Secret Space. ## Back-up your Secret Space with export You can back-up your Secret Space locally by exporting it to a folder on your device. ### Click here to do it -> [**EXPORT NOW**](https://diune.page.link/d6o5) ## The Secret Space is not a cloud storage The Secret Space is a private space on your device. It is encrypted and stored in the storage dedicated to the Piktures app. It is therefore secure from prying eyes. If you get your phone lost, or stolen, there is noway from someone else to get access to your private photos. But it is not backed up online. It remains on your phone, and the Piktures team does not have any way to access it. There is also no way for the team to restore your files, as we don't have any way to do so. ## Export your Secret Space before deleting Piktures If you want to delete Piktures, you need to take steps to save your Secret Space, in order not to lose those precious photos. # ㊙️ Common Secret space issues ## During registration The email verification process has some issues if you don't use GMail on your mobile. For instance, if you use Outlook on your device, please do not open the link with Firefox. Firefox does not support the Piktures secret link. You need to use an alternative browser such as Brave, Google Chrome. # EXTERNAL STORAGE Piktures supports external storage # USB Stick & Drive Piktures allows your phone to access a USB-connected storage, i.e. a USB Stick or a USB Drive. ## FAT32 format You can connect your Piktures app to a USB Stick, or a USB Drive via the USB port. The most common is the USB-C port. Please note that Piktures only supports the **FAT32** file format Piktures does NOT support any other file system. # How to add a cloud You can add a cloud easily with Piktures ## Step 1 - The list of drives Simply go to the list of drives by sliding twice on the left. ![](/files/-MYfW4iO31thVY9hM3gq) ## Step 2 - Add a drive Then click on the Add a photo access button ![](/files/-MYfW-ATw2lWVnAiVl48) \ Step 3 - Follow the instructions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You just need to follow the instructions on the screen for adding your cloud or Webdav access point. # Box Box, Inc. is a public company based in Redwood City, California. It develops a set of cloud services for individuals and businesses. Piktures is NOT associated with Box. ### Box access Piktures is able to manage, view, download from, and upload photos to Box. Piktures uses Box WebDav access to execute those operations. As a Piktures user, you will have to enter your username and password. The credentials will be stored locally on your smartphone. They are not sent anywhere outside of this device. # Dropbox Dropbox is a cloud storage service operated by Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, US. Piktures is NOT associated with Dropbox. ## Dropbox access Piktures is able to manage, view, upload to, and download photos from Dropbox. To do this, Piktures uses the Dropbox Android SDK. With the Prime and Premium version, you also have a Back-up option. ## Refresh issues If you have refresh issues, please remote your Dropbox access, and add it back. This should restart the process and all your refresh issues should be gone. # Google Drive Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service developed by Google. Piktures is NOT associated with Google. ## Google Drive access Piktures is able to manage, view, upload to, and download photos from Google Drive. With the Prime and Premium version, you also have a Back-up option. To do this, Piktures uses the Google Drive Android SDK. ## Refresh issues If you have refresh issues, please remote your Google Drive access, and add it back. This should restart the process and all your refresh issues should be gone. # Microsoft OneDrive Microsoft OneDrive is a cloud storage service that Microsoft operates. Piktures is NOT associated with Microsoft. ## Microsoft OneDrive access Piktures is able to manage, view, upload to, and download photos from Microsoft OneDrive. To do this, Piktures uses the OneDrive Android SDK. With the Prime and Premium version, you also have a Back-up option. ## Refresh issues If you have refresh issues, please remote your Microsoft OneDroive access, and add it back. This should restart the process and all your refresh issues should be gone. **Microsoft OneDrive business account** OneDrive for Business and OneDrive are different. * OneDrive is a personal cloud place to storing your own personal files * OneDrive for Business brings teams together to collaborate on documents and other things. The differences are listed here : [OneDrive for Business vs OneDrive – Know the difference](https://en.share-gate.com/blog/onedrive-for-business-vs-onedrive-know-the-difference) Unfortunately Piktures cannot access photos on OneDrive for Business **From the Microsoft FAQ** # Nextcloud Nextcloud is a free and open-source software, used for cloud storage and collaboration tools. Piktures is NOT associated with Nextcloud. ## About Nextcloud Nextcloud is a solution allowing you to build your own personal cloud server. ## Nextcloud access Piktures is able to manage, view, upload to, and download photos from your own instance of Nextcloud, thanks to the Webdav open protocol. You should follow the instructions provided by Nextcloud to enable WebDav access # pCloud pCloud is a cloud service located in Switzerland, which uses the industry-standard AES 256-bit encryption. Piktures is NOT associated with pCloud. ### pCloud access Piktures is able to manage, view, download from, and upload photos to pCloud. Piktures uses Box WebDav access to execute those operations. As a Piktures user, you will have to enter your username and password. The credentials will be stored locally on your smartphone. They are not sent anywhere outside of this device. ### pCloud EU and pCloud US pCloud has the particularity to have two access points depending on the location of the end-users. Piktures lets you choose between the Europe-based access, or the US-based access. # Webdav WebDAV is an open protocol on top of HTTP which allows user agents to manipulate media files. It is used by cloud storage providers to let users manage multimedia files remotely. ## Webdav access Piktures is able to manage, view, upload to, and download photos from servers supporting the Webdav protocol. Some cloud storage providers such as Box, pCloud, or Yandex support Webdav natively and it is how Piktures access your media files stored on those services. As WebDav is an open protocol, it is also supported by personal cloud solutions. For instance, you can install your own instance of Nextcloud and access it through Webdav. You can also use your own hardware from Synology and configure Piktures to access it via Webdav. # Yandex Yandex N.V. is a multinational corporation primarily for Russian and Russian-language users, providing internet services, such as Yandex Drive. Piktures is NOT associated with Yandex. ### Yandex drive access Piktures is able to manage, view, download from, and upload photos to Yandex Drive. Piktures uses Box WebDav access to execute those operations. As a Piktures user, you will have to enter your username and password. The credentials will be stored locally on your smartphone. They are not sent anywhere outside of this device. # QR Code Piktures has an integrated QR Code scanner Piktures comes with a handy QR Code Scanner that you can access from the FAB button (+). CLICK ON READ BAR CODE and you will launch the QR Code Scanner. ![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/groovehq/uploaded/5q4tk9h2buyw0opa52h53wk3j9jrcysp4nksal3mbpdfj6ruf1?1507646637) # Upgrade to Premium How to upgrade to the Premium tier You just need to follow those 3 steps ![Click on Store - then Premium - then you can Upgrade ](/files/-MDJHmQ7JKeT3oWfylj5) # In-app purchases The list of premium features in the current version, and the things that are coming to Version 3 and Version 3.1 ## Current Pro features **Advanced cloud features** The **advanced cloud feature** Piktures has, at the moment, is access to an unlimited number of cloud accesses. You can add as many Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive as you want. Without the Premium enabled, the number of accesses is limited to two. **Advanced tag features** The **advanced tag feature** Piktures has, at the moment, is the user generated tags. Piktures allows you to add as many tags as you want to the photos. ## Version 3 Pro features (end of the year) **Advanced cloud features** The **advanced cloud feature** Piktures will have with Version 3 * **PIN-code protected access:** you will be able to add a PIN-code to protect access to your cloud drives * **Selective folder access :** you will be able to select the folders you want to retrieve on Piktures. **Advanced Secret space features** The **advanced Secret space feature** Piktures will have with Version 3 * **PIN-code only access:** you will be able to remove the support of Biometrics and allow access to the Secret Space only thanks to your PIN code * **SD Card support :** you will be able to use your SD card to store your Secret Space ## Version 3**.1** Pro features (2021) **Advanced customisation features** The **advanced customisation feature** will be able providing more control over the layout of the Grid, and will provide some themes. # Memory usage The space on your device Piktures uses space for: * Thumbnails If you have a large consumption of disk space, this might be due to your * Secret Space * Recycle bin # Data usage We have looked at it and our conclusion is that 2.15 Mb since November means about 25kb per day. We were afraid that there was something dramatic on your device from your comment but it seems a normal behaviour for Piktures. Piktures uses the network to get the maps for locations (on the right side of the app), to get the name of the city from the GPS of the photos, to send anonymous analytics to understand what people use or don't use in the app, to improve our products. A single photo can be between 3Mb and 10Mb :) Nowadays every app uses a bit of data, including Gallery apps. If you really want to not send any data, you can use an app like Opera Max to block access to data for apps including Piktures. Some features like location won't work anymore but that maybe okay for you # PIKTURES MEDIA SERVER The Piktures Media Server is a Desktop app that runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux computers # Windows Version Installing, and running Piktures Media Server on Windows ## **Download** The Windows version of the Piktures Media Server exists in one version: * The Windows version that you can download at ## Installation The Installation is fairly straightforward. You need to double-click on the msi file, and follow the instructions. ## Configuration The configuration of the Windows app can be resumed in 4 parts: * The Display name * The credentials, i.e. Login and Password * The Port on which the server will listen * The Location of the Folder It is important to allow the Media Server to run in the private network. ## Always start To be able to use correctly the Windows version, it is recommended to have the Piktures Media Server always running. To do so, it is advised to add it to the list of apps running in start-up time. In order to do so, on Windows 10, you need to follow the instructions from Microsoft # Mac version Installing, and running Piktures Media Server on your Mac ## **Download** The Mac version of the Piktures Media Server exists in two versions: * The M1 version that you can download at * The Intel version that you can download at ## Installation The Installation is fairly straightforward. You need to double-click on the pkg file, and follow the instructions. ## Configuration The configuration of the Mac app can be resumed in 4 parts: * The Display name * The credentials, i.e. Login and Password * The Port on which the server will listen * The Location of the Folder ![](/files/QRul2vmR6BzFr8fNp0PO) ## Always start To be able to use correctly the Mac version, it is recommended to have the Piktures Media Server always running. To do so, it is advised to add it to the list of apps running in start-up time. # Help & Support # Third party notice The libraries used by the Piktures Media Server **We use the following open-source libraries** **Apache HTTP Components** [https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.httpcomponents]() **BCProv** [https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.bouncycastle/bcprov-jdk15on]() **SLF4J** [https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.slf4j/slf4j-api]() **Metadata Extractor** [https://github.com/drewnoakes/metadata-extractor]() **Thumbnailator** **ZXing** **Jcodec** [**https://github.com/jcodec/jcodec**](https://github.com/jcodec/jcodec) # Deleting file error (recycle bin) This error is displayed when the Android system prevents Piktures to complete a file system operation If you are unlucky, you might get this nasty error message. ![](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/1O2pmK2pQsurIu0oG8OU) It means that Piktures does NOT have the right to write on the file system. This could be due to multiple reasons: **A - Your file system is almost full.** * For instance, you might want to delete some photos from your SD card. The SD Card has plenty of space while the phone memory is running low. This happens when you are deleting photos from the SD card and the recycle bin is activated. The operation creates first a copy of your SD card photos to the phone memory. If the phone memory is not large enough, this error message will appear. * Another example is when you want to delete files from the phone memory. It still tries to create a copy before deleting from the source folder. **Recommendation**: Use a file manager to clean up the file system in order to have at least 50M of free space on your phone memory. **B - The permission to the file system is no longer granted** * Updating Android or updating Piktures might cause the file permission to be revoked. This happens a lot on OnePlus devices. We don't know yet why this is happening and what to do about it. **Recommendation**: Uninstall and reinstall Piktures. # Recover Secret space You might have been clever to store the .Piktures folder somewhere safe f you have copied the entire .Piktures folder, your photos are safe. The d1.dat has the encrypted information about your account to provide you back access. But your photos are inside subfolders like 02, 15, 04 etc... th!s is where your photos are. If you have those folders, you are good, you just need to reinstall Piktures and relaunch the Secure Drive. It will detect your previous installation and you need to enter your email address and previous PIN code. # Renaming album is not a filesystem folder renaming This is a well known issue and we are not sure to find a workaround. The name of the folder is the real name of the folder on the Android system. Unfortunately, we are not doing a full renaming of the folder but only a reference in our database. # I view too many cached folders When Piktures seems messy, it might be because... ### **Piktures mostly respects the presence of .nomedia file.** A .nomedia file is a blank file placed inside a folder. When the media scanner detects the .nomedia file, the media scanner does not scan that folder so the images in that folder don't appear in the Gallery app. It's a good way of having a folder full of images (like a skin for an app) and not have those images appear in the Gallery app. You can place a .nomedia file in any folder but the filename must begin with a period.\ \ Also, on a Linux system a "dotfile" (a file with a filename that begins with a period) is hidden from standard view, though most file managers have an option to allow viewing dotfiles. So the file is hidden from view and the images in that folder aren't cataloged in the Gallery app. ### **But there are 2 exceptions:** \- Piktures doesn't respect .nomedia file if it is located in the / folder. Otherwise, a simple .nomedia file would make all photos invisible. \- Piktures doesn't respect .nomedia file in the /sdcard/Android/data folder because many folders are typically located there and respecting it would also make many photos invisible. If you see too many cached images, you should exclude the /sdcard/Android/data folder. To do this, go to Settings, FOLDERS, Manage Exclude folders and exclude this /sdcard/Android/data folder. # Need to reset your device? Protect your Secret Space first It is recommended to copy to an SD Card or to a computer. Then you can reset your phone and move back the folder at the same location. When you install back Piktures, the app will detect this folder and ask for your previous email address and PIN code. # Debug mode There is a debug mode in the app which allows you to help us fix problems and bugs with Piktures ## **How it works?** When the debug mode is activated, trace logs are being written to a local file with more information about the operations being done. Those trace logs are very useful to us. This file can be sent to us for our review. ## **What do I need to do?** The following operations need to be followed to help us: 1. Activate the Debug Mode: For this, go to Settings and the Debug Mode activation is the last section right at the botton of the Settings screen 2. Exit Piktures and kill Piktures: It is important to exit Piktures so that the Debug Mode can be activated and operational after a full restart of the app 3. Do the Operation that is causing issues: For instance, you have problems with copying files to the SD Card. Try to copy a file and wait for the error. 4. Send us the logs: when you have reproduced your problem, the debug file has been generated. Please go to Settings again and you will see the ability to Send Logs. Click on Send Logs and you will see your Email app being open. You can add in the body of the message more details if you want to. Thanks :) # We are Diune A small company with a big ambition We are based in London, United Kingdom and we are a small team of engineers, designers and business folks. We are a privately-owned company dedicated to bringing the best and most complete gallery experience on Android. We are not affiliated with a social network or a ad company. We have a large ambition and we hope you will continue supporting us. # How do we make money A little explanation about how we generate revenue We make money through ads and in-[app purchases](/paid-features/iap) # Why is Piktures not open-source? The code is all we have We have worked 6 years on developing Piktures and there are many concepts which are unique to Piktures. The source code is our intellectual property and it is where the value of our work is stored. We don’t have a database of users, we don’t have a service with a social graph, we just have a fantastic app. Making Piktures open-source would let other developers steal our intellectual property. We have come to believe that the Google PlayStore is filled with other gallery apps that have copied the original gallery app from Google. While we are not sure and cannot prove this, it is quite striking that they all look the same. Their mission is to generate revenue easily by filling those gallery apps with ads without taking the time to create an original gallery app. We are different, we have created something unique and we care deeply about it.