Gallery - No Images found

[Menno Wittebol]

When I browse through the default source 'Gallery' in the PhotoCloud Slideshow app (installed on Android v10) and try to open a photo, I get the message 'No Images Found  Please check that there are photos located at Gallery /Folders/Auto/215-05-28-21.28.38.jpg'

I see that the photo icons are the empty/default icons and no preview of the photo, which should be the case if the system is working properly.

The PhotoCloud Slideshow app is able to access the local data storage on my phone.

The problem does not exist in the added media/DLNA (media) server.

See the attached images with the information I get.

[Menno Wittebol]

How long does it normally take before you get a response (and preferably a solution) in this Google Group?

Op woensdag 7 augustus 2024 om 09:24:12 UTC+2 schreef Menno Wittebol:

[martin...@gmail.com]

DLNA is a complex protocol and really hard to support. Your best bet is to get as much information as possible on what's going on behind the scenes. Try to obtain the log by following http://www.android-photo-frame.eu/faq.html "Reporting crashes", or google for how to obtain Android log.

[Menno Wittebol]

Hi Martin, the DLNA works fine, so that is not the problem. It is the phone gallery where it does not work well (see description). I have read the document  http://www.android-photo-frame.eu/faq.html, but the word 'Gallery' is not used at all...

Op zondag 18 augustus 2024 om 06:02:58 UTC+2 schreef martin...@gmail.com:

[Com Func]

Not sure if this helps, but i found that the fiest 2 folders (called "folders" and "moments") were a waste of time.

So i just use the "phone memory" folder, and it works fine.

[sent from mobile]

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[Menno Wittebol]

I communicated with Alan (previous post) via PBs and the following has been discussed but it didn't give the right direction to a solution...

Communication 1

Alan: Not sure if this helps, but i found that the fiest 2 folders (called "folders" and "moments") were a waste of time. So i just use the "phone memory" folder, and it works fine.

Menno: I tried the ‘phone memory’ folder but this one is completely empty and returns the message ‘Phone Internal Memory is empty’ so it doesn’t show the folder structure of my photo’s (see third picture with number four in my initial report what is should be).

Communuication 2

Alan: I'm not sure what is happening, but here some random suggestions for using the ”internal memory” option

1.  Check, under settings - apps - Photocloud frame slideshow, that it has permission for local storage access
2.  Make a separate TOP LEVEL folder called '$Photoframe' to put your photos in, so it's easier to debug, then put a few photos in it
3.  Check, in Photocloud, that you don't have a filter that excludes everything
4.  When you select $Photoframe in local storage, make a long press on it, then select ”root stream here", then go back to the top level menu with Gallery, touch it, and select ’slideshow' to see if it works

Menno:

1. I am sure that PhotoCloud frame slideshow app has permission to the local phone store because I am able to browse in PhotoCloud frame slideshow app to the photos level. However, you see the photos where the preview icon is a default icon and not the photo itself what will be the case when it works well. See picture 3 and 4 of the initial Google Group post. So it looks like the app has only ‘list’ rights and not ‘view’ permissions… I am unable to check/change this: do you?
2. I created a new top level folder called '$Photoframe' and inserted one photo but that didn’t do the trick. The same default photo icon instead of a picture preview icon as reported before.
3. I checked all settings but do not see a filter on directory or something else that can influence the photo icon (enough cache is set as well).
4. When I activate the slideshow after I choose root stream for folder '$Photoframe', I see that the app is crawling and downloading that single photo. However it is in a loop and the photo is not shown. BTW, this new root folder '$Photoframe' is not shown in the Gallery/Phone Internal Memory’ location but only via Folders option.

Communication 3

Alan: (3) The filter option I refer to is under Photocloud Settings: Item 4 = Filters / Moments

Menno:  Yes I saw that and have the following settings for Filters/Moments:
1. Ignored Directories: Empty, no directories specified
2. Include RAWs in Slideshow: Disabled
3. Try loading thumbnails from RAWs: Disabled
4. Filter on Image Size: All Images

Moments
5. Enable Moments: Disabled
6. Show not older than: 90
7. ‘Moments’: Disabled
8. Show not newer than: 1
9. Show older photos less often: 50%

I played around with 2 and 3 to enable them and also with the cache (enable/disable) but this didn’t fix the issue.  So, till now no success…

Op woensdag 21 augustus 2024 om 06:23:36 UTC+2 schreef com...@gmail.com:

[Comfunc]

Hi Menno

I looked at your very thorough notes but couldn't see anything you are doing wrong. A last ditch suggestion would be to get a fresh Android device and hook it up to make it do what you want - which will be straightforward as long as it's Android 11 or above (I think). Then compare the two devices to try find what's different. That's what I did when I initially tried to drive Photocloud from a Motorola Android phone. It was driving me crazy and I just dropped the Motorola. Plus I couldn't get one of my tablets to work with it. I decided long ago that certain problems aren't worth 'fixing', so I just look for a work-around.

To go back to your very first question, "how long does it take to get a response", I requested a 50% size option for the widgets, which can't be more than a 5 minute coding job, and that was months ago and still no solution.

I read somewhere that you could post a monetary 'tip' to help get things done ... but I can't find it now. But it makes sense that we have to pay a bit to get (or encourage) support.

I'm worried actually. I've already seen two of my favourite programs die off. What if the same happens to Photocloud? There's nothing like it to replace it. It would be a disaster for me.

That doesn't help you but I just felt it needed saying.

Alan

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/photocloud-frame/74ef700b-a425-4abb-ae34-31b8f0c8168an%40googlegroups.com.

[Menno Wittebol]

Thanks for the tip Alan. Sooner or later I will buy a new mobile phone with at least Android 14. My current phone is definitely not new but standard, not jailbreaked and runs on version 10 so what I read in your comment that the version could be the underlying cause of this problem. We will see if another device can solve the problem. Luckly the photo slideshow from the NAS (DLNA) is working well and that's more important than a slideshow from my mobile phone.

Op vrijdag 23 augustus 2024 om 19:03:34 UTC+2 schreef com...@gmail.com:

[Martin Vysny]

Hi,

  the "Folders" and "Moments" feature uses an internal filtering/photo retrieval mechanism of Android which is very complicated and hard to call correctly. If those two don't work, just go for the "Phone Memory" folder.

Android development taught me that Android is a piece of crap. I've personally moved to iPhone and Apple's Gallery which works really well.

Best, Martin

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[Com Func]

"Android development taught me that Android is a piece of crap. I've personally moved to iPhone and Apple's Gallery which works really well."

Well if you (Martin) aren't even using the product yourself anymore, I totally understand why supporting it further is not appealing. 

So I thought I could do the same as you and dug out a spare iPad Mini, and projected the screen image to my TV from that instead. . I couldn't find a version of Photocloud Frame Slideshow, so I concluded that you are actually using Apple's Gallery, which on my ipad is called Photos. 

In my opinion, the Apple way is pathetic compared to Photocloud Slideshow, because it does not allow a hierarchy of folders. 

So I checked out a few 'slideshow' type apps from the Apple app store, and they were also pathetic, because I could only link to datastores with a flat folder structure, like Google Photos, for example. 

I can easily swap to Apple if there is a solution of equivalent to Photocloud Slideshow, but I couldn't find one. 

Have you thought of introducting a yearly fee? I don't know how many users you have, but if you have 1000 users then even $5 or $10 per year could make it worthwhile to do minimal support. 

BTW, I suggest that if you do that, you remove things like 'Folders' and 'Moments' that don't work / are hard to make work, and just end up confusing the pitch. 

I suggest that you also specify a minimum hardware and software config, to cut out a lot of time wasting support. I'm all for using cast-off devices for other purposes, but there are limits. It's one thing to put a tablet in the kitchen showing the weather report and time, but another thing to expect it to display a nested hierarchy of 10,000 photos. You shouldn't be having your time wasted by an Android device lower than, say Android 10, and if that device doesn't have enough space to store all the images, for God's sake, even a schoolboy can fix that for about £20.

TBH, I don't see the need for DLNA support. I call it mission creep. All we want this app to do is to (1) display photos from a local store (2) on the Android screen. 

(1) The local copy is the user's problem, there's lots of solutions out there that can do this. I just run a sync overnight from Onedrive to my Android device. Why can't other people do that and sync to a local copy? It's crazy that an app this simple should be having to deal with things like DLNA protocol - that is something outside it's realm, it should be the user's data replication problem. 

(2) Once it's on the Android screen, we can then look at that directly if its a tablet, or cast it onto a TV or something.  Projecting the display to another device is again, the user's problem, and there are several possible ways of doing this. 

I've tried a few different photo frame solutions, using stand-alone purpose made hardware, or using Android devices, and they are all pathetic in their limitations. So if Photocloud Slideshow dies, I'll probably just give up the whole home slideshow idea. 

I'm not going back to any of those previous solutions. They have ridiculous limitations like stretching or cropping the image (would you do that to a Picasso?), or very short display times, are incapable of dealing with nested folders  or even, don't have a 'shuffle' option. God give me strength. 

Anyway, just a few suggestions from a keen user. 

Alan

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/photocloud-frame/11d43f49-4637-4eb4-8c24-f23a1c185f4c%40vysny.me.

[Martin Vysny]

Hi Com,

  thanks for your encouraging words. Response below.

On 7. Sep 2024, at 0.27, Com Func <com...@gmail.com> wrote:

"Android development taught me that Android is a piece of crap. I've personally moved to iPhone and Apple's Gallery which works really well."

Well if you (Martin) aren't even using the product yourself anymore, I totally understand why supporting it further is not appealing. 

That is correct unfortunately - I’ve stopped using the app myself, and the income from the app is very small, so I have little incentive to develop the app further.

So I thought I could do the same as you and dug out a spare iPad Mini, and projected the screen image to my TV from that instead. . I couldn't find a version of Photocloud Frame Slideshow, so I concluded that you are actually using Apple's Gallery, which on my ipad is called Photos. 

Thanks, sorry for not being clear. Photos is the one I meant - I have not ported PhotoCloud to Apple devices.

In my opinion, the Apple way is pathetic compared to Photocloud Slideshow, because it does not allow a hierarchy of folders. 

So I checked out a few 'slideshow' type apps from the Apple app store, and they were also pathetic, because I could only link to datastores with a flat folder structure, like Google Photos, for example. 

I can easily swap to Apple if there is a solution of equivalent to Photocloud Slideshow, but I couldn't find one. 

Wow, that is very surprising… To be honest I’m no power user, and the basic features of Photos are enough for me… but I can see your point that you need more advanced features.

Have you thought of introducting a yearly fee? I don't know how many users you have, but if you have 1000 users then even $5 or $10 per year could make it worthwhile to do minimal support. 

Unfortunately I tested this kind of approach with my other apps, and caught a lot of flak from angry users. At the end some re-subscribed, but at the end the income was even smaller than previously with one-time payments.

I have to face the hard fact that majority of Android users don’t want to pay for apps (honestly I’m kind of guilty myself, even though I bought a bunch of apps lately).

So, unfortunately I don’t think that would work and I’d expect the change to actually backfire. Also, I’m quite old for these kinds of experiments :-D 

BTW, I suggest that if you do that, you remove things like 'Folders' and 'Moments' that don't work / are hard to make work, and just end up confusing the pitch. 

Good idea… Perhaps the best way is to add a config option which enables the “Folders”+”Moments” folders since they work for some users. The setting would be disabled by default; a FAQ would then mention this setting.

I suggest that you also specify a minimum hardware and software config, to cut out a lot of time wasting support. I'm all for using cast-off devices for other purposes, but there are limits. It's one thing to put a tablet in the kitchen showing the weather report and time, but another thing to expect it to display a nested hierarchy of 10,000 photos. You shouldn't be having your time wasted by an Android device lower than, say Android 10, and if that device doesn't have enough space to store all the images, for God's sake, even a schoolboy can fix that for about £20.

Excellent point. I can make the app available for devices older than Android 9, but there would be absolutely no support, “you’re on your own”.

TBH, I don't see the need for DLNA support. I call it mission creep. All we want this app to do is to (1) display photos from a local store (2) on the Android screen. 

There was a request in the past for that I think, but DLNA was always kinda half-broken. I guess the standard is complex and it needs lots of time and dedication to get it right.

(1) The local copy is the user's problem, there's lots of solutions out there that can do this. I just run a sync overnight from Onedrive to my Android device. Why can't other people do that and sync to a local copy? It's crazy that an app this simple should be having to deal with things like DLNA protocol - that is something outside it's realm, it should be the user's data replication problem. 

This is an awesome idea, I love it! Would you mind describing the sync process in more details, so that I can add it to the FAQ section as a workaround when direct access to Onedrive doesn’t work?

(2) Once it's on the Android screen, we can then look at that directly if its a tablet, or cast it onto a TV or something.  Projecting the display to another device is again, the user's problem, and there are several possible ways of doing this. 

Very good point. PhotoCloud does support Chromecast, but if that stops working, I’ll just tell the user to cast the screen to the TV using tablet built-in screencasting.

I've tried a few different photo frame solutions, using stand-alone purpose made hardware, or using Android devices, and they are all pathetic in their limitations. So if Photocloud Slideshow dies, I'll probably just give up the whole home slideshow idea. 

I mean I do not want to kill PhotoCloud actively - I’m even upgrading the app from time to time as per Google’s requirements. This needs to be done every year otherwise Google would unpublish the app.

I'm not going back to any of those previous solutions. They have ridiculous limitations like stretching or cropping the image (would you do that to a Picasso?), or very short display times, are incapable of dealing with nested folders  or even, don't have a 'shuffle' option. God give me strength. 

I’d say PhotoCloud isn’t going anywhere. Sure, there won’t be new features coming, but I’ll definitely keep at least the basic functionality of showing photos from local folders available.

Anyway, just a few suggestions from a keen user. 

Thank you for your kind suggestions and for being understanding. To be honest that means much more than a bunch of dollars. Sounds like PhotoCloud covers all of your needs (when ignoring the “Folders” and “Moments” options)?

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/photocloud-frame/CA%2BbYENJO%2B2Wx%2BFRYLTxPyORbYYYoqmOW-%3DjxiGrM-3yGCqaD6A%40mail.gmail.com.

[Com Func]

Sorry for the slow response; a lot of other things have gone wrong this month. 

I had a look at your other apps, which are all to do with Japanese. Yes, I imagine that those users aren't so dedicated because there are other options, and other reasons.  But for Photocloud, I've seen comments from other users - dedicated photo enthusiasts and others - worried about it going away. 

[BTW, for the Aedict3 KanjiPad Extension, you said in 2017 "Please DO NOT BUY. This functionality is going to be inlined into Aedict3. When that happens, this application will be removed from Google Play." I'm thinking that maybe you forgot to remove it]

I was amazed to find Photocloud does  a proper recursive tree walk to assemble the photo list before randomising the display order. This puts it so far ahead of all the others, and is an essential feature for photography, where you very soon end up with a deep tree (5 levels at least) and very wide (a single node could have 1000 photos, or 100 child nodes).  Once you have a large collection, randomisation is essential, otherwise every time you restart your device the photo display starts again at the beginning so you get sick of seeing the first photos and never get to see the later photos!  This is all no-brainer stuff yet many photoframes  as software, or as hardware, don't do this. 

" Unfortunately I tested this kind of approach with my other apps, and caught a lot of flak from angry users. At the end some re-subscribed, but at the end the income was even smaller than previously with one-time payments."

Well, if you were a Communist Party secretary, you'd see this as a useful revelation of those members that aren't committed revolutionaries, and purge them. Sorry, that's a joke, but you see what I mean. It's better to have just 10 keen followers than 200 hangers-on.  The flak may be unpleasant and annoying, but it could be useful.

In any case, there is another way which I've found with PC apps like Directory Opus or Replay Media Catcher. When they release a major new version, like from 5.x to 6.0, every few years, the new version requires a new fee, or has a new charging mechanism. The old version still runs for a few years, but eventually O/S changes break it. Anyway, these are possibilities if you ever get sick of doing the free upgrades for new Android versions.

" 'The local copy is the user's problem, there's lots of solutions out there that can do this. I just run a sync overnight from Onedrive to my Android device. Why can't other people do that and sync to a local copy? It's crazy that an app this simple should be having to deal with things like DLNA protocol - that is something outside it's realm, it should be the user's data replication problem. 

This is an awesome idea, I love it! Would you mind describing the sync process in more details, so that I can add it to the FAQ section as a workaround when direct access to Onedrive doesn’t work?

I've used Foldersync Pro for years to sync data between Android and Cloud services. It is very solid, and has all the options you need for different types of sync. I've never found a single sync error from it, in all kinds of challenging circumstances (crashes etc)!  It logs it's actions very nicely. I just have it run every night at midnight on the Android device, then just forget about it. It's crazy that you should be having to program around this stuff, when it's somebody else's main job to do that!

Supported cloud providers
- Amazon S3 Simple Storage Service
- Box
- CloudMe
- Dropbox
- Google Cloud Storage
- Google Drive
- HiDrive
- Kolab Now
- Koofr
- Livedrive Premium
- luckycloud
- MEGA
- MinIO
- MyDrive.ch
- NetDocuments
- NextCloud
- OneDrive
- OneDrive for Business
- OwnCloud
- pCloud
- Storegate
- SugarSync
- WEB.DE
- Yandex Disk

Supported protocols
- FTP
- FTPS (SSL/TLS implicit)
- FTPES (SSL/TLS explicit)
- SFTP (SSH File Transfer)
- SMB1/Samba/CIFS/Windows Share
- SMB2
- SMB3
- WebDAV (HTTPS)

"Sounds like PhotoCloud covers all of your needs (when ignoring the “Folders” and “Moments” options)?"

Actually, Photocloud covers all my photo needs already 😁  With my approach the whole idea of Folders and Moments becomes unnecessary. It's the user's job to assemble the folders and moments he needs into a single package (which could be a hierarchical tree or a flat directory), then pass it to Photocloud.

OK, well I guess I could have some requests, but I struggle so much with staying on top of things, I don't want to burden anyone else. But I'll say anyway, out of interest. 

First of all, when dealing with creative activities, it's a journey. All you can do is start, and see where it takes you. It's true of art, music, photography, design, architecture, the lot. This photoframe question is an ongoing journey for me. I use it to revisit iconic architecture and design, remember all kinds of amazing places I've been, and re-kindle precious moments of social  and family life. I don't want to be pretentious, but it has deepened my understanding of, and connection to, my life journey.

You mention adding videos.  I really don't know. It is very complex, whether it enhances the experience or detracts from it. If it was there I'd try it, but I've enough on already with just the photos.

But there is the question of the photo subset. In the beginning, my photo slideshow was just going to have the cream of my photos, plus some family moments,  plus other iconic photos I love from other sources. That's  because the main collection has other photos in there that aren't great, but are needed for historical purposes. So for example,  I want to remember my holiday in Canada in my main collection, but a lot of the photos aren't that great as photos, so I don't want them in my Photocloud slideshow.

Well, the generation of this subset is a huge task! I've done less than 10%, tackling a bit on odd days. So I'm ending up with this replicated structure which I know will give me some kind of maintenance issue later on. So what would be great would be if I could just mark a photo as being not for display. Then I could quite quickly mark the photos which should be shown, or vice versa.  Then instead of having a subset collection of my prized photos, I'd just hand a copy of my whole photo collection over to Photocloud, and it would skip the ones with a low ranking. 

I can show column 'Rating' in File Explorer, then edit that column directly there to give from 1 to 5 stars to a photo. It's really quick. Then Photocloud could only show photos above, say, 4 stars.

Anyway, sorry to go on. I totally relate to your situation: " So, unfortunately I don’t think that would work and I’d expect the change to actually backfire. Also, I’m quite old for these kinds of experiments :-D ".   I've got a massive information website that I've needed to turn into a static archive for years, but I just don't have the time. (It's too important to just delete). So I know what it's like having legacy software and infrastructure hanging around in your life.

Thanks and good luck,
Alan

[Menno Wittebol]

Back to the first message/issue :) After switching to a new phone, the mobile phone gallery slideshow works now, so that's very good news! However, the media/DLNA (media) server option doesn't work anymore. In this case, the shared SSD attached to the router is no longer present... By using the 'Windows Samba Share (old)' option which didn't work for me before, I can share the photos on the SSD in a slideshow and are the picture thumbnails present. For me, this incident is closed :)

Op zaterdag 28 september 2024 om 03:06:27 UTC+2 schreef com...@gmail.com:

[Com Func]

Good!

I realise that a couple of other issues have become added to this thread. I can't edit my old posts now, but I will start a separate 'Conversation'  for one of them.