Frequently Asked Questions

AKA "it doesn't work, how do I fix it?"

Force Update does nothing?

Unfortunately, the current incarnation of updating does not provide ANY feedback to the user. Work is ongoing to fix it. Just know that once you've agreed, the frame IS doing the update in the background.

Photoframe gives me an error about Photos Library API not being enabled

This is usually caused by using an authorization which hasn't had the Photos Library API enabled. If you logon to your Google Developer Console and select your project (probably Photoframe) in the top-left corner, you then proceed to ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES and locate Photos Library API and enable it. You may get some hints from the How to create an authorization file wiki page.

Please note that it can take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes for the change to take effect, so please be patient

Photoframe isn't working with my setup

Please take a moment to make sure that your setup works at all. Maybe something went wrong somewhere. Easiest way to confirm that your Raspberry Pi works is to install Raspbian and make sure it boots up properly.

Which Raspberries work with this?

Any hardware from Rasberry Pi Zero up to Raspberry Pi 3+ should work fine.

Which displays works?

• Any screen using the HDMI connector will work
• Select small TFT screens using the driver upload feature (currently waveman 3.5" and 7" have been tested)

Why don't you animate the transitions?

Since no hardware acceleration is used, there isn't enough power to do so.

Why don't you use hardware acceleration?

It makes this much more complicated, but it's all open-source, so if you feel up for it, I'd happily accept pull requests which enables this. Just remember, non-HDMI displays will STILL not have enough grunt for animation due to how they work.

I want my display in portrait

Use the Web interface to change rotation

Old: Edit the /boot/config.txt and add display_rotate=3 or display_rotate=1

I'm getting SSLError when starting the software

You need to install rng-tools to make sure you have enough entropy for the random data needed during SSL handshake. This typically happens immediately after boot. Installing this package will use the hardware random generator to quickly produce enough data for this to be a non-issue.

If you're using raspbian, install it like so sudo apt-get install rng-tools

The official release of photoframe comes with this preinstalled.

Google says "This app isn't verified"

That's normal, this is because you're running your own frame and using your own authorization. It just means that Google hasn't checked that they like your frame. To continue, please click Advanced and then Go to sensenet.nu (unsafe) to proceed with authorizing the frame.

I keep getting an error about /details/version not working or something

See here for more details

I have a display whose resolution isn't shown

This can happen when you use a display such as ETEPON 7" Display 1024 x 600. The 1024x600 will not not show up as an option. But this can be solved by manually editing the config.txt file.

1. Open the config.txt file from the SD card on your computer
2. Remove any hdmi_mode line
3. Add the following to the file:

hdmi_cvt=1024 600 60
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=87

4. Save file and reinsert SD card in RPi

Obviously, 1024 600 part should be adapted to whatever resolution your display needs.

More details about the hdmi_cvt option can be found here

It just won't authorize

Make sure you're not using any AdBlock:er or privacy blocker which is too aggressive. It's been known to interfere with OAuth2 and make it impossible to authorize the photoframe.

Some antivirus software also install firewalls which mess with your web traffic.

Most of the cases have been resolved by temporarily using another web browser or suspending the extensions which interfere.

You want to setup multiple wifi access points (AKA setting up a frame to surprise your in-laws)

Using the release image, you need to change a couple files in order to have your Raspberry Pi know about multiple WIFI access points. We will not be using /boot/wifi-config.txt Begin by changing the content of /etc/network/interfaces to:

# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)

# Please note that this file is written to be used with dhcpcd
# For static IP, consult /etc/dhcpcd.conf and 'man dhcpcd.conf'

# Include files from /etc/network/interfaces.d:
source-directory /etc/network/interfaces.d

this is the default configuration for Raspbian. Now modify your /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file to have your access points:

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
    ssid="YourWifi"
    psk="YourPassword"
}

network={
    ssid="YourInLawsWifi"
    psk="TheirPassword"
}

Now when you reboot, your device should be accessing your wifi correctly, and when your in-laws unwrap their gift, it should be online the moment they plug it in.