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Trouble uploading photos from iOS for art mode (43" The Frame 2021 UK)

(Topic created on: 09-07-2021 12:31 PM)
18817 Views
defjaf
Journeyman
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I've just purchased a 43" The Frame 2021 in the UK. 

I am having trouble uploading my photos from the SmartThings iOS app:

  • I am on my home wifi with the tv. iPhone and TV are both turned on.
  • I tap on the "The Frame" device icon in SmartThings
  • I pick "Art Mode"
  • do see both "Browse>" and "Add your photos+" (I know that this is sometimes a problem).
  • I either tap "Add your photos+" or "Browse>" > "My Collection" > "+ Add photos or create a collage"

I then get a page with "Select Photos to Add to the Frame" and some other text.

  • Some of the time, I correctly see a panel with photos below this, and a menu of my albums to select from. 
  • Most of the time, the bottom of the page is blank with "No photos" and nothing to choose from, and the "x" icon in the upper right doesn't work to cancel this page. I can access the remote-control icon in the lower-right, however.

Any ideas? I guess I'd like to know whether anyone else has had the same experience as me, and/or if there's anyone out there who has no problem at all. (I think that there are people out there with other issues getting photos from iOS to the Frame, but perhaps not the same as me.)

24 REPLIES 24
Crazyeal
Apprentice
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FA2DCDEF-93D9-4660-ADE1-825109EE261D.png

 this is where it doesn’t work, and I’ve selected photos …

93509206-FD63-4D94-AA36-01600055CE47.png

6E561472-5720-4EC4-824E-FCB4B4D88BFC.png

defjaf
Journeyman
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The most recent update has changed the behaviour, but it is still buggy. In fact, it is probably worse now, since it actually crashes the app.

I've had numerous back and forth discussions with Samsung over at https://help.content.samsung.com/csweb/ticket/searchTicketList.do

Aside: this is a terrible support site. Worst of all is that they can close a ticket which you cannot re-open. 

At various points, they have claimed a "solution". First, they said that they were in communication with the SmartThings app devs. Then, they actually sent me the information from (for?) the devs:

> View Model is nil, button state is not updated.
> Please implement updated View Model and update button state.

After that, they told me

> Kindly know that we have received an answer from the department in charge with SmartThings.
> They have informed us that the error has been corrected, and that the function to upload photos should be working now as intended, therefore please try again.

Then, most recently, 

> Thank you for reporting the lack of loading indicator when loading images.
> As a result of the review, an improvement has been found and will be reflected in the next updated version.

This was around the release of the latest version of the app, which went from my originally reported behaviour to the new crashing. I actually take this as a good sign: at least they are working on this part of the app, albeit not actually fixing it... (I haven't yet seen the somewhat promising behaviour mentioned by @Matthew12.)

I might try again with the Samsung bug tickets, although I am losing patience.

 

 

defjaf
Journeyman
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Also, just to be clear: 

 

In the (few, but non-zero) times that the (previous versions of the) app has actually worked to let me add photos to the Frame, I did not have to select the photos first in the Settings app. SmartThings just gave me a photo picker and let me choose individual photos which were then successfully uploaded to the TV, and still show up.

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Crazyeal
Apprentice
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I agree with you 100%.  I do not recall having to select photos in the settings app at all before.  AND the app also crashes half the time before it even gets to any of these other dead ends.  Come on Samsung!  It’s a beautiful TV but it’s useless.  It’s like a gorgeous sword you can look at but it’s really made out of rubber so don’t try to actually use it!!  

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defjaf
Journeyman
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So there was a new version of the SmartThings App today. 

And there seems to be at least some improvement. When I tried to add photos, I got the spinner -- but no crash. Also, no photos, at least not for a long time.

But I had recently started to suspect that the problem was that the app was trying to deal with my very large photo library. So I went back to settings and did choose a subset of the photos -- and then it seemed to work!

(This is still a bug, I think, and I suspect could be fixed by using Apple's stock photo picker rather than trying to create their own [buggy] version!)

So I wonder if those of us who have seen this problem all happen to have somewhat large photo libraries? Mine has 77,000 photos.

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Dave-j
First Poster
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I have the same problem.  When photos do appear for me to select, it is only a partial selection from my camera roll.  The app worked better last summer when I purchased the Frame.  It seems like some recent updates have made it worse.

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megasponge
First Poster
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The same issue on a iphone 11... I've just never managed to access my pictures despite having selected an Album with only one picture instead of all photos (in the app preferences). IMG_0016.PNGgets stuck here... all the timegets stuck here... all the time
This is really anoying me, as it's one of the reasons I bought the Frame in the first place... and no I don't want to use a USB stick in 2021.

whosjohnnie
First Poster
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This fixed the issue for me - thank you!!!

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defjaf
Journeyman
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So I just received the following from Samsung:


We kindly inform you that we have received an answer from the department in charge.

Please note that this is the right behavior on the Frame module of SmartThings.

Kindly note that currently in the Frame Artwork, they have filtered and hidden image type such as HEIC, GIF, TIF. As such, if your photo library only contain these photos then they won't be available on Frame module.

Take note it will be working well using others image types such as PNG, JPEG etc.


Given the recent experience many of us have had with at least some success when pre-selecting photos, this is obviously not correct.

But, as usual, Samsung has closed the issue and marked it "Completed" — which means I can't actually respond — and I am losing energy here. For now, at least, there is a workaround which is adequate to the task, if not perfect. So I am pretty much done.

Gggnl
First Poster
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Solution for me (iOS) was to:

  • Go go settings
  • Search for smartthings
  • Limit app access to a few photo's only (instead of all photo's)
  • Restart smartthings app

The app is not providing any usefull message but it seems too many photo's in your photostream make it crash.