Purchasing

• I am liking your PhotoGuru app and plan to purchase three modules to get them all.  I do want to use it on a few of my firesticks.  Will I have to purchase more modules?
  
  You can install PhotoGuru on all of your devices (no limit !) and already purchased modules will automatically get unlocked as long as all of your devices run under the same Amazon/Google user account. Note that after a purchase on one device it may take a couple of hours until the purchase gets reflected on the other devices (this is the time for the purchase transaction to propagate through the Amazon/Google servers). If you decide to install the app on a device of the opposite platform we will help you with unlocking it.
  
  
• I have paid for PhotoGuru Media Player through Google and the “Please Pay” message is still visible.
  
  PhotoGuru shows the “Please Pay” message because you are accessing photos from a device/hosting service that does not match the module that you have paid for. For example, if you purchase the “DLNA module” we will only remove the message if you are accessing photos from a DLNA server.
  
  
• Hello! I bought access to the Google module on Android TV and everything is OK but after installing your application on my phone I still have a demo version. What am I doing wrong?
  
  It usually takes a couple of hours until a purchase on one device gets reflected on other devices but please be rest assured that PhotoGuru will get unlocked on all of your devices as long as they run under the same Google/Amazon account. You can speed up the process if you open the PhotoGuru purchase screen because this forces a synchronization.
  
  
• I downloaded the app and purchased the extension for Local Files. I assumed that would give me access to files on my local home network, but it does not. I now suspect that “local” means only files on the Fire TV stick (??)
  
  The Local Files module only accesses files on the device (i.e. the file system of your FireTV) and files of connected USB devices (e.g. Thumbdrives). In order to access files on your home network, you need the SMB File Sharing (Samba/CIFS) module.
  
  
• I bought an inexpensive Media Streamer for my TV but it does not come with the Google PlayStore app. How can I install PhotoGuru ?
  
  We don’t support sideloading of PhotoGuru from unknown sources because the in-app purchasing functionality in PhotoGuru requires a functional Google Play/Amazon Store and my guess is that it is not available on your device. However, you might be able to sideload the Amazon Appstore and then install PhotoGuru through it.

Photo/Video Playback

• I have thousands of photos in my account. I am only seeing a fraction of them and many of them keep repeating frequently. With the amount of photos, there is no way I should be seeing the same pictures in the same day, let alone the same hour.
  
  Slideshows are pseudo random because it would take way too much time to enumerate all folders and images. Instead, PhotoGuru enumerates the root folder and then picks a random subfolder. If this subfolder contains subfolders the process repeats itself until PhotoGuru finds a sub(sub-)folder with images. Images in the selected folder are played in random order. Once all images in that folder have been shown or once the time period selected under Settings>PlaybackSettings>AutomaticallyReloadFolderDuringPlayback has passed, PhotoGuru tries to find another folder starting at the root folder and the whole process repeats itself.

• I would like to be able to turn off the display of the filename and photo details during a slide show. I want to only see the images and no meta data.
  
  You can turn off the display of the meta data (filename, exposure settings, etc) via the following methods:
  
  On a touch screen device (tablet/phone) you can click pretty much anywhere on the screen (e.g. middle) and toggle through several modes: 
  Meta data > Meta data and toolbar > Nothing
  
  On a TV (without a touch screen) you can toggle through the same modes by clicking the up/down buttons of the remote control repeatedly.
  
  You can also configure which specific meta data you want to see when they are enabled: Click on the vertical ‘…’ button in the upper right corner of the PhotoGuru Home Screen and then select   Settings>PlayBackSettings>DisplayOfMetaData. One of the available options is to hide all metadata fields.

• How can I display my images in the 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution on my device ?
  
  PhotoGuru supports rendering of images in the 4K resolution on the NVidia Shield (all models) and on the newer Amazon FireTVs. Unfortunately, PhotoGuru cannot render in 4K on Sony TVs (or any other TV manufacturer) because they all use proprietary ways and do not publish an API for 3rd party apps.
  
  FireTV: In order to enable 4K rendering in PhotoGuru on the FireTV 4K (a little square black box) connect it to a 4K TV that supports HDCP content protection. Afterwards select “Up to 4K” in the display settings of the FireTV UI. Restart PhotoGuru. If step 1 and 2 have been performed, the 4K rendering modes show up in PhotoGuru under Settings>AdvancedSettings>ImageRenderingQuality.
  
  NVidia Shield: Connect a 4K TV and enable the 4K mode under Settings>AdvancedSettings>ImageRenderingQuality.

• If I long-click on on a folder and pick the “Randomize playback” option, it appears to me that it plays photos from only one of the sub-folders. Is there a way to have it display photos randomly across all sub-folders?
  
  If you start a randomized slideshow via a 2-second long-click, PhotoGuru will randomly select one of the (possibly deeply nested) subfolders and display the photos in it until either all photos have been shown or until the time that is selected under Settings>PlaybackSettings>AutomaticallyReloadImageFoldersDuringPlayback has passed.  For example, if you select a one minute interval, PhotoGuru will pick a new folder after one minute even if not all images in that folder have been shown.
  
  
• I am trying to play some videos through your app but playback hangs from time to time. What should I do ?
  
  There are several reasons why videos won’t play properly or why playback gets interrupted. It is hard to determine the exact cause but you could try to install the free “VLC” or “VLC For Fire” app from the Google/Amazon app store. Afterwards  start PhotoGuru and select “VLC” under Settings>PlaybackSettings>VideoPlayer.