For Windows XP

Click on the button Then right click on the ‘My Pictures’ folder. < Click image to enlarge

A submenu will appear and then select “Properties.” < Click image to enlarge

	Look for ‘Size on disk’. If less than 3.00 GB you require the PK-4 model; if less than 7.00 GB you need the PK-8 model. If less than 15.00 GB, you need the PK-16 model. More than 16.0 GB? Check out the PKPro. Also, you can "Make Your Own Picture Keeper" by purchasing your own USB drive and using our software. It's really easy to do! Need more info? Click here! If you have any questions, please contact us us prior to placing an order. We have a solution for you! < Click image to enlarge
For Windows 7	Click on the button Then right click on the ‘Pictures’ folder.

A submenu will appear and then select “Properties.”

Look for ‘Size of files in Library’. If less than 3.00 GB you require the PK-4 model; if less than 7.00 GB you need the PK-8 model. If less than 15.00 GB, you need the PK-16 model. More than 16,000 MB? Visit the Larger Options products. If you have any questions, please contact us us prior to placing an order. We have a solution for you!

(Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.)

For Mac Users

	Open Finder and select "Pictures." Right click on the iPhoto Library and select "Show Package Contents"

Right click on the "Masters" folder and select "Get Info". Older versions of iPhoto use a folder called "Originals"

Look for ‘Size on disk’. If less than 3.00 GB you require the PK-4 model; if less than 7.00 GB you need the PK-8 model. If less then 15.00 GB, you need the PK-16 model. More than 16.,00 GB? Visit the Larger Options products. If you have any questions, please contact us us prior to placing an order. We have a solution for you!

(Apple, Mac, MacOS are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.)

First reboot your computer and allow Windows to fully load prior to inserting your Picture Keeper drive.

If the AutoPlay menu does not appear after rebooting and plugging your Picture Keeper into a USB port on your computer, click on 'Computer' or ‘My Computer’ on the Desktop (or click the Windows Start button and then the “Computer” selection in the menu). This will open Windows Explorer and you should see the Picture Keeper drive/icon in the Devices with Removable Storage section. Double click on the Picture Keeper drive/icon. This will open the folder structure of the Picture Keeper. Now double click on the “LaunchPictureKeeper” file to start the programs software, this will launch Picture Keeper, press “Start Backup” to begin using Picture Keeper.

Please note that the Mac version of the software does not auto-launch because Mac does not support that feature. To find out how to start the Picture Keeper software on a Mac, please see question 13.

If needed, please contact Support at 877-382-0949 Monday-Friday from 9am til 6pm EST.

Yes, Picture Keeper runs in the background. Just minimize it and continuing using your computer. After Picture Keeper is finished and you have removed the drive, it’s a good practice to restart your computer.

If needed, you can also cancel an active backup by using the Cancel Backup option. Then you can reset the Picture Keeper to its original settings or if you want to, continue the backup. Plug in the Picture Keeper and start the software. When you click the "Start Backup" button a message will pop up to continue(Yes) or start a new(No). Just click Yes and the backup will continue.

Insert your Picture Keeper and launch the software. In the top right corner of the Start Backup screen, click on 'Options', then 'View Pictures' (note: on previous versions of software, this may be 'Options', then 'File', and then 'View Pictures/Restore'.) On newer versions of software, there is also an icon called 'View Pictures' in the lower right that performs the same function. This will open up Windows Explorer to view the contents of the Picture Keeper drive for that computer.

If you don't see any folders, you can always go directly to Windows Explorer (i.e., My Computer) to view the files stored on the Picture Keeper. You can open up Windows Explorer either by going to My Computer (“Computer” on Vista and Windows 7) or by pressing the Windows logo key (located to the left of the space bar between the Ctrl and Alt keys) and, while holding down the logo key, press the letter 'E'. The Picture Keeper will appear in the list with its own drive letter. Just double click on it to open. Your pictures will be stored in a folder named after your computer or newer versions will have a folder called Backups. Folders are arranged in the same structure that is on your computer. Each computer backed up with the Picture Keeper will have a separate folder structure at the top level named after that specific computer.

For Mac users, double click the desktop icon of the Picture Keeper to display the folders. Your pictures will be stored in a folder named after your Mac or newer versions will have a folder called Backups. Double click the specific folder to open and view the files, then continue to open folders to see your pictures.

When one Picture Keeper becomes full, just purchase another one (any size) and Picture Keeper will just copy the remaining pictures.

For example, if you've purchased a PK-4 and it's full, but you have 1543 pictures still remaining to be copied, purchase a PK-8 and it will copy the 1543 remaining pictures and then you'll also have room to add more photos when you use the Picture Keeper in the future.

Yes, you can use any USB drive (flash, portable, external, etc.) with Picture Keeper. After you've purchased the downloadable software you'll get an email with a link to the Picture Keeper account login page. Use your e-mail address and password that was created when ordering the software download. After you have logged in to your account, look for the "My Downloadable Products" along the left side and click to open. Now click the link to download the .zip file.

For Windows Users - Once you have the .zip file on your computer, right click on the .zip file to extract its contents onto your USB drive (please ensure you select the correct location during the extraction process). After completing the extraction to your USB drive, just double click on LaunchPictureKeeper file to run the program!

For Mac Users - Once you have the .zip file on your computer, double click on the .zip file, navigate to the resulting folder, and then select and copy the files to your USB drive. After copying the files to your USB drive, click on the application that has the blue icon called PictureKeeper.

Picture Keeper will find and save pictures on a Windows computer with the operating systems XP, Vista and Windows 7. Also, Mac computers with an iOS of 10.4 and greater. One Picture Keeper can be used on both types of computers in a household.

For example: Picture Keeper can be used on Mom's Windows computer and also on Dad's Mac. Each computer backed up with the Picture Keeper will have a separate folder structure created on the Picture Keeper drive and named after that specific computer. Your pictures will be stored in that folder named after your computer and arranged in the same folder structure that is on your computer.

By default Picture Keeper will copy pictures from the Profile you are currently logged in as. For example, if you are logged in as 'John' then it will only copy the pictures from the 'John' profile. You will then have to log into ‘Jane’ to copy Jane’s pictures.

There is an option in the Picture Keeper to capture the pictures from all profiles. To do this open the Picture Keeper. At the main ‘Start Backup’ screen, click on 'Options' in the upper right hand corner. Then on 'Adanced Options', then click the 'Manage Search Folders' button. From this window you can select or deselect folders as necessary to capture all of the mulitple profile’s photos.

After the first backup Picture Keeper will only copy the pictures that were added or modified since the last backup.

For Windows:

Start the Picture Keeper. Click the “View Pictures” icon in the bottom left corner (Alternatively, you can click on the Options button, then View Pictures) then on the next Picture Keeper window, click the “Copy Pictures” icon. This restore feature will allow you to copy all your pictures or selected folders to your computer. Click to highlight the folders to restore, then to the right of that selection, click the “copy to” button. The next window will display the files/folders of the computer where you are restoring the pictures. Find and highlight the folder where the you would like the restore to copy and click ok to complete the restore.

For Mac:

Start the Picture Keeper. Start iPhoto. Be sure iPhoto is the active screen and then click File, then, Import to Library. In the Import Photos window select the Picture Keeper device under the “Devices” option in the navigation panel on the left side of the window. Then select the gray folder called Backups or the folder that is the name of your Mac and double click to open. Select the iPhoto folder and then click the Import button in the bottom right corner to import the photos.

Yes, most picture frames and digital TVs have USB connections and Picture Keeper just plugs in and your pictures will be displayed. Note: We recommend purchasing another Picture Keeper drive (per picture frame) and always keeping one drive in a safe place!

A solid light indicates the drive is idle and blinking light indicates that the drive is busy and data is being copied to the drive. It is good practice to eject the drive when the backup is complete.

For Windows the eject button is in your system tray(bottom right corner). Windows will display a message when it is safe to remove the Picture Keeper.

For Mac, right click the icon on your desktop and click “eject”. When the desktop icon disappears from the desktop and the light turns off, remove the Picture Keeper.

Yes, Picture Keeper runs on MAC OS 10.4.11 (and greater) computers but must be started manually since Macs do not support an AutoPlay feature. When inserted, the Picture Keeper will appear on the Mac desktop either as 'NoName' or 'PK' as shown below.

Don't see the icon for the Picture Keeper on your desktop? Open Finder, select the word Finder in the menu at the top left corner and then select preferences to open the Finder Preference window. Be sure the checkbox for External Drives is checked.

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Just double click on the NoName or PictureKeeper drive icon and it will open a window like the one shown below:

To start the Picture Keeper program, just double click on the PictureKeeper file with the logo in front of it.

If you need help, please contact Support and we will walk you through the steps.

By purchasing and downloading the Picture Keeper software, you can use it on your own Flash or External Hard Drive - ANY SIZE!

For Windows:

If you plan to use Picture Keeper with an external hard drive you might have to format the drive using Windows Explorer. Click on 'Computer' or ‘My Computer’ on the Desktop (or click the Windows Start button and then the “Computer” selection in the menu). This will open Windows Explorer and you should see the USB or external drive/icon in the Devices with Removable Storage section. Now, just right click on the drive, select "Format..." from the menu and in the next window put a check in the Quick Format box, then click start. NOTE: Be sure that the drive you are formatting is the USB drive and not your C: drive. This process will erase ALL existing data/files on the drive.

For Mac:

You will need to use the Mac Disk Utility to format your Flash or External Drive. Using a Finder window, select Applications, then Utilities and open the folder by clicking the triangle. Find the Disk Utility and open it. Select the flash or external drive, then select the “erase” function in the Disk Utility menu at the top of the window. In the format field select MS-DOS(FAT) from the drop down menu and in the name field you can enter Picture Keeper. Click erase to format the drive.

We recommend this product for the advanced user but would be happy to help anyone through the steps. If you need any assistance, please contact Support ! You can find the software available for purchase on this page..

Customize Your Picture Keeper:

By default, the Picture Keeper looks in the most likely places for photos. However, you can reconfigure it to suit your needs through the Options menu. The Options menu is in the upper right hand corner of the Picture Keeper screen on Windows or at the top left corner of the computer screen (near the Apple Logo) of the Mac. Click on Options => Advanced Settings.

To add or delete locations to the default search for Windows:
Open the Options menu as described above. Click on the 'Manage Search Folders' button and then navigate to folders you'd like to add and then click the checkbox. You should now see your new folder included in the "Search for Directories" list. To remove any folders, click the checkbox. By default, the Picture Keeper is set up to look in these folders (and all of their sub-folders) for your photos:

For Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Pictures\Sample Pictures

For Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.
C:\Users\username\Documents
C:\Users\username\Desktop
C:\Users\username\Pictures

On occasion, a computer may have a profile (i.e., username) that does not match your login name, and so you may need to change the search locations so that Picture Keeper can find your photos. Other issues in finding photos can arise when the software that you use to unload your camera stores your pictures at some other folder outside of the default search locations, so you may need to search around to see where your photos are stored on your computer before you can put the correct folder in this list. You can delete the default folders if you find that Picture Keeper is storing too many pictures, and you wish to restrict it to just a subset of the photos stored on your computer. For example, you may wish to restrict Picture Keeper to just searching in C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Pictures and its subfolders. To do that, you would delete C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents from the list and add C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Pictures. That way if you have duplicate folders stored elsewhere on your computer, Picture Keeper will ignore them.

To add or delete locations to the default search for Mac:
Open the Options menu as described above. By default, iPhoto events are backedup. To add your Albums to the backup, click the iPhoto Library selection and then the checkbox for Albums. This may add duplicates to the download as Albums are created by dragging pictures from Events to the Albums. To add other folders to the search directory, click the Home computer name and then click the triangles beside the folder names until the specific picture folder is found. Click the checkbox to select that folder. To remove any folders, click the checkbox. Select the Aperture Library to backup Projects or Albums.

To add more file types:
Use the Options Menu and select Advanced as described above. To add your camera's video clips, place a check in the Small Video checkbox. Please be aware that video files can be much larger than .jpg files so your Picture Keeper drive may fill up sooner when backing up videos.

To backup other picture file types or documents, place a check in the User Defined checkbox and enter the file extension in the search field. (.raw, .doc, .xls,)

Once you make changes to the Advanced Options, Picture Keeper will remember those changes for that computer on future backups

If you need any assistance, please contact Support !

Just visit the Support section of our website to email us with a brief description of your issue and we will contact you shortly (either via phone or email - whichever you prefer). If you prefer, you can call us Monday - Friday 9 am - 6 pm Eastern at our toll free number 877-382-0949

Most problems can be handed over the phone. If necessary, our Support team can use Teamviewer to remotely connect to your computer to identify and address any issues you are having with backing up your pictures with Picture Keeper

Typically the size of 1 picture or JPG is around 1 MB if your camera's resolution is around 5 Megapixels with a medium image quality setting.  .If you have a high resolution digital camera and have it set to a high image quality, it's possible that the average files size will be much more than 1 MB and your Picture Keeper will store fewer photos accordingly.

Below is a chart to help you determine how many pictures will fit depending the size of your Picture Keeper and your camera's resolution.

We use the highest quality components at the time of manufacture. With proper care, USB devices like Picture Keeper have been tested to last for 10+ years or more importantly 1,000,000 uses. Also, USB media will not degrade or scratch (like possible on CD or DVD's). What typically happens is that the industry decides to market different media (ie records-> 8track->cassette tapes-> cd's. etc). We are confident that USB media will be around for 10+ years since most devices (phones, printers, drives, etc) are USB based.

Yes, it is. However, Windows 7 and Windows 8 behave differently than XP and Vista and two ajustments may need to be made.

1. When launching programs from external devices like Picture Keeper. With Windows 7, Microsoft has disabled AutoPlay by default and has removed the feature that made an Autorun program to appear at the top of the AutoPlay menu. However, it is possible to re-enable AutoPlay in Windows 7 which will make using Picture Keeper easier.

Re-enabling Autoplay will cause a menu to pop up when the Picture Keeper is inserted into a Windows 7 computer. You can always run the Picture Keeper software by opening up Windows Explorer and navigating to the Picture Keeper's root folder and double clicking on the autorun program. But if you enable AutoPlay it will take fewer steps.

To enable AutoPlay, click on the Windows 7 logo (as shown to the left) which is at the bottom left corner of the Windows 7 desktop. This will open up a menu. Type in the word 'auto' into the 'Search programs and files' box at the bottom. You should see a list appear with AutoPlay appear near the top as shown here:

Click on AutoPlay and a window like the one shown below will open.

 

Check the AutoPlay box in the upper left hand corner of the screen and then click on the 'Save' button in the lower right hand corner. This will cause the pop-up menu to appear whenever you insert a Picture Keeper.

Once you enable Autoplay and insert a Picture Keeper, it will be necessary to click on an item that is labeled 'open the folder to view files' as shown in the picture below. This is one extra step that you don't need to perform in Windows XP or Vista where the Picture Keeper software appears at the top of the list.

After you open the folder, you will see a file called autorun that has a Picture Keeper logo in front of it. It may not show the .exe extension if you have Windows configured to hide extensions which it does by default. Double click on the autorun entry and the Picture Keeper program will open and you'll be able to start the backup.

2. If you cannot see the Start Backup or View Picutres icons within Picture Keeper, please make sure that your have the correct display settings within Windows 7. In the Screen Resolution configuration, you must set the text/icon size to "small." If the setting is set to "Medium" or "Large" then the icons will not display. Note: By default the text/icon size is set to small with Windows 7.

Please contact Support or call us at our toll free number 877-382-0949, Monday - Friday 9 am - 6 pm Eastern time if you need any further assistance using Picture Keeper with Windows 7 or Windows 8.

If you would like to remove all the files that have been stored on a Picture Keeper and return it to its original condition, you can reset your Picture Keeper by clicking on the OPTIONS button in the top right corner (Windows) or OPTIONS on the Menu bar (MAC) and then selecting "Reset Picture Keeper." You will be prompted to enter in the "confirmation code" just to be sure you want to remove all of the pictures from your Picture Keeper on older software versions. Newer software versions will just prompt to erase. Both Windows and Mac will display a "Picture Keeper has been Reset" message when complete. The Reset Picture Keeper function will only removed pictures from the Picture Keeper, NOT your computer.

CAUTION: Please make sure you have another copy of your digital pictures (ie. on your Hard drive or elsewhere) prior to resetting your Picture Keeper).

Please contact support or call us at our toll free number 877-382-0949 Monday - Friday 9 am - 6 pm Eastern time if you need any further assistance with removing files from your Picture Keeper.

Yes, Picasa and Adobe Lighthouse are image organizers and image viewers for organizing and editing digital photos. Use the Picture Keeper Advanced Option Menu to customize Picture Keeper to find and backup your Picasa and Lighthouse photos. However, most image organizers and image viewers use the “Pictures” folder photos and “tag” (special coding) the photos to be used by their software. Picture Keeper will backup the “Pictures” folder by default. When using Picasa and Lighthouse, the photos can then be organized and viewed in any order chosen.

Initial backup durations will depend upon your computer's hardware but you should expect:
Up to 1000 pictures= approx. 15 mins
Up to 2000 pictures= approx. 25 mins
Up to 3000 pictures= approx. 40 mins
Up to 4000 pictures= approx. 45 mins -1 hour
Up to 5000 pictures= approx. 1 hr 15 mins
Up to 6000 pictures= approx. 1 hr 30 mins
Up to 7000 pictures= approx. 1 hr 45 mins
Up to 8000 pictures= approx. 2 hrs

Using Picture Keeper for subsequent backups (ie weekly/monthly), durations will take minutes.

If you want to remove individual photos from your Picture Keeper, just click on the View Pictures icon on the main screen, then select the View Pictures button and find the folder you wish to view. Once you have located the photo, just highlight it and then press the "Delete" key on your keyboard (or move to Trash for Mac).

Please note: Once you have deleted the photo from your Picture Keeper, if it still remains on your computer it WILL NOT be copied over again. If you do not want this photo in your collection then delete it from your computer also.

For Windows:

Start by checking the GB size of the Picture Keeper by using the properties selection. Just insert the Picture Keeper and then click the Windows Start button and then computer. "Under Devices with Removable Storage", right click the Picture Keeper drive and select properties. This will tell you the size of the Picture Keeper, which for a PK4 should be 4 GB, for a PK8 should be 8 GB, for a PK16 should be 16 GB.

For Mac:

Look for the Picture Keeper icon on your desktop. Right click on the icon and the select "Get Info". Look for the Capacity. This will tell you the size of the Picture Keeper, which for a PK4 should be 4 GB, for a PK8 should be 8 GB, for a PK16 should be 16 GB.

In addition, look on the back of the Picture Keeper drive for the sticker that displays the gigabyte size. As shown below.