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 4GB model; if less than 7.00 GB you need the 8GB model. If less than 15.00 GB, you need the 16GB 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! < Click image to enlarge

For Mac Users

Open Finder and select "All Images." < Click image to enlarge

Press and hold the Apple Key and then the "A" key on your keyboard to select all. < Click image to enlarge

Press the Options button at the top of the window an a submenu will appear. Select "Get Info." < Click image to enlarge

Look for ‘Size on disk’. If less than 3000 MB you require the 4GB model; if less than 7000 MB you need the 8GB model. If less then 15,000 MB, you need the 16GB 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! < Click image to enlarge

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

If the AutoRun menu does not appear after rebooting your computer and reinserting your Picture Keeper, just press and hold the "Windows logo" key on your keyboard (to the left of the space bar) and, at the same time, the press the "E" to start Windows Explorer. Alternately, you can click on 'My Computer' on the Desktop or Start menu. This will make Windows Explorer (i.e., the 'My Computer' window) appear and you should see the Picture Keeper drive/icon in the Devices with Removable Storage section. Double click on it and it will open the folder structure of the Picture Keeper. Then click on the autorun file with the Picture Keeper icon in front of it and it will launch the Picture Keeper application.

A computer that doesn't have AutoPlay enabled reduces the ease-of-use of Picture Keeper. If you're running any security software, check to see if it has an option selected to disable AutoPlay or Autorun and re-enable them. If that's not the issue, Microsoft has a downloadable utility to check to see if AutoPlay is configured properly here. If you have Windows 7, there is another FAQ entry in question 19 that shows how to enable AutoPlay since it defaults to being 'off' in Win 7.
.

Please note that the Mac version of the software does not autolaunch because the 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 and we will walk you through the steps

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.

Insert your Picture Keeper and launch its software. In the top right corner of the Start Backup screen, click on 'Options', then 'View Pictures/Restore (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, try navigating up to the root level to find a folder named after your computer and double click on it. When you see folders such as My Documents or Pictures, then navigate down into their subfolders by double clicking on them until you get to the pictures.

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) 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 it. Your pictures will be stored in a folder named after your computer and arranged in the same folder structure that they have on your computer. Each computer backed up with the Picture Keeper will have a separate folder structure at the top level named after the computer.

For Mac users, please note: if you've set up iPhoto as explained in FAQ question 13, as you're navigating down to find your photos, you will encounter the iPhoto Libary folder. This is a package folder and to view its contents, you need to either use the 'right click' or control click on it to bring up a menu and then select 'Show Package Contents'. At that point, two folders will be displayed called Modified and Originals. Your iPhoto pictures will be stored in folders under those two folders. If you don't use the right click method to 'Show Package Contents', the Mac OS will ask you if you want to re-import the photos into iPhoto. If you say 'yes' it will make duplicates in your iPhoto library. That is how you would restore the photos, but to view them, cancel out of that and right click on iPhoto Library instead.

You will need to purchase a larger drive (ie. if you own a 4 GB then you will need to purchase an 8 GB).

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 that allows you to download a .zip file. Once you have this file on your computer, you will need to doubleclick on the .zip file to extract its contents, which consists of two files and two folders. The files are named autorun.exe and autorun.inf . The folders are named Picture Keeper and PictureKeeper.app . Then you will need to drag these 4 items to copy them to the root level of your USB drive. After that, the USB drive will behave like a Picture Keeper.

Yes, Picture Keeper will find and save pictures from multiple PC’s up to the drive’s capacity.

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. Keep in mind, most households just transfer pictures from their camera to one profile on their computer so all of your pictures maybe under one profile.

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

	Just plug Picture Keeper into your new computer and once the ‘AutoRun’ appears, select “Open Folder to view files using Windows Explorer’ then ‘OK’. < Click image to enlarge
	Once the new window appears, on the left side click on ‘Copy this folder’ and navigate to your ‘My Pictures’ folder and select ‘Copy’. < Click image to enlarge

Yes, most picture frames 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 means the drive is idle and blinking light means that pictures are being copied to the drive.

Yes, Picture Keeper runs on both Windows and MAC OS X / Apple computers but it 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 'PK' or 'NoName' as shown below.

Just double click on the PK or NoName 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 with the logo in front of it.

Currently, there are some additional steps needed for compatibility with iPhoto '08 and '09. Visit our iPhoto Setup Tutorial for step by step instructions with screen shots or 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! If you plan to use Picture Keeper with an external hard drive you might have to format the drive in Windows Explorer. Just right click on the drive, select "Format..." from the menu and then follow the prompts. NOTE: This will erase ALL existing data/files on 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.

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 of the computer screen in the case of the Mac version of the software.

On upper right hand corner of the main screen, click on Options => Advanced Settings. (Note: on older versions of the Picture Keeper software, the menu will be under Options => File => Advanced).

To add or delete locations to the default search:

Open the Options menu as described above. Click on 'Add New' button and then navigate to folder you'd like to add then click 'OK'. You should now see your new folder included in the "Search for Directories" list. To delete any folder, highlight it in the list and click the 'Delete Selected' button.

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 and Windows 7
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 more file types, let's take the example where you also want to back up your camera's video clips. In the "Search for Formats" field, add .mov to the list (note: some cameras use the .avi or .mpg extension for video files so you may wish to add those too, separated by commas).

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.

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 or at 770-373-5567.
Most problems can be handed over the phone. If necessary, our Support team can use WebEx to remotely connect to your computer to idenify 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. So some could be 0.8 MB and others could be 1.6 MB. So, theoretically if you have more pictures less than 1MB then your drive will hold more than 4000 or 8000. Also, if you have a high resolution digital camera and have it set to the highest image quality, it's possible that the average files size will be more than 1 MB and so your Picture Keeper will store fewer photos accordingly.

If you get a message stating "This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.", it means that your computer is missing some of Microsoft's redistributable libraries (a small patch from Microsoft). To get this patch, visit this Microsoft webpage for a free download. Look for the download button and click it. The name of the file you will get is called vcredist_x86.exe. After downloading the file, just double click on the file and it will install the missing libraries and you will no longer get that error message. Email Support or call us at our toll free number 877-382-0949 or at 770-373-5567 if you need help with this!

Yes, it is. However, Windows 7 behaves differently than XP and Vista 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.

Please contact support or call us at our toll free number 877-382-0949 or at 770-373-5567 Monday - Friday 9 am - 6 pm Eastern time if you need any further assistance using Picture Keeper with Windows 7.

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 delete them using one of the methods described below.

On a Windows system, it is necessary to first set up the computer to show hidden files/folders and file extensions. Here are the directions to accomplish that:

Windows XP:

1. Open up the Picture Keeper's file system in Windows Explorer by selecting My Computer either from the Windows Start menu or the desktop and then double clicking on the Picture Keeper drive.
2. In the menu select Tools -> Folder Options -> View
3. Under Hidden files and folders, select the radio button to Show hidden files and folders
4. Uncheck the box for the menu item entitled, Hide extensions for known file types. Then select the OK button.

Once this is done, you can proceed to the step below.

Referring to the screenshot above, delete all folders except the four shown called PictureKeeper.app, Picture Keeper, autorun.exe, and autorun.inf.

This will erase all of the files you stored on your Picture Keeper and reset it back to the factory condition.

Windows Vista or Windows 7:

1. First click on the Windows logo at the bottom left corner of your desktop. From the menu that opens, select Computer which opens up a menu which will show the Picture Keeper in its list. Then open up the Picture Keeper's file system by double clicking on Picture Keeper drive.
2. In the menu select Organize -> Folder and Search Options -> View
3. Similar to the Windows XP menu above, under Hidden files and folders, select the radio button to Show hidden files, folders, and drives.
4. Uncheck the box for the menu item entitled, Hide extensions for known file types. Then select the OK button.

Referring to the screenshot below, delete all files and folders at the root level except the four shown called PictureKeeper.app, Picture Keeper, autorun.exe, and autorun.inf.

This will erase all of the files you stored on your Picture Keeper and reset it back to the factory condition.

Mac OS X:

1. Click on the PK drive on the desktop which will open a window like the one shown above.
2. Using control-click, move all folders except the four shown called PictureKeeper, Picture Keeper, autorun.exe, and autorun.inf into the trash. Then control-click on the trash icon in the dock and tell it to 'empty trash'.

This will erase all of the files you stored on your Picture Keeper and reset it back to the factory condition.

Please contact support or call us at our toll free number 877-382-0949 or at 770-373-5567 Monday - Friday 9 am - 6 pm Eastern time if you need any further assistance with removing files from your Picture Keeper.

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.