You can turn the Auto-Sync off and on to control when certain timeframes get uploaded. The Mobile App will only upload when the Auto-Sync is turned ON, and it will only attempt to upload NEW photos (and videos, if also turned on) taken from the moment the Sync is activated. For example, many users have Auto-Sync turned OFF for their day-to-day life, then when they go on a trip or attend a big event they’ll turn it ON to ensure photos taken during that timeframe are automatically uploaded!
If you run into any issues with your Auto-Sync not working, or want to ensure a smooth experience, we suggest checking these areas to ensure they have the optimal settings for the FOREVER Mobile App to get your memories into Storage.
Background App Refresh
Auto-Sync on iOS uses the system’s Background App Refresh capability to upload new photos to FOREVER®. The background app refresh triggers periodically and allows an app to perform tasks for a short amount of time while it is in the background. The frequency of execution is not predictable and is determined by iOS based on many factors out of our control.
Please go into your iOS Settings -> General -> Background App Refresh must be enabled and turned on for FOREVER. We recommend setting this to Wi-Fi for best performance, assuming the user has access to consistently good Wi-Fi. We also recommend turning OFF the Background App Refresh for other non-critical apps as doing so may increase the frequency for our Mobile App.
- It may take a few days for iOS to learn the individual’s usage pattern of FOREVER® and how often it should give the app opportunity to perform background refresh.
- IMPORTANT!!! If the FOREVER Mobile App is closed by double tapping the home button and swiping up to close it, the Background App Refresh will not execute until the app is launched again by the user.
- Taking a photo on the device does not trigger auto-sync. Users should NOT expect uploads to happen immediately.
- Photos will be uploaded in smaller sets, given the roughly 30 seconds the app is given to perform its work.
- Users with many new photos will see them upload progressively over time. It may take a day or so but eventually they will upload.
- Users with a sense of urgency for preserving their photos can always open the app and upload while the app is active, which will be much faster.
iCloud Photos
Due to security measures put into place by Apple, we do not have access to memories saved only in iCloud. This means the user will need to ensure the photos/videos they want to upload to FOREVER are stored locally on their device so our app can see and grab them.
Please go into your iOS Settings -> tap your name at the top -> iCloud -> Photos. If the iCloud Photo Library is turned OFF, the photos are already on your device! If the iCloud Photo Library is ON, we recommend “Download and Keep Originals” as the selected setting (or turning the iCloud Photo Storage OFF entirely). This allows Auto-Sync to access photo/video data directly from the device for any new memories made.
Unfortunately, if your setting was originally “Optimize...Storage” this means you will need to bring the files from iCloud onto either the mobile device itself or a computer. Here is a link to the Apple Support site with information on how to bring files from iCloud onto a device: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209454
Image Format
Apple in their iOS 11 release introduced High Efficiency Image Format (HEIF) or High Efficiency Image Container (HEIC), which became the default setting on iOS devices. The main issue with HEIF/HEIC is that it is not a widely accepted file type so FOREVER is not able to accept these natively yet. CLICK HERE to read more about the HEIF/HEIC format.
Please go into your iOS Settings -> Camera -> Formats, to see which option your device is taking in.
- High Efficiency: if this option is selected, the FOREVER Mobile App will convert photo to JPG format when uploading, adding a small additional step to the upload process.
- Most Compatible: if this option is selected, the FOREVER Mobile App does not have to convert image data before uploading.
We recommend Most Compatible as the image format until our Storage supports HEIF or HEIC natively. This is not a must, but it does remove a conversion step during the upload process, increasing performance especially when using Auto-Sync.
Other Tips
- Prevent Device Sleep: For a large volume of uploads (i.e. a Backup is performed) opening the Uploads screen will keep the app active automatically, preventing the device from sleeping. We recommend plugging in the device to ensure consistent power power until uploads are complete.
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FOREVER® Badging: If the app is uninstalled and reinstalled, photos will lose the FOREVER® badging in the Camera Roll view. To restore badging, a user can perform a device backup, but there are a few things to keep in mind.
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- The Mobile App uploads the oldest photos first. If there is a large volume of photos you are looking to upload, newer photos wait on older photos to complete uploading first.
- Photos already uploaded will be de-duplicated.
- Photos already uploaded but deleted from FOREVER Storage will be uploaded again.
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- Dedupe on Multiple Devices: For users with iCloud Photos turned ON for multiple devices using the FOREVER Mobile App, just pick one (1) device to Auto-Sync and upload. Apple delivers optimally sized photos to different devices, and photo deduplication will not detect duplicates because photos vary slightly in size.