Using ChronoFrame

Upload and organize photos

Sign in and open /dashboard. Select files or drag them onto the Photos page to upload a batch. After upload, background tasks extract EXIF, create thumbnails and identify locations. The task queue shows progress, errors and retry results.

• Sort and filter the photo table and choose which columns to show. ChronoFrame remembers column visibility and supports sorting by upload date.
• Select photos to delete, download, reindex or add them to albums in batches. You can also use Shift + click range selection.
• Edit photo metadata such as title, description and rating.
• Motion Photos with embedded video are also supported. The WebGL viewer provides zoom, pan and tiled rendering for large images.

Pairing Live Photos

For Apple Live Photos, use matching image and MOV filenames, such as IMG_1234.heic and IMG_1234.mov. Either file can be uploaded first; pairing can be retried in the dashboard.

Albums and visibility

Albums group photos by subject. ChronoFrame supports ordering for both albums and the photos within them.

Hidden albums also affect shared photos

Hidden albums restrict public visibility. ChronoFrame also restricts anonymous access to their photos, even when a photo belongs to a public album as well. Check the public gallery after changing visibility.

ChronoFrame supports album passwords with a minimum of six characters. Visitors must unlock the album to browse it in ChronoFrame, and photo shares retain the album access scope.

External storage access

Album passwords control access through ChronoFrame. If S3, OpenList or a CDN exposes a direct image URL, someone with that URL may still read the file without opening the album. To protect the files themselves, check the storage and CDN access policies too. Hiding an album cannot revoke an external link that was already public.

Manage settings in the dashboard

Site details, maps, location services, storage and upload limits can be edited in the dashboard. Settings are stored in the database; there is no need to edit .env or rebuild the container.

Setting	Purpose
Site	Title, description, author, avatar and color theme
Storage	Add or edit local, S3 and OpenList schemes; choose the active scheme
Map	MapLibre / Mapbox, access token and map style
Location	Place-name language, Mapbox geocoding token and custom Nominatim URL
System	Upload size limit, duplicate handling and GitHub login
Privacy	Automatically remove location data from new uploads
Analytics	Custom tracking scripts inserted into the page head or body

For provider selection, credentials and CORS, see Storage schemes. For tokens and styles, see Maps and locations.

After changing settings

• Place-name language: reindex existing locations to update saved names.
• Storage scheme: confirm existing photos still open. Switching does not move originals; local paths must remain inside a mounted directory.

Privacy settings do not clean older files

Location removal on upload applies to future uploads. For existing photos, run the individual or batch removal action and confirm completion in the queue. Check descriptions and tags before publishing too.

GitHub login

Sign in with the email and password created during setup, then enable GitHub OAuth in system settings and enter the Client ID and Client Secret. Set the OAuth application's callback URL to https://your-domain/api/auth/github.

GitHub login does not grant admin access

The email returned by GitHub must match an existing administrator. Enabling OAuth does not grant administrator access to every GitHub user; unauthorized accounts are rejected.

Troubleshoot uploads

Symptom	Where to check
Upload rejected	Application and proxy size limits
Storage failure	Directory permissions or remote credentials
Processing failure	Task errors, retry results and the log page

Reporting a problem

Include your version, storage type and relevant logs. Remove tokens, credentials and private information first.