How to turn an old iPad into a digital image frame

If you have an old iPad and You are interested in externalizing some of the thousands of photos in your iCloud account, and this guide is for you. You can turn your retired iPad into a dedicated photo display without purchasing a new digital image frame without spending too much effort. You need to change some settings, download the Photo Frame app, and decide how you want to support a new monitor, as simple as using a shelf or a complex drill bit and modifying a simulation frame. This is how to upgrade an old iPad to a digital image frame (and why).

Upgrade iPad with digital image frame

The actual digital image frame has some obvious advantages: the necessary software is already there, ready, equipped with a frame and a cluttered display, and as a Unitasker, it won't show Gmail notifications on photos. But most smart frames have the highest resolution of 1,280 x 800 pixels. Even the standard iPad (9th generation) for 2021 has a resolution of 2,160 by 1,620. Plus, your old iPad is already yours. A nice digital framework will cost you $100. And, since your iPad is certainly not a single-purpose device, you can make a faceTime call or play an episode Poker face If needed.

How to turn an old iPad into a digital image frame

I think I can do simple things with Apple's built-in software, like creating looping slideshows for images, but the experience is not what I want. Play slideshows as memory in the Photos app and come with music and cannot turn off the music (although you can mute it). You can loop memory, but you can't randomize the image, and the interval between the images is too short (things of less than ten minutes are like another screen flashing). So to turn your iPad into a random, always-lasting digital image frame with a nice display length, you will have better luck using a third-party app.

I tried some, and my favorite was the reframed synchronous photography frame ($10, lifelong access). It doesn't include a lot of features – no transitions, no image effects, no time and date coverage options, and only access images from your Photos app – but it makes photos look good on your iPad.

It allows you to set viewing intervals to 10 seconds to 24 hours and has programmable sleep functionality so it won't laugh until 3am in the living room. If your iPad is directed differently from the photo, two side-by-side images are displayed (i.e., two portrait images adjacent to each other if your iPad is in the landscape or two stacked horizontal images, if the tablet is vertical). Each split image is surrounded by a clean white border; the full screen image goes to the edge. The images are cropped slightly to fit, which means they may lose some detail around the border, but I think this effect is more attractive than a blurred extended edge or black bar. The two booted solution is how we choose the top choice of digital photo frame Aura Carver, which can handle images with different aspect ratios – but you can't set up the device in portrait mode.

LiveFrame is another option, and in fact, it has lifelong access of $5. It has larger features such as transitions and image filters, but there is no option to use both images simultaneously in recomposition. Instead, it can blur the edges, add bars, or (ugly) stretch the image. I also experienced many glitches with the app and found that navigation was much harder than it should be. I also tried digital photo frame slides, but it was too expensive for my taste and had no sleep function.

How to prepare photo frame mode for iPad

Step 1: Create an Album

Most photo display apps will be taken from the album you selected in the photo. You may already know how to make a new album, but when creating an element for a digital photo frame app on your iPad, there are several elements to consider. All instructions are for iPadOS 18. If you use an older version, the steps may be slightly different.

1. Open photo And click on the sidebar icon in the upper left corner.

2. Under the album, click +New album At the bottom of the list.

3. Name the album a memorable thing, because you may have to search for it in the photography framework app. Tap Create an albumand then the blue plus sign.

4. If you want to only (or most) add a specific direction (landscape or portrait), click the up/down arrow icon at the bottom left of the pop-up menu.

5. Tap View optionsThen Aspect ratio grid. This will show the shape of each image, so you can more easily select only images with the desired orientation. You can also use View options The menu can enlarge the thumbnails to better understand each image.

6. Select the image you want and click Add to On the upper right.

Step 2: Adjust iPad settings

Tweaking several settings will ensure your iPad plays all day without interruptions. Just having the digital photography framework app playback is enough to prevent the iPad from getting dark, but the iPad may automatically lock when the app's sleep mode starts, requiring you to unlock it in the morning to launch the app. You also need to make sure that your slides are not interrupted due to notifications from other applications.

1. Turn off automatic lock: Open settings, click Display and Brightness, click Automatic Lock, and select Never. You may warn that this setting will affect battery life, but this won't be a problem because your iPad plugs in.

2. Close all notifications: You need to turn off attention notifications for each app on your iPad. Go to Settings > Notifications > Notification Styles and toggle allowing notifications per application. Note: Unless you switch sharing on devices in Settings > Focus, using Don't Interfere Focus will enable DND on all connected Apple devices. But closing notifications is still a better option.

Step 3: Don't let Landos get your stuff

Since you might want to show your new photo frames where people can see them, someone is trying to use your iPad. To prevent this, you can use an accessibility feature called “Guide Access”. Apple designed it so parents can hand over their iPad to their children without giving them access to other apps. We are reusing it for photo frame security to prevent anyone from navigating to your home screen or anywhere else. People can still tap on the screen to use the photography app's controls, or disable touch completely.

1. Enable boot access: Open Settings, click Accessibility, and then guide access. Set up an unlock code and set Display Auto-Lock to Never.

2. Open guide access: When the Picture Framework application plays a slide, triple click the side button. A gray circle will appear, click X to close it.

3. Enable or disable touch: If you still want to allow others to use the features in the Photo Framework app, turn on the Touch Options. If you don't need to respond when touching the screen, switch it. To access the options menu, click the Side button and enter your password. Click the option in the lower left corner.

4. notes: Turn boot access on and off via side buttons, so this option may not be feasible if you decide to put your iPad in the frame. A rather extreme workaround is to reset the iPad and set it up with a brand new Apple ID shared with your home, which allows access to a shared photo library.

Showcase your new digital photo frame

It can be as simple as finding a stall you like and calling it a day. An Etsy seller called “Event Framework” creates a custom frame for iPad. They aren't cheap, and they cost about $100 per person, but this is one of the only companies I've found to actually offer models and a generation of specific sizes. I also considered Moft's Snap Float Folio, as I was impressed by some other origami-inspired accessories from the brand. If you are crafty, you can draw inspiration from this person’s instructions and make your own frame from physical media photo frames. Personally, I just had a right-angle USB-C cable that stuck the iPad to the foldable rack I already owned. The pictures are beautiful enough.

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