Ente Photos FAQ
Welcome to the Ente Photos FAQ index. Browse questions by category below, or use the search function at the top of the page to find specific answers quickly.
Quick Navigation
Jump to a category:
- Account Creation
- Albums and Organization
- Backup and Sync
- Metadata and Editing
- Search and Discovery
- Security and Privacy
- Storage and Plans
- Troubleshooting
- Advanced Features
- Sharing and Collaboration
Account Creation
View complete Account Creation FAQ →
Installation & Setup
- How do I install Ente Photos on Android?
- How do I install Ente Photos on iPhone or iPad?
- How do I install Ente Photos on desktop?
- How do I install CLI for Ente Photos?
- Can I access Ente Photos from my browser?
- Why is the latest version not available on F-Droid?
- How can I manually setup Ente Photos installation with Obtainium?
- How do I update to the latest version?
Multi-Device Setup
- How do I log in on multiple devices?
- Can I use Ente on both mobile and desktop?
- Do I need separate accounts for different devices?
Account Creation & Security
- How do I create a new Ente account?
- What is the recovery key and why is it important?
- How do I reset my password if I lost it?
- Can I change my password later?
- Does Ente support two-factor authentication (2FA)?
- Can I use passkeys instead of passwords?
- What happens if I lose my passkey?
- I'm not receiving the verification code email
- What if I lose access to my email address?
Albums and Organization
View complete Albums and Organization FAQ →
Albums
- Can Ente albums be nested?
- What happens when I upload a nested folder structure?
- Can I sync a folder with multiple subfolders?
- Why don't all photos from a new iOS album appear in the corresponding Ente album?
- What happens if I reorganize my photos in the iOS Photos app after backing up?
- How does Ente handle photos that are part of multiple iOS albums?
Uncategorized
- What is the Uncategorized album?
- Why are photos appearing in Uncategorized?
- How do I clean up Uncategorized items?
- Can I delete the Uncategorized album?
- Do photos in Uncategorized count against my storage?
- Can I organize photos in Uncategorized?
- What happens if I add an Uncategorized photo to an album?
- Why do some photos stay in Uncategorized after cleaning?
- Can I prevent photos from going to Uncategorized?
- How do I view Uncategorized photos?
Hide vs Archive
- What's the difference between hiding and archiving?
- Can I hide photos that are shared with me?
- Do archived photos appear in search results?
- How do I hide photos in Ente?
- How do I archive photos in Ente?
Storage Management
- How can I free up space on my device?
- How can I remove duplicate photos from my library?
- How can I find and remove similar photos?
- Will I lose my photos when freeing up device space?
- Can I choose which photos to delete from my device?
- How much space will I free up?
- Will new photos still backup automatically after freeing up space?
- What's the difference between duplicates and similar images?
- Does removing duplicates affect automatic duplicate detection?
Trash and Deletion
- How do I delete photos in Ente?
- How do I restore deleted photos?
- How do I permanently delete photos or empty trash?
- Can I recover files after 30 days in trash?
- Does trash count against my storage?
- What happens when I delete an album?
- Can I delete photos that are shared with me?
- Do deleted photos on my device also delete from Ente?
- What happens to deleted photos in collaborative albums?
- Can I recover photos after deleting my account?
- How do I delete multiple photos at once?
- Why can't I delete some photos?
- How is Uncategorized different from Trash?
Backup and Sync
View complete Backup and Sync FAQ →
Mobile Backup
- How does automatic backup work in Ente?
- How do I select which albums to back up?
- Can I backup over mobile data or only WiFi?
- Why is my initial backup taking so long?
- What happens if my backup is interrupted?
- Do deleted photos on my device also delete from Ente?
- Understanding Ente's backup vs. sync paradigm
- Can I delete photos from my device after backing up to Ente?
- If I delete a photo from Ente, will it be re-uploaded from my device?
- How does Ente handle duplicate files during backup?
- What file formats can I backup?
- Does Ente compress my photos during backup?
- How can I check my backup status?
- Does Ente backup Live Photos from iPhone?
Background Sync
- How does background sync work?
- Why isn't background sync working on my phone?
- Does background sync work on web?
- How does background sync work on iOS?
- How does background sync work on Android?
Desktop Backup (Watch Folders)
- How do watch folders work?
- What are watch folders?
- How do I set up watch folders?
- Can I watch multiple folders at once?
- What happens if I delete a file from my watched folder?
- Why are my watch folders not syncing?
- Can I watch folders on a network drive (NAS)?
- How do I stop watching a folder?
- Can watch folders preserve my nested folder structure?
- Does watch folder syncing pause when I close the desktop app?
- Can I change watch folder settings after setting it up?
- How does watch folders handle duplicates?
- Can I watch a folder and manually upload to it at the same time?
General Backup Questions
- Can I backup photos from my computer?
- Can I pause and resume backups?
- Why are some photos not uploading?
- Can I use the desktop app and mobile app at the same time?
File Support & Upload Limits
- What file formats does Ente support?
- Is there a file size limit?
- Does Ente support videos?
- Does Ente apply compression to uploaded photos?
Deduplication
Metadata and Editing
View complete Metadata and Editing FAQ →
Viewing Metadata
- What metadata does Ente preserve during import?
- How does Ente handle Exif data and descriptions?
- Where does Ente import photo dates from?
- How do I view EXIF data for a photo?
Importing from Google Photos
Editing Metadata
- How do I add descriptions or captions to photos?
- Can I bulk edit photo dates?
- Can I bulk edit photo locations?
- How do I fix incorrect photo dates?
- Are my metadata edits reversible?
- How do I edit photo filenames?
- Can I add location data to photos that don't have it?
Exporting Metadata
- Does the exported data preserve metadata?
- What happens to file creation time during export?
- Can I modify the original files during export?
Platform-Specific Behavior
- Do metadata edits sync across devices?
- Can I edit metadata on all platforms?
- Does Ente modify any file metadata?
Search and Discovery
View complete Search and Discovery FAQ →
Map View
- Why doesn't the map show all my photos?
- Is my location data sent to Ente servers?
- Can I view all albums on the map at once?
- How do I access the map view?
Location Tags
- How are location tags different from map view?
- How do I create location tags?
- Are my location tags encrypted?
Machine Learning and Face Recognition
- Why doesn't search work for me?
- How do I enable face recognition?
- Can I merge or de-merge persons recognized by the app?
- How can I remove an incorrectly grouped face from a person?
- How do I change the cover for a recognized person?
- Can I tell the app to ignore certain recognized person?
- How well does the app handle photos of babies?
- Does face recognition work offline?
- Is my face data used to train AI models?
- Why is face recognition faster on desktop?
- Can I name the recognized persons?
Magic Search
- What is magic search?
- How do I enable magic search?
- Does magic search require internet?
- Can I search for photos using the descriptions I've added?
General Search
- How do I search my photos?
- Can I save my searches?
- Does search include archived or hidden photos?
- Indexing stuck at 100% but faces don't appear
- Faces not being grouped correctly
- Can't modify face groupings on desktop
- Performance issues during indexing
- Magic search not finding relevant photos
- Machine learning features not working
Security and Privacy
View complete Security and Privacy FAQ →
Data Encryption and Storage
- Can Ente see my photos and videos?
- How is my data encrypted?
- Where is my data stored?
- How does Ente's encryption compare to industry standards?
Account Security
- What happens if I forget my password?
- What is my recovery key and why is it critical?
- How do I find my recovery key?
- How should I store my recovery key?
- How do I use my recovery key to reset my password?
- Can I change my password?
- Do you support two-factor authentication (2FA)?
Sharing and Collaboration
Machine Learning and Privacy
- Is my face data used to train AI models?
- How does on-device ML maintain privacy?
- Are my location tags encrypted?
Account Management
Trust and Reliability
Storage and Plans
View complete Storage and Plans FAQ →
Understanding Storage
- Why does Ente consume less storage than other providers?
- How does Ente deduplicate photos?
- Does Ente deduplicate across different albums?
- How can I optimize my storage usage?
- Do items in trash count against my storage?
- What happens if I exceed my storage limit?
Subscription Plans
- What plans does Ente offer?
- Is there a forever-free plan?
- What are the limitations of the free plan?
- Is there an x GB plan?
Family Plans
- Does Ente have Family Plans?
- How many family members can I add to my plan?
- Can family members see each other's photos?
- Can I set storage limits for family members?
- Why does my family member show 0 GB storage after accepting the invite?
- Why can't I add a family member?
- How do I remove someone from my family plan?
Student Discounts
Discount Codes and Referrals
Referral Program
- How can I earn free storage?
- How much storage can I earn through referrals?
- For how long do I have access to referred storage?
- What happens if I refer more people than my plan allows?
- What counts as abuse of the referral program?
Payment Methods
- What payment methods does Ente support?
- Can I pay with PayPal?
- Does Ente accept crypto payments?
- Does Ente store my card details?
Managing Your Subscription
- What happens when my subscription expires?
- What happens when I upgrade my plan?
- What happens when I downgrade my plan?
- Can I switch between monthly and yearly plans?
- How can I update my payment method?
- How can I cancel my subscription?
Troubleshooting
View complete Troubleshooting FAQ →
Upload Issues
- Why are my large videos failing to upload?
- Why does the app crash when watching videos or using ML?
- Why aren't my photos uploading?
- Why does upload show "Waiting to upload"?
- Why are uploads failing on desktop or web?
- Why can't the app detect certain file types?
Mobile Backup Issues
Desktop App Issues
- Why does my desktop app crash during large uploads?
- Why are my photo thumbnails missing or incorrect?
- Why aren't my watch folders syncing?
- Can I upload from a network drive (NAS)?
- Can I safely close the desktop app while it's uploading?
Platform-Specific Issues
- Why is my iOS app stuck on "Please wait..." when I purchase a subscription?
- Why is my Android app stuck on the splash screen?
- Why is the Linux desktop app still showing the old icon after updating?
- How do I enable AppImage desktop integration on Linux?
- Why doesn't the AppImage work on my ARM64 Linux machine?
- Why does AppImage say it requires FUSE?
- Why do I get a "SUID sandbox helper" error on Linux?
- Why won't the Windows desktop app start (JavaScript error)?
- Why can't I log in to web.ente.io on my mobile browser?
- How do I identify which files failed to upload?
Performance Issues
Getting Help
Advanced Features
View complete Advanced Features FAQ →
Command Line Interface (CLI)
- What is the Ente CLI?
- How do I install the CLI?
- How do I use the CLI to export my photos?
- How do I keep NAS and Ente photos synced?
- CLI not found after installation
- CLI authentication issues
- CLI export interruptions
- NAS export issues with CLI
Exporting from Desktop
- How can I backup my data locally outside Ente?
- Does the exported data preserve album structure?
- Does the exported data preserve metadata?
- Can I do a 2-way sync with exports?
- Why is my export size larger than my backed-up size in Ente?
- Can I export to a network drive (NAS)?
- How do I set up continuous exports?
Utilities
- What is video streaming in Ente?
- What is a stream technically?
- Will streams consume space in my storage?
- Video streaming isn't working correctly, what should I do?
- How does Cast work?
- Can I use Cast without Chromecast?
- App crashes with video streaming enabled
- Video upload failures with streaming enabled
- My device isn't showing up in Auto Pair for Cast
- PIN pairing isn't working for Cast
- Photos aren't appearing on the TV
- What types of notifications does Ente send?
- How do I manage notification settings?
Other Advanced Features
- Can I access Ente from multiple browsers?
- Does Ente have an API?
- Can I self-host Ente?
- How do I report bugs or request features?
Sharing and Collaboration
View complete Sharing and Collaboration FAQ →
Understanding Sharing Methods
- What are the different ways to share in Ente?
- What's the difference between public links and quick links?
- Can I use my own domain for public links?
- Do Trip albums work with custom domains?
Collaboration
- How do I share an album with other Ente users?
- Who pays for storage in collaborative albums?
- Can collaborators delete photos from shared albums?
- What happens when I remove a collaborator from an album?
- Is collaboration available on all platforms?
- Why am I not getting notifications when photos are added to shared albums?
Public Links
- How do I create a collect link to gather photos from others?
- Can people without Ente add photos to my album?
- Do collected photos count against my storage?
- Can I set limits on public links?
- Can I stop people from adding more photos to a collect link?
- Can I see who added photos to my collect link?
Public Link Features
Managing Shared Content
- Can I add photos from a shared album to my own albums?
- Why does adding shared photos to my albums count against my storage?
- Can I remove myself from a shared album?
- How do I see all my shared albums?
Permissions and Access
- Who can create collaborative albums or public links?
- Can I change permissions for collaborators after sharing?
- What happens to shared albums if I cancel my subscription?
Security and Privacy
- Are public links end-to-end encrypted?
- How does sharing work with encryption?
- Can Ente see my shared photos?
Embedding Albums
- How do I embed an album on my website?
- Do embedded albums work with custom domains?
- Can I embed password-protected albums?
- What happens to my embed if I delete the public link?
- What features are available in embedded albums?
Can't find what you're looking for?
- Try using the search function at the top of the page
- Check the Getting Started guide
- Visit the main Photos documentation
- Contact support@ente.io