micw/OpenPhotoFrame

OpenPhotoFrame

OpenPhotoFrame Icon

Turn your old Android tablet into a beautiful digital photo frame.

OpenPhotoFrame is a free, open-source slideshow app that syncs photos from your private cloud (Nextcloud) or local storage. No ads, no subscriptions, no nag screens – just your photos.

✨ Features

• 🖼️ Beautiful Slideshow – Smooth crossfade transitions between your photos
• ☁️ Nextcloud Sync – Sync photos from a Nextcloud public share link (WebDAV)
• 📁 Local First – Works offline, photos are cached locally
• ⚙️ Simple Settings – Configure slide duration, transition speed, and sync interval
• 🌙 Always On – Designed to run 24/7 as a dedicated photo frame
• 🔒 Privacy First – Your photos stay on your server, no third-party cloud required

🚀 Why OpenPhotoFrame?

Existing apps like Fotoo or PhotoCloud Frame Slideshow are either:

• Riddled with ads and nag screens
• Require paid subscriptions for basic features
• Force you to use public cloud services (Google Photos, etc.)

OpenPhotoFrame is different:

• ✅ 100% Free & Open Source (GPLv3)
• ✅ No ads, no in-app purchases, no tracking
• ✅ Works with your self-hosted Nextcloud
• ✅ Simple & focused – does one thing well (KISS principle)

📦 Installation

Android

Coming soon to F-Droid

For now, build from source (see Development section).

Linux (for Development/Testing)

flutter run -d linux

🔄 Automatic Updates

OpenPhotoFrame can update itself from GitHub releases. It is opt-in and off by default — enable it at the bottom of Settings → Automatic updates. This is only for installs from GitHub; if you installed via F-Droid, leave it off and update through F-Droid instead.

When enabled, the app checks the latest GitHub release roughly every 8 hours:

• Default: when a newer version is found you get a prompt to Skip or Download & install. Android then shows its install confirmation (you may need to allow "Install unknown apps" once).
• Silent: if the app is the device's Device Owner, updates download and install silently in the background with no prompt — ideal for a wall-mounted frame you never touch.

Silent updates via Device Owner

Device Owner is Android's device-management mode. It is what lets the app install updates without any confirmation dialog. It can only be set on a device with no accounts (e.g. right after a factory reset), via ADB:

adb shell dpm set-device-owner io.github.micw.openphotoframe/.ScreenAdminReceiver

Then enable Settings → Automatic updates → Install without confirmation. To remove it again later:

adb shell dpm remove-active-admin io.github.micw.openphotoframe/.ScreenAdminReceiver

Updates only install over an existing app when signed with the same key. The project's reproducible builds ensure the GitHub APKs match the F-Droid signing key, so switching between them keeps your data.

🛠️ Development

Requirements

• Flutter SDK (3.x)
• Dart SDK

Build & Run

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/micw/OpenPhotoFrame.git
cd OpenPhotoFrame

# Get dependencies
flutter pub get

# Run on Linux (fast iteration)
flutter run -d linux

# Run on connected Android device
flutter run -d <device-id>

Updating the App Icon

To update the app icon, replace assets/icon.png with your new icon (recommended: 1024x1024 PNG), then run:

dart run flutter_launcher_icons
cp assets/icon.png fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/icon.png

This generates icons for all platforms (Android, iOS, Web, Windows, macOS, Linux) and updates the F-Droid metadata.

Architecture

The app follows a Local First architecture with clean separation of concerns:

• Player (UI) – Displays photos from a local directory with smooth transitions
• Syncer (Service) – Downloads photos from cloud sources in the background
• Repository Pattern – Abstracts storage access
• Strategy Pattern – Swappable playlist algorithms (random, weighted freshness)

⚙️ Configuration

Tap the center of the screen during slideshow to open settings:

Setting	Description
Slide Duration	How long each photo is shown (1-15 min)
Transition Duration	Crossfade animation speed (0.5-5 sec)
Sync Source	None or Nextcloud public share link
Sync Interval	Auto-sync frequency (disabled, or 5-60 min)
Delete Orphaned Files	Remove local photos deleted from server

💡 Tip: Enter URL via ADB

If typing the Nextcloud URL on a tablet is cumbersome, you can paste it via ADB:

# Focus the URL input field on the tablet, then run:
adb shell input text 'https://cloud.example.com/s/YOUR_SHARE_TOKEN'

💡 Tip: Disable Lock Screen via ADB

Some Android devices (especially Huawei with EMUI) don't allow disabling the lock screen in the settings UI. You can disable it via ADB:

adb shell locksettings set-disabled true

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before submitting a pull request.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.

See the LICENSE file for details.