Getting Started with Gallery Remote

This guide walks you through building an ordered photo selection, pairing nearby Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Windows devices, presenting a synchronized slideshow, controlling it remotely, and reusing successful shows.

1. Install Gallery Remote on Your Devices

  1. Install Gallery Remote on the device that holds the photos or image files you want to present. This device is the source.
  2. For a remote presentation, install Gallery Remote on the phone, tablet, Mac, or Windows computer where the slideshow should appear. This device is the receiver.
  3. Connect both devices to the same local network. In most homes and offices, this means the same Wi-Fi router or wired LAN.
  4. Keep Gallery Remote open on both devices during setup and the presentation. On desktop, Settings can enable autostart and background tray behavior so the receiver is easier to find.

Every supported platform can act as a source or receiver. You can also create and present a slideshow entirely on one device without pairing.

2. Allow Photo and Local Network Access

Gallery Remote needs local network access to find and contact nearby devices. If your phone, tablet, or computer asks for permission to access devices on the local network, allow it.

On Android or iOS, Gallery Remote also asks for photo-library access when you add pictures. Selecting complete albums requires access to all photos. Individual photo selection can use the access options provided by your operating system.

Google Photos items must be available in the Android system photo library; cloud-only Google Photos albums are not exposed by Android MediaStore. On Apple devices, Gallery Remote may need time and network access to download an iCloud photo before it can be presented.

3. Pair Your Devices

  1. Open the Show tab on the source device.
  2. Find the device where you want the slideshow to appear under Nearby devices.
  3. Select an unpaired device and send a pairing request.
  4. On the receiving device, review and approve the request.
  5. After approval, the device becomes trusted and can be selected as a presentation target when its permissions allow it.

Pair only devices you own or are authorized to use. You can rename, reorder, hide, edit, or delete paired devices from the Devices tab.

4. Choose Who May Start and Control Shows

Permissions belong to the receiving device. Open its Devices tab, select a paired source, and review two separate options:

If Remote control is disabled during a show, the source becomes read-only while the receiver keeps full local control. Permission choices are stored only on the receiver and are not advertised to nearby devices.

5. Build an Ordered Photo Selection

  1. Open the Show tab and choose Add.
  2. On Android or iOS, choose Albums to add complete local albums or Photos to pick individual images.
  3. On Mac or Windows, select individual JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, or GIF files. Desktop version 1 does not import folders.
  4. Add more images whenever you want. Gallery Remote appends them to the current working selection.
  5. Drag items into the order that tells your story. Switch between list and grid views, remove individual photos, or clear the selection and begin again.

The current working selection is kept locally, so you can leave the tab and continue preparing it later. Gallery Remote tracks references to your source photos; if a source is moved, deleted, or becomes unavailable, the app may ask you to remove or relink it.

6. Start a Local or Remote Slideshow

  1. Make sure at least one photo is selected.
  2. For a local show, choose This Device. For a remote show, select a paired nearby target.
  3. Gallery Remote prepares the first image and opens the slideshow. A remote receiver requests temporary thumbnail and display renditions from the source as they are needed.
  4. Keep the source available until the remote presentation ends so later images can be delivered.

Only one active Gallery Remote slideshow session is supported at a time on a participating device. A busy target may need to finish its current show before accepting another.

7. Control the Presentation

The slideshow provides previous and next navigation, a thumbnail strip for jumping directly to a photo, play and pause, an adjustable 3–60 second autoplay interval, loop mode, and five transition choices: Slide, Fade, Zoom, Wipe, or None.

On Mac and Windows, use full screen for an immersive display. Desktop keyboard shortcuts include Left and Right Arrow for navigation, Space for play or pause, F for full screen, and Escape to leave full screen or end the show. Swipe horizontally on a slideshow to move between photos; tap the display to show or hide controls.

During a remote show, the receiver is authoritative. Its current photo and playback settings are mirrored back to the source. If the receiver allows Remote control, the source can send the same presentation changes; otherwise it displays the current state without control buttons.

8. End a Show Safely

Use the close control and confirm that you want to end the slideshow. Ending a remote show closes the session on both sides when they can still communicate, cancels outstanding asset requests, clears received in-memory image data, and releases the temporary session authorization.

The source may keep a bounded local cache of generated image renditions to make later presentations faster. The cache is maintained by the operating system and Gallery Remote and is pruned automatically as it grows.

9. Reuse Successful Shows from Recent

When Save to Recent is enabled, a successful outgoing selection is stored automatically in Recent as a reusable album. Saved entries remember the photo order and where the selection was presented; they do not upload the original images to NTWIND.

Use Recent to restore a selection, rename it, pin favorites, filter by destination, combine multiple entries, delete old entries, or remove unavailable photos. On macOS, Gallery Remote can help relink moved desktop image files. Pinned entries are protected when old unpinned albums are trimmed.

10. Keep Your Device List Organized

The Devices tab is where you manage trusted devices. Rename them to make them easy to recognize, drag them into a preferred order, change receiver-local permissions, hide devices from the Show tab, remove old pairings, or add a device by local IP address.

If a device does not appear automatically, use Add and enter its local IP address. Make sure Gallery Remote is running, both devices use the same port in Settings, and a firewall, VPN, guest network, or router isolation setting is not blocking local connections.

11. Privacy and Security

For the safest experience, use Gallery Remote only on networks you trust, pair only devices you own or manage, remove old pairings when a device is sold or shared, and disable permissions a device does not need.

Quick Troubleshooting

Once your devices are paired, everyday use is simple: choose the pictures, arrange the sequence, select the best nearby screen, and start the show.

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