Slideshow & display

The slideshow and the screen’s behavior are set on the Settings page, in two groups. Essentials holds the photo rotation and pairing, the idle screen-off, the language, and the reading labels. These apply the moment you save. Display holds the screen output and which screen-power backend the frame uses. See Configuration basics for how saving and restarts work.

The photo rotation

Advance photo every sets how long each photo stays on screen before the next one. The default is two minutes (slideshow.interval).

Shuffle photos controls the order. With it off, photos cycle in order. With it on, the order is reshuffled each full pass (slideshow.randomize, off by default).

Split-screen pairing

A portrait photo on a landscape screen, or a landscape photo on a portrait screen, cannot fill the frame without cropping away most of it. Split-screen pairing avoids that. When a photo’s shape is too far from the screen’s to fit cleanly, the frame shows it beside another photo of the same orientation, side by side with a thin gap, instead of cropping it. Photos that already fit the screen show one at a time, full-frame.

The toggle is on by default (slideshow.split_screen). Turn it off to crop every photo to fill the screen. A lone photo of its orientation, with no partner in the current pass, shows on its own, cropped.

Pairing follows the screen, not a fixed setting: the frame reports its own dimensions, so turning a frame to portrait pairs landscape photos instead. How far a photo’s shape must differ before it pairs is slideshow.pair_threshold in the configuration reference, and the default suits most screens.

Turning the screen off when idle

Turn screen off when idle blanks the panel after a stretch with no motion, and motion wakes it again (display.blank_after, twenty minutes by default). This is a true power-off of the panel, not a black photo.

It needs a motion sensor. Without one the control reads Never and is disabled, since nothing would be left to wake the screen. To turn the screen on and off by hand instead, use the toggle on the Dashboard or the switch exposed to Home Assistant.

Some TVs stay lit

A monitor or a laptop panel cuts its backlight when the screen blanks. Some TVs ignore the signal and stay lit on a black screen. Powering a TV down fully takes HDMI-CEC, which is outside what the frame controls.

Language and labels

Language sets the locale the frame formats with, both the date wording and the 12- or 24-hour clock (display.locale, American English by default). It changes the frame, not the admin interface.

Reading labels are the captions under the sensor readings on the frame, in your own words: the outside reading, the inside reading, and humidity. Leave one blank to hide that caption. The kiosk display shows where they appear.

Screen-power backend

Advanced

The default backend is the right choice for almost every setup. Change it only if you have a specific reason to.

The backend is how the frame powers the panel. Two options exist: wlopm (default, recommended) and vcgencmd (a legacy fallback). wlopm is the more reliable path. vcgencmd trims a little memory but can be less stable, so use it only if wlopm gives you trouble.

Each backend installs its own system services and boot configuration, so the Backend dropdown in Settings does not switch between them on its own. To change the backend, re-run the installer with its --display-backend flag (see Install). It reconfigures the system, and you reboot to apply. The story & the hard parts covers why the two differ.

Screen output

Wayland output is the display connector the wlopm backend targets, such as HDMI-A-1. Pick a connected display from the list or type the name.

Restart required

A change to the screen output takes effect after the frame restarts.

Every setting on this page maps to a key in the configuration reference.