Settings and Options For ThePhotoStick

ThePhotoStick offers several settings and options to meet your photo and video backup needs.

Shortcuts to each section below:

Accessing the Settings and Options

File Locations

Adding a Folder Path to Scan

Removing a Folder Path to Scan

Resetting Folders to Scan back to Default

Adding a Folder Path to Skip

Removing a Folder Path to Skip

Reset Folders to Skip Back to Default

Photo File Types

Video File Types

Document File Types (ThePhotoStick Plus only)

Audio File Types (ThePhotoStick Plus only)

Options

Advanced Options

Accessing the Settings and Options

To access ThePhotoStick's settings and options, open ThePhotoStick software and click on the "Settings" button.

After clicking the "Settings" button, the Settings window will appear:

File Locations

ThePhotoStick will recursively search any directory paths specified in its settings.  By default, ThePhotoStick will start at "c:\" on Windows computers and  "/Users" on Mac computers.

Adding a Folder Path to Scan

You can add additional search paths by clicking on the "Add..." button, browsing to and selecting the folder you would like to recursively search, then clicking "Select Folder".  You should now see the path added in the list of folders to scan.  Click "Save" to save.

Removing a Folder Path to Scan

To remove a directory path to search, select the folder path in the list, then click on "Remove Selected". 

Note: You can select multiple folder paths at the same time by holding down the Ctrl key when clicking on another folder path.

For example, on a Windows computer, if you do not want your ThePhotoStick device to search your entire drive, you can remove "c:\" by selecting it and then clicking "Remove Selected".  Then, click "Add..." to add a more specific path.  In this case, we want to only search the folders "2015-11" and "2016-06" that are located in the "Pictures" folder. Once both are selected, Click "Save" to save settings and then click the "Go" button to begin the backup of the two specified folders.

Resetting Folders to Scan back to Default

To reset the folder paths back to default, click on "Reset To Default".  This will remove any added paths and set it back to "c:\" on Windows computers and  "/Users" on Mac computers. Click "Ok" to save.

Adding a Folder Path to Skip

You can add additional folder paths to be skipped and ignored by clicking on the "Add..." button, browsing to and selecting the folder you would like to skip, then clicking "Select Folder".  The folder you selected, plus any subfolders in that folder will be skipped.  You should now see the path added in the list of folders to skip.  Click "Save" to save.

For example, on a Windows computer, if you want your ThePhotoStick to scan your entire C:\ drive but skip searching the Downloads folder, you can click the "Add..." button under the "Folders to skip:" section and add the Downloads folder as shown in the screenshots below:

Removing a Folder Path to Skip

To remove a directory path to skip, select the folder path in the list, then click on "Remove Selected".  

Note: You can select multiple folder paths at the same time by holding down the Ctrl key when clicking on another folder path.

For example, on a Windows system, if you do not want ThePhotoStick to skip the "C:\Program Files" folder, you can remove "C:\Program Files" by selecting it and then clicking "Remove Selected".  Click "Save" to save.

Reset Folders to Skip Back to Default

To reset the folder paths to skip back to default, click on "Reset To Default".  This will remove any added paths and put back the default folders to skip.  Please go here if you would like to see the default list of folders that ThePhotoStick will skip. 

Photo File Types

ThePhotoStick can find and save many types of photo files.  By default, ThePhotoStick will find and save JPEG and HEIC photo files, but it can find and save many more photo file types if you choose.  

To add additional photo file types to find and save, click on the "Photo File Types" tab, and then check the box next to the photo file types you would like ThePhotoStick to find and save.   Click "Save" to save.

Video File Types

ThePhotoStick can find and save several types of video files. 

To add additional video file types to find and save, click on the "Video File Types" tab, and then check the box next to the video file types you would like ThePhotoStick to find and save.   Click "Save" to save. 

Document File Types (ThePhotoStick Plus only)

ThePhotoStick can find and save many types of document files.  By default, ThePhotoStick will find and save Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Works files, but it can find and save many more document file types if you choose.  

To add additional document file types to find and save, click on the "Document File Types" tab, and then check the box next to the document file types you would like ThePhotoStick to find and save.   Click "Save" to save.

Audio File Types (ThePhotoStick Plus only)

ThePhotoStick can find and save many types of audio files.  By default, ThePhotoStick will find and save MP3, MPEG-4, and Advanced Audio Coding audio files, but it can find and save other audio file types if you choose.  

To add additional audio file types to find and save, click on the "Audio File Types" tab, and then check the box next to the audio file types you would like ThePhotoStick to find and save.   Click "Save" to save.

Options

ThePhotostick has additional backup options available.  These can be accessed by clicking on the "Options" tab, making any option changes, and then clicking the "Save" button to save.

Copy Options: 

Verify files saved to your ThePhotoStick device -- By default, ThePhotoStick will verify each file it saves to your ThePhotoStick device.  It does this by comparing the file it just saved to your ThePhotoStick device with the original file on your computer.  This is a recommended setting.

Consolidate all files into a single directory -- By default, ThePhotoStick will consolidate your photo and video files into a single folder for easy and convenient access.  ThePhotoStick stores your photo and video files on the USB stick in the directory path:  <ThePhotoStick drive>\My_Files\<computer name>.  See Viewing files saved to ThePhotoStick for additional details.

Skip duplicates --  When consolidating files into a single directory on ThePhotoStick, ThePhotoStick can skip any duplicates it finds.  Often times, the same photos and videos can be saved in various places on your hard disk drive. Having "Skip duplicates" checked will result in only one copy of that file being copied to ThePhotoStick.  If you uncheck this option and ThePhotoStick finds a duplicate file, it will copy the duplicate file to ThePhotoStick and rename it on ThePhotoStick to <filename>_copy-#.

For example, say there is a photo file called DSCF0566.JPG, and it is saved on your hard disk drive at C:\Users\ricky\pictures\DSCF0566.JPG, C:\photos\DSCF0566.JPG., and C:\Users\ricky\Desktop\pics\DSCF0566.JPG. ThePhotoStick will copy the first of these DSCF0566.JPG files, C:\Users\ricky\pictures\DSCF0566.JPG,  as normal to ThePhotoStick as DSCF0566.JPG.  When it goes to back up the next DSCF0566.JPG file, C:\photos\DSCF0566.JPG, it will see that a file called DSCF0566.JPG is already on ThePhotoStick, so it will analyze the file further to verify if they are true duplicates of each other.  If they are, and "Skip duplicates" is checked, it will make note it found a duplicate but not copy this file to ThePhotoStick.  If "Skip duplicate" is not checked or if the files are not true duplicates of each other, the file will be copied to your ThePhotoStick as DSCF0566_copy-1.JPG.  The process is repeated again when it goes to save the third DSCF0566.JPG file, C:\Users\ricky\Desktop\pics\DSCF0566.JPG.  It will see that there is a DSCF0566.JPG and DSCF0566_copy-1.JPG file already on ThePhotoStick, so it will check if this third DSCF0566.JPG file is a duplicate of DSCF0566.JPG or DSCF0566_copy-1.JPG.  If so, it will not save it again.  If neither is a duplicate, then it will copy it to ThePhotoStick as DSCF0566_copy-2.JPG.  For this example, assume ThePhotoStick is running on a Windows computer named "mywincomp" and was given the drive letter F:.

Original File Path on HDD File Back-up Path on ThePhotoStick
C:\photos\DSCF0566.JPG F:\My_Files\mywincomp\My_Photos\DSCF0566.JPG
C:\Users\ricky\pictures\DSCF0566.JPG F:\My_Files\mywincomp\My_Photos\DSCF0566_copy-1.JPG
C:\Users\ricky\Desktop\pics\DSCF0566.JPG F:\My_Files\mywincomp\My_Photos\DSCF0566_copy-2.JPG

Exclude Photo/Video files smaller than -- By default, ThePhotoStick will skip and not save any photos or videos smaller than 100kb.  Generally, any picture or video files smaller than 100kb are system or application images and not user photos or videos.  This value can be adjusted to any size that you prefer.  For example, if you want all photo and video files saved no matter how small they are, you can change the value to "0".  Likewise, if you know your photos are all bigger than 2MB (the approximate size of a 8MP camera), you can change this exclude value to 2MB and fine tune the photo backup.

Exclude Documents files smaller than (ThePhotoStick Plus only) -- By default, ThePhotoStick Plus will save all document files no matter how small they are.  You can change this to exclude documents under a certain size to fine tune your documents backup.

Exclude Audio files smaller than (ThePhotoStick Plus only) -- By default, ThePhotoStick Plus will skip audio files smaller than 800kb.  This value can be adjusted to any size that you prefer.  For example, if you want all audio files saved no matter how small they are, you can change the value to "0".  Likewise, if you know your audio files are all bigger than 3MB (the average size of an mp3 song is 3.5MB), you can change this exclude value to 3MB and fine tune the audio file backup.   

Advanced Options

To view the advanced options for ThePhotoStick, click on "Advanced Copy Options..."

 

As you can see above, the Advanced Copy options are:

Maintain source directory structure -- This option will not consolidate all photo and video files into <ThePhotoStick drive>\My_Files\<computer name>\My_Photos and <ThePhotoStick drive>\My_Files\<computer name>\My_Videos. With this option, ThePhotoStick will separate your photos and videos into the directories My_Photos and My_Videos, but it will maintain the entire path structure to the file.  Also, because each file maintains its original directory path, there will never be a duplicate on ThePhotoStick USB stick, so skipping duplicates is not a selectable option when using  "Maintain source directory structure".

For example, say there is a photo file called DSCF0566.JPG, and it is saved on your hard disk drive at C:\Users\ricky\pictures\DSCF0566.JPG, C:\photos\DSCF0566.JPG, and C:\Users\ricky\Desktop\pics\DSCF0566.JPG.  If "Maintain source directory structure" is selected, all three of these files will be saved to ThePhotoStick whether they are duplicates or not.  They will be saved to ThePhotoStick in the following way.  For this example, assume ThePhotoStick is running on a Windows computer named "mywincomp" and was given the drive letter F:.

Original File Path on HDD File Back-up Path on ThePhotoStick
C:\photos\DSCF0566.JPG F:\My_Files\mywincomp\My_Photos\photos\DSCF0566.JPG
C:\Users\ricky\pictures\DSCF0566.JPG F:\My_Files\mywincomp\My_Photos\Users\ricky\pictures\DSCF0566.JPG
C:\Users\ricky\Desktop\pics\DSCF0566.JPG F:\My_Files\mywincomp\My_Photos\Users\ricky\Desktop\pics\DSCF0566.JPG

Copy Thumbnails in iPhoto Library -- On Mac computers, when this option is checked, ThePhotoStick will copy all the iPhoto Library thumbnails in addition to all the Master (original size) photo files.  This option is less common since iPhoto will automatically generate new thumbnail images when importing the Master photo files.

Debug logging (Support Only) -- On occasion, ThePhotoStick support may require more detailed logging when investigating an issue.  This option turns on detailed logging and is only recommended to have on for small periods of time and as directed by ThePhotoStick support.  Having it always on can impact performance.