Apple TV

Frameleaf for Apple TV puts the photos and videos on your own server on the biggest screen in the house. Browse albums, people, places and memories from the couch, or leave a slideshow playing and turn your TV into a photo frame.

Install Frameleaf from the App Store on Apple TV. It’s the same App Store listing as iPhone and iPad.

What you need

• An Apple TV running tvOS 26 or later.
• A Frameleaf Cloud account linked to your server.
• A server plan that includes remote access. The TV uses it even when it’s on your home network.
• A connection to your server. The TV app streams from your server; it doesn’t back up photos or keep an offline library.

Plans are bought outside the TV. If your plan doesn’t include remote access yet, the app tells you and shows the server owner a QR code to the plans page.

Sign in

1. Open Frameleaf on your Apple TV.
2. Scan the QR code on your phone, or open the address shown and enter the short code.
3. Sign in to your Frameleaf account and approve the TV.
4. If your account has several servers, choose the one to show. Frameleaf remembers it.

The TV uses your home network when it can, then a direct connection or the relay when needed. You can see the route in Settings. Revoke a TV’s access from your Frameleaf account’s Devices page, or choose Sign Out on the TV.

Browse and play

The side rail opens Home, Memories, Places, Albums, People, Search and Settings. Select a page to switch to it.

Home gathers favourites, best photos, memories, landmarks, places and albums. People includes named people and pets. Search accepts typing or dictation and uses your server’s smart search.

Select a collection to open its page. Choose Play for newest first or Shuffle for a shuffled slideshow. Select a photo to open it full screen; select a video to play it. On your home network or a direct connection the TV tries the original video, with a compatible server encoding as fallback. Over the relay it uses the smaller encoding.

Remote controls

• Play/Pause starts or pauses playback.
• Left and right move through photos.
• Up shows photo details; Select also shows details in the photo viewer.
• Menu/Back returns to the collection or leaves the slideshow.
• Press and hold Select on a photo to Favourite, Unfavourite or Archive it.

Archiving takes the photo out of the timeline and slideshows; you’ll find it in Archive in the phone and web apps. You can change your own photos from the TV, while photos owned by someone else stay as they are.

Slideshow settings

In Settings, choose:

• Each photo shows for: 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 seconds.
• Order: Shuffled or Newest first.
• Show photo details and Show the time.
• Live Photos and short videos: a Live Photo moves once and videos up to 15 seconds play muted. Turn this off for still photos only.
• Music in memories: memories play as shows with title cards and ordered items. Music drops under a video’s sound and fades out at the end.
• Let the TV sleep after: 1, 2 or 4 hours, or Never.

While the slideshow plays, Frameleaf keeps the TV awake. Pause it, or reach the sleep limit, and your usual screen saver and sleep take over; Frameleaf works alongside the system screen saver rather than replacing it. With Reduce Motion on, photos show without the slow drift.

Play from your iPhone

Pick something on your iPhone and watch it on the TV:

1. Open Frameleaf on the Apple TV.
2. Make sure both devices are on the same network and signed in to the same Frameleaf account.
3. On an album, person, memory or search page in the iPhone app, choose Play on Apple TV, then the TV’s name.

If you don’t see the button, check that the TV app is open, both devices are on the same network, and local-network access is allowed. This plays through the Frameleaf TV app; see Casting for Google Cast and other ways to watch.

Top Shelf, Siri and SharePlay

Top Shelf previews show On this day, memories and favourites right on the Home screen. Selecting a preview opens its page; Play starts it. Siri phrases include “Play photos in Frameleaf”, “Show photos in Frameleaf” and “Search Frameleaf”.

SharePlay lets everyone in a FaceTime call watch a collection together through a temporary shared link. Your phone asks before it shares the photos and videos, and the link stops working when the session ends.

Privacy and troubleshooting

The TV shows the library you can access on the server you chose. Everyone in a SharePlay session sees the collection you share with them. Signing out clears account-specific previews and the remembered slideshow.

• Sign-in code expired: use the new code the TV shows.
• Remote access required: ask the server owner to add a plan that includes remote access.
• Nothing found in Search: check the words, and that smart search is turned on for the server.
• Photo or video won’t load: check that the server is online and reachable, and try the item in the server’s web app. Videos also need a compatible encoding.
• TV goes to sleep: check the slideshow’s sleep limit and that playback isn’t paused.

The Apple TV app is all about watching. For backup, editing and Studio, use the phone apps or Studio.