A Disney PhotoPass/Memory Maker Primer About This Page:

[AFO]

We just got back from Disney World. We purchased the Memory Maker. I have a few questions.

1). I know your 45 days are suppose to start when you first get into your account. We started viewing the pics via my husband's iPad during the vacation. Does that mean the 45 days started then, or once we start editing?

2) Can we edit, add borders, crop, etc before we download?
And once we download, if you are still within the 45 days, are your pictures still there to edit or do you have to do that before you download them to your personal PC or you lose that opportunity?

I want my husband to download them but I don't want to lose the opportunity to "edit" first if I only have one chance.

Thanks!

[WillCAD]

Originally Posted by AFO

We just got back from Disney World. We purchased the Memory Maker. I have a few questions.

1). I know your 45 days are suppose to start when you first get into your account. We started viewing the pics via my husband's iPad during the vacation. Does that mean the 45 days started then, or once we start editing?

2) Can we edit, add borders, crop, etc before we download?
And once we download, if you are still within the 45 days, are your pictures still there to edit or do you have to do that before you download them to your personal PC or you lose that opportunity?

I want my husband to download them but I don't want to lose the opportunity to "edit" first if I only have one chance.

Thanks!

1. Your 45 days start the instant the photo is snapped. Each photo will be in your account for 45 days, no matter when you first look at them or edit them or download them. Snap, 45 days, bye-bye. Unless you purchase a one-time extension, which will add an extra 15 days to all of the photos in your account, so they would each expire 60 days after they were snapped.

2. Yes, you can. In fact, you can edit before, during, and after you download, until your photos expire. And you can download your pics as many times as you like, over and over.

Note: One of the main advantages of Memory Maker is that the photos you download are standard JPG files, which means that you can use them any way you like, just as you do with photos with your own camera. You can post them to Facebook, email them to your family and friends, print them out any size you like, and edit them in whatever imaging program you have - Photoshop Elements, Picassa, ACDSee, Paint SHop Pro, GIMP, Aperture, etc.

[AFO]

THANKS!!

[AFO]

Oh - another Memory Maker editing downloading question....

While you are going through all your photos and you find pictures of other people...can you delete them before you download them to your PC?

These are not people that are just behind you in anther car in a roller coaster. It's a total different picture that's in our memory maker file that is of people we do not know.

Hmmm

[WillCAD]

Originally Posted by AFO

Oh - another Memory Maker editing downloading question....

While you are going through all your photos and you find pictures of other people...can you delete them before you download them to your PC?

These are not people that are just behind you in anther car in a roller coaster. It's a total different picture that's in our memory maker file that is of people we do not know.

Hmmm

Dunno. It hasn't happened to me yet.

However, there is no cause for concern. Having a few extra pics in your account won't affect your Memory Maker downloads - they're unlimited - and the pics will all be deleted from the system when they hit their 45-day expiration anyway, so I'd just leave them and delete them from your computer after you complete your downloads.

The only time I could see this as a problem is if you have a LOT of other peoples' pics in your account, which could make it more difficult for you to pic your own pics out of the crowd when you browse them.

[wheezie]

Help!

I can see/edit, etc my pics in MM, and I did download them-but I'm not sure where they went. (they are def not in "My pictures", nor did it give me the option.) My dh found them (by searching for "jpg" or something), so when we clicked on them, they were tiny. He tried to make them bigger, and they are all very pixelized. Any idea why? the file sizes are really small too. Is that b/c all of them are still 4x6? I didn't change the size on any of them before I downloaded them-is that a problem? My pictures from my camera never look like that!

Also, how do I burn them to a disk? (If that's too complicated to explain, that's fine. )

I'm using my laptop (no desktop) and I use Firefox-I don't know if that makes any difference at all.

Thanks for any help-I'm really computer/technology illiterate.

[WillCAD]

Originally Posted by wheezie

Help!

I can see/edit, etc my pics in MM, and I did download them-but I'm not sure where they went. (they are def not in "My pictures", nor did it give me the option.) My dh found them (by searching for "jpg" or something), so when we clicked on them, they were tiny. He tried to make them bigger, and they are all very pixelized. Any idea why? the file sizes are really small too. Is that b/c all of them are still 4x6? I didn't change the size on any of them before I downloaded them-is that a problem? My pictures from my camera never look like that!

Also, how do I burn them to a disk? (If that's too complicated to explain, that's fine. )

I'm using my laptop (no desktop) and I use Firefox-I don't know if that makes any difference at all.

Thanks for any help-I'm really computer/technology illiterate.

Okay, I think this is probably a common problem.

First of all, the small pictures you found were not your download. They were probably just thumbnails that your web browser saved.

The reason you couldn't find your full-size pictures stems from the fact that when you download them, they're all mashed together in a container file called a Zip file.

Zip files are a type of archive that allows you to squeeze a bunch of files together, and at the same time the files are compressed so they take less space. Think of it as the computer equivalent of folding up a pile of paper really small and squeezing it under something heavy.

Once you've downloaded the zip file, you have to get the picture files out of it. If you're using Windows, version Vista, 7, or 8/8.1, they will treat Zip files as though they are another folder, so all you have to do is find the zip and double-click on it. Then you can select all of the pictures and drag them to your My Pictures folder.

Have your DH do another search, for *.zip. It will most likely be in your Downloads folder.

[fluttercat]

Question. Is it possible to upload personal photos to the Memory Maker? I thought there was but I'm working on photos now and don't see a way to do it. Am I mistaken?

[WillCAD]

Originally Posted by fluttercat

Question. Is it possible to upload personal photos to the Memory Maker? I thought there was but I'm working on photos now and don't see a way to do it. Am I mistaken?

You can upload your own photos, but only to include in a specific product like a calendar, photo book, or greeting card. When you begin work on one of those products, an Upload button will appear somewhere on the pages that require you to pick photos. In the Calendar creator, the button is on the upper right corner of the page. In the PhotoBook creator, the button does not appear when creating the cover, but appears in the lower left corner when creating individual pages.

Uploading your own pics to the photo stream to add borders and make other edits does not appear to be possible.

If you want to add the borders and graphics from PhotoPass to your own pics, you'll have to do it yourself, with a photo editing program such as Photoshop Elements or Paint Shop Pro.

To get the borders from PhotoPass, there is a somewhat convoluted process:

1. Create a copy of one of your PhotoPass photos that shows a lot of empty blue or black sky without clouds, moon, planes, or anything else
2. Zoom up on an empty area of sky so that nothing else shows. You might need to page through your photos to find one with a big enough area of sky to do this. You're looking to create a totally blank photo.
3. While editing the empty sky photo, click Effects, then choose Black and White - this will make your empty sky turn gray, which will give it the most contrast against the borders.
4. Add a PhotoPass border to the empty gray sky photo
5. Download the bordered empty gray sky photo
6. Use your photo editor program to cut the border out of the bordered empty gray sky photo
7. Use your photo editor program to insert the border onto any of your personal photos that you like

[fluttercat]

Thank you so much! That is exactly what I needed to know.

[ravensgirl76]

Thanks for posting this!!

I read through everything and want to make sure I understand it all since we'll have 11 people in our group.

1. I'm pretty sure we all connected with emails - how would I verify that? I can see everyone and they can all see the 3 of us.

2. I called Disney and the lady on the phone added a traveling with note to all of our reservations, does this link us together for MM?

3. Once we're all linked properly, we can be in 2 different parks, rides, or just different spots in the same park and get our pics on the MM - is that correct?

Thanks again for all the great info.

[WillCAD]

Originally Posted by ravensgirl76

Thanks for posting this!!

I read through everything and want to make sure I understand it all since we'll have 11 people in our group.

1. I'm pretty sure we all connected with emails - how would I verify that? I can see everyone and they can all see the 3 of us.

2. I called Disney and the lady on the phone added a traveling with note to all of our reservations, does this link us together for MM?

3. Once we're all linked properly, we can be in 2 different parks, rides, or just different spots in the same park and get our pics on the MM - is that correct?

Thanks again for all the great info.

Glad it was helpful! This stuff is so complex, even I have to refer to my own sticky sometimes, because I can't keep it all straight in my head. Then again, I can't always keep my own name straight up there, so maybe that's a bad example...

Anyway,

1) Simply look at your Friends and Family list. If it says "You manage this account" next to a name, it means that the system doesn't know that person has their own account, and they're a rider on yours. This is how it should look for those in your family who don't have their own accounts.

For those who do have their own accounts, you should see "Bob has a Disney account" next to their names. When you see that, it means that person's Disney account is linked to yours, and their PhotoPass pics will show up in your account.

2) As far as I know, it's the F&F list that links you for Memory Maker, not the traveling together note. But it couldn't hurt.

3) Correct - anyone who shows up in your F&F list, whether they have their own accounts or they're riders on yours, can have a photo taken at a ride, restaurant, or photographer, and the photos will all show up in your account and be downloadable via your Memory Maker entitlement. You can be scattered all over WDW property, but you'll all still be covered by the Memory Maker entitlement that you purchased.

This also includes riders in your F&F's F&F lists. Example: Bob has a Disney account. His kids don't have their own accounts, but they're in his F&F list. Bob is in your F&F list. You won't see Bob's kids in your F&F list, but their pics go into Bob's account, and all of Bob's pics show up in your account, so they'll be included in your MM download. You can tell this because, in the F&F list, it will say "Bob can view and purchase your PhotoPass photos." In Bob's F&F list, it will say, "ravensgirl76 can view and purchase your PhotoPass photos."

If it doesn't say "ravensgirl76 can view and purchase your PhotoPass photos." in Bob's F&F list, that means your account isn't linked to his with the email option. All Bob has to do is send an email invitation to you, and when you accept, that links your account to his, and then Bob's photos will show up in your account.

[ravensgirl76]

Awesome! Phew, that is confusing but I think I got it.

As long as it shows the person that manages the account as being able to see and purchase my photos, their family members' pics will be connected to my account and we can get all of our MM pics when we get back.

[EddieCVS]

Thanks for the info!

[taylan1]

I have a question about the memory maker card they sent me. Do we have to show that card to all the Photopass photographers or just the MB? What about at the restaurants the have photopass options? Thanks.