There are different ways to get memories into bitsofMine:

• Connect a camera or any other USB device to your machine while bitsofMine is running. bitsofMine will automatically start an import of all new photos and videos.
• Start a manual import when being on the timeline: Open the app bar and select “Import files” or “Import folder”, respectively.
• In Windows 10, you can drag and drop photos from the file manager into the timeline.

You can trigger backup and restore operations in the Storage Manager. The Storage Manager is available from the app bar of the timeline.

Independently of any manual backup efforts, we are highly recommending the use of tools that automate backups. For example, if your are storing your memories somewhere in the “Documents” folder, we recommend to use Microsoft’s tool “File History” (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/how-use-file-history). It’s free and easy to use.

The size of an item depends on its importance value: More important items are bigger, whereas less important items are displayed as smaller thumbnails. There are quite many factors affecting the importance value of an item incl. its rating, the fact whether it has been renamed or tagged, the number of comments and likes it has etc.

In short, there is no direct way of controlling an item’s size. However, you can increase an item’s importance in various ways. For example, chosing a “five star” rating usually does the trick – unless there is another “five star” rated item nearby.

In bitsofMine you can navigate

• by swiping/browsing: Both the timeline and the view for individual items are touch enabled. Thus you can swipe through your memories easily.
• by time traveling: In the timeline, you can trigger “Go to date” from the app bar. By selecting a date, bitsofMine takes you to the selected day or as close to it as possible.
• by fulltext search: You can search via the search box in the upper left corner above the timeline. As a result of your search, the most imported search results will be displayed sorted by relevance.
• by tag selection: Of course, you can also view all items that have a specific tag attached. Just select “Tag View” in the app bar of the timeline and then select the tag you are looking for.

First, tap/click on the item in the timeline. Once, the item is displayed in an individual view, open the app bar and select “Delete”. When asked for confirmation, select “Ok” and the item will be deleted from the timeline and from the file system.

You can also select one or several items on the timeline via the Windows 8/10 “tap and hold” gesture. Once you have selected at least one item, you can select “Delete” from the app bar of the timeline.

In Windows 8.1:

• First, open the photo/video in the timeline. Once the photo/video is displayed in an individual view, you can edit its name by typing in the name box on the right hand side of the photo/video. If you can’t see the name box, you might need to open the metadata section first by tapping the button in the upper right corner of the screen.

In Windows 10:

• First, open the photo/video in the timeline. Once the photo/video is displayed in an individual view, please tap on the button in the top right corner to turn the photo/video and see all of its meta data. Now you can edit the name by typing in the name box on the left hand side of the screen.

All your changes will also be reflected in the name of the corresponding file in your bitsofMine folder.

Please note that items from social networks cannot be renamed.

First, click on the photo in the timeline. Once the photo is displayed in an individual view, you can use the following approaches for sharing:

• In the app bar, you can trigger an upload to Twitter and Facebook. Please note that you will not be asked for any confirmation once you click the “1-click upload” button.
• In the app bar, you can also select “open with” and hand the item over to any desktop application that can handle the type.
• In Windows 8.1, you can also use the share charm to select any app that can handle photos appropriately, for example, the Mail application. Please note that the option does not exist in Windows 10.

You might want to have a look at the presentation here: http://app.emaze.com/@AOFOWLLC/how-to-use-tags-in-bitsofmine?autoplay#1

In short, you can attach a tag to an item in the single item view. In order to be able to do so, please ensure that metadata is visible. If it isn’t please tap on the button in the upper right corner on the single item view. Then, tap on the (+) button next to the # symbol and start typing…

Once you have attached tags to items, you can view your tags by selecting “Tag View” from the app bar in the timeline.

Glad that you asked! 🙂

In a nutshell, we want you to have access to your data in the years and decades to come. That’s why we believe that bitsofMine is better than a service. Why? Services need to be operated continuously. Once, a service runs out of money or changes its line of business, your data will be gone.

In the case of bitsofMine your data is safe as long as the file system in which your data is stored is readable. And we believe that FAT32 will be supported for quite some time. Yes, even if for one reason or another you don’t want to use bitsofMine any longer, you will still be able to access your data!

It’s your data, not ours!

In short, bitsofMine stores all your data on your local drive. bitsofMine doesn’t store any of your data in the cloud by default.

More specifically, all your memories are stored in the place you selected when running bitsofMine for the first time. In the folder you selected, bitsofMine creates a “bits of Mine” folder with subfolders for years and months underneath. Your photos, status updates, and tweets are stored in the matching folders based on their timestamps.

So if your photo “Best Photo Ever.jpg” was taken on May 24, 2012, you can find it in
<selected folder>\bits of Mine\2012\05

You can view your data and you can copy it from there. But currently we recommend against manipulating your data in these folders: if you rename, delete, or move your data in the file system directly, bitsofMine will not be aware of any such changes and in the worst case bitsofMine might stop working.

Please note that you can, of course, circumvent our rule of not storing your data in the cloud: when you select a folder that happens to be located in the cloud, such as a OneDrive folder, your data will be stored in the cloud according to your preference.

When designing bitsofMine we kept our focus on the user experience and the user’s data.

In more detail, our current drivers are:

• The User Experience
  • Keep everything simple
  • Optimize for touch interaction
  • Use a single timeline instead of a folder structure
  • Make search meaningful
  • Make important photos more prominent without hiding the rest

• The Data
  • Make photo import automatic but keep the user in control
  • Use all the sources that matter to the user
  • Leverage context information
  • Empower users to keep all their photos locally
  • Empower users to utilize the cloud when they want to
  • Above all: It’s the user’s data, not ours! We don’t want to lock the user in!