Help Center

Phossil is an AI-powered family photo organizer that helps you turn boxes of unsorted photos into a chronological family history. Here's how it works:

1. Upload your photos - Drag and drop scanned images or use your phone to capture physical prints
2. Add family members - Enter names and birth years for key people in your photos
3. Tag a few faces - Show the AI who's who by tagging 3-5 photos per person
4. AI does the rest - Our system analyzes every photo, recognizes faces, and estimates dates
5. Review your timeline - See your photos organized chronologically and make corrections as needed

After signing up, you'll land on your dashboard. Click "Create Your Collection" to get started. You'll need to:

1. Give your collection a name (e.g., "The Smith Family" or "Mom's Side")
2. Add at least one family member with their birth year
3. Upload your first batch of photos

You can create multiple collections for different family branches or time periods.

Phossil supports most common image formats:

• JPEG/JPG - Most common, great for scanned photos
• PNG - Good for screenshots or images with transparency
• HEIC - iPhone photos (automatically converted)
• WebP - Modern web format

For best results, scan physical photos at 300 DPI or higher. Photos up to 50MB are supported.

Phossil uses AWS Rekognition to detect and recognize faces. Here's the process:

1. Detection - When you upload a photo, our AI detects all visible faces
2. Training - When you tag a face, that information teaches the system
3. Recognition - The AI compares new faces against people you've tagged
4. Auto-tagging - High-confidence matches (85%+) are tagged automatically

The more photos you tag for each person, the better the recognition becomes. We recommend tagging at least 5 photos showing different angles, ages, and lighting conditions.

To tag faces:

1. Open a photo in The Lab (your workspace)
2. Click on a detected face (shown as a box or dot)
3. Select the person's name from the dropdown, or type to search
4. If the person isn't in your list, click "Add New Person"

You can also use Training Mode to quickly tag multiple photos of the same person in sequence.

Face detection may fail when:

• Face is too small - Try cropping or using a higher resolution scan
• Face is obscured - Sunglasses, hats, or turned away
• Poor image quality - Blurry, overexposed, or very dark
• Profile view - Side profiles are harder to detect than front-facing

If the AI misses a face, you can still manually add a person to the photo using the "Tag Person" button.

To correct a mistaken tag:

1. Click on the incorrectly tagged face
2. Click "Change" or the edit icon
3. Select the correct person, or "Remove Tag" if it's not actually a person

Corrections help train the AI - it learns from your feedback and will make fewer mistakes over time.

Our "Familytologist Engine" uses multiple signals to estimate when a photo was taken:

• Age Analysis - If someone's birth year is known, their apparent age in the photo gives us the year (e.g., if Grandma was born in 1940 and looks ~30, the photo is likely from ~1970)
• Visual Clues - GPT-4 Vision analyzes clothing styles, cars, technology, hairstyles, and decor
• Text/Dates - Any visible dates, signs, or newspapers are extracted
• EXIF Data - Digital photos may contain embedded dates
• Context - Holiday decorations, seasons, events

Accuracy depends on the signals available:

• High confidence (within 1-2 years) - Photo has tagged people with known birth years, clear visual age indicators
• Medium confidence (within 3-5 years) - Some people identified, or strong visual era markers
• Low confidence (decade estimate) - No identified people, only style/context clues

Each estimate shows a confidence level. We'd rather say "Unknown" than guess wrong - your family history deserves accuracy.

To fix an incorrect date estimate:

1. Open the photo in The Lab
2. Click the date display (or "Edit Date")
3. Enter the correct date - you can specify just a year, year+month, or full date
4. Your correction is saved as "manually verified" and won't be overwritten

Manual corrections also help train the system for similar photos.

Yes! If you've added more people or tagged more faces, you can re-run the AI analysis:

1. Go to The Lab
2. Open the Training panel
3. Click "Re-Run AI Analysis"

This will re-analyze all photos with your updated people data, potentially improving date estimates.

Live Photos are AI-generated animations that bring your still photos to life. Using advanced AI, we create subtle, natural movement - a smile forming, eyes blinking, or a gentle turn of the head.

Think of it as a "Harry Potter newspaper" effect for your family photos. It's a magical way to see loved ones "move" again, especially meaningful for photos of those who have passed.

1. Open a photo in The Lab or Timeline
2. Click the "Create Live Photo" button (video icon)
3. Wait 30-60 seconds for generation
4. Your Live Photo will appear - hover to play

Live Photos count against your plan's limit. Free Trial includes 1, paid plans include more.

Yes! Live Photos can be downloaded as MP4 video files. Click the download button on any Live Photo to save it to your device. They're perfect for:

• Sharing on social media
• Including in memorial slideshows
• Digital photo frames
• Family group chats

To invite family members:

1. Open your collection
2. Click the Members button (or gear icon)
3. Click "Invite Member"
4. Enter their email address and select a role

They'll receive an email invitation to join your collection.

• Owner - Full control: upload, edit, delete, manage members, billing
• Editor - Can upload photos, tag faces, edit dates, but cannot manage members or billing
• Viewer - Browse-only access: can view photos and timeline, but cannot make changes

Viewer invites require owner approval before the person can access the collection.

Yes! You can create shareable links with different access levels:

• Full Access - See everything in the collection
• Curated - Only photos you've marked as "shareable"
• Preview - Limited sample with upgrade prompt

Share links are perfect for family reunions or sharing with relatives who don't want to create an account.

The Free Trial includes:

• 50 photos
• 1 Live Photo
• 3 people to tag
• Full AI analysis and dating
• Timeline view

No credit card required. When you hit a limit, you'll see a prompt to upgrade.

We use "soft limits" - you can continue uploading past your limit, but:

• Photos beyond your limit are stored but locked
• Locked photos appear faded with a lock icon
• Upgrading instantly unlocks all your photos
• We'll never delete your photos for being over limit

This lets you finish scanning a box without interruption, then upgrade when you're ready.

We use a simple, transparent model:

• Subscription - Plans from Free to $99/month for storage and monthly Carbon credits
• Carbon Credits - Pay only for AI features you use (face detection is FREE, photo dating 10¢/photo)

Start free with 50 photos. See all pricing options →

Yes, you can cancel your subscription at any time from your Account page. When you cancel:

• You keep full access until the end of your billing period
• We'll keep your photos safe for at least 60 days after your subscription ends
• You can download your photos or resubscribe anytime during that window

After 60 days, your collection may be removed to free up storage. We'll send reminder emails before that happens.

Common upload issues and solutions:

• File too large - Photos must be under 50MB each
• Wrong format - Use JPEG, PNG, HEIC, or WebP
• Slow connection - Large batches may timeout on slow networks
• Browser issue - Try refreshing or using a different browser

If problems persist, try uploading in smaller batches (10-20 photos at a time).

AI analysis runs as background jobs. If it seems stuck:

1. Check the Jobs panel in The Lab to see job status
2. Large batches (100+ photos) can take 10-15 minutes
3. If a job shows "failed", try clicking "Retry"
4. You can close your browser - jobs continue on our servers

We're here to help! You can reach us via:

• Support Form: Use the form below to submit a ticket
• In-App: Click "Help" in your account settings

When contacting support, please include:

• What you were trying to do
• Any error messages you saw
• Screenshots if possible

We typically respond within 24 hours.