Help Center

Phossil is an AI-powered family photo organizer that helps you turn piles 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.

When you turn on face grouping, Phossil gathers photos of the same person together so you can name each person once. It runs entirely on your own device. Here's the process:

1. On-device faceprint - Your device measures a numeric faceprint of each face. It is never uploaded to us and never leaves your device.
2. Grouping - Your device uses those faceprints to gather the photos that show the same person.
3. You name each group once - The name you give carries across that person's photos.
4. What we store - Only a rough age estimate per face, where each face sits in the photo, and the name you assign. Never the faceprint.

A previous server-side face recognition service was retired in June 2026 and its stored face data was deleted. A faceprint never leaves your device. Learn how on-device face grouping protects your family.

To tag faces:

1. Open a photo in Preserve (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 improve results within your own archive - related photos update, and nothing you do trains any AI model.

Our AI dating 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 - AI vision analysis identifies 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 - Photo has tagged people with known birth years, clear visual age indicators. The range narrows.
• Medium confidence - Some people identified, or strong visual era markers.
• Low confidence - No identified people, only style and context clues. The range widens, honestly.

Each estimate shows a date range with its 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 Preserve
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 Preserve
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.

Living Portraits 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 Preserve or Timeline
2. Click the "Create Living Portrait" button (video icon)
3. Wait 30-60 seconds for generation
4. Your Living Portrait will appear - hover to play

Living Portraits count against your plan's included credits. Free Trial includes 1, paid tiers include more.

Yes! Living Portraits can be downloaded as MP4 video files. Click the download button on any Living Portrait 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:

• 100 photos
• One watermarked Living Portrait, unlocked after your first 10 photos
• Full AI analysis and dating
• Timeline view

No credit card required. There is no clock on your trial photos, and the trial includes a year of the Exhibition Pass. When you're ready for more room, choosing a plan picks up right where you left off.

Uploads pause when you reach your plan's photo count. Nothing you have uploaded is ever hidden, locked, or deleted.

• You'll see exactly how much room your plan has left as you go
• Photo packs add room anytime: 500 photos for $49, or 2,000 for $179
• What you pay for photo packs counts toward your next tier if you upgrade later
• Your photos are never deleted, whatever your plan

Finish the box with a photo pack, or step up a tier. Either way, your archive picks up right where it paused.

We use a simple, transparent model:

• Buy once - One payment organizes your archive: Personal $99, Family $499, Dynasty $1,999. No subscriptions.
• Included credits - Every tier includes Living Portrait and Restoration credits. Need more later? Packs start at $10.
• Grow anytime - Growing past your starting size? Photo packs add 500 photos for $49 or 2,000 for $179, and pack money credits toward your next tier.

Start free with 100 photos. See all pricing options →

No. Phossil tiers are one-time purchases, not subscriptions. There is nothing to cancel and no recurring charges.

• Personal and Family include their first year of the Exhibition Pass; Dynasty includes its first decade
• After the included period, renewing the Pass (purchased as a Decade of Access) is $200, one time, whenever you choose. It never renews on its own
• Your photos are never deleted due to access expiry; expired collections move to view-only
• Viewing, sharing, and export remain free even after access expires

Full refund within 30 days of any purchase. See pricing details.

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 Preserve 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.