When first using Mylio Photos, or while adding new photos, you may see black or gray squares (called ghost images) in place of your photos. This happens if Mylio Photos has not fully synced and is still receiving photos from another source.
Fixing Ghost Images
Mylio Photos is a peer-to-peer syncing application and syncing occurs when devices meet the following criteria:
Devices are signed in to the same Mylio Photos account
Devices are connected to the same network.
Devices are running the latest version of Mylio Photos (Mylio Photos must be open in the foreground on mobile devices).
Once the above criteria have been met, Mylio Photos will begin to transfer your media and replace the ghost images with your expected photos. You can view the syncing status of devices on the Dashboard.
If your devices are not able to join the same network, ghost images can be resolved by using an intermediary device, such as an external hard drive or mobile device. For example, if you have home and work computers that are not on the same network, an external drive vault can be transferred between the computers. The sync would then behave in this way: Home Computer -> External Mylio Photos Drive via USB cable, and then External Mylio Photos Drive -> Work Computer via USB cable.
You could also accomplish this with a mobile device, for instance:
Home Computer -> iOS Device via your home network, and then iOS Device -> Work Computer when on your work network.
In both instances, the quality in which the photos sync to the intermediary device is the maximum quality that the destination machine can receive. In the above example, if the external drive is a vault and stores full-size Original photos, the work computer can then receive Originals, Optimized images, or Thumbnails. However, if the iOS Device in the above example is only given Thumbnails, then the Work Computer will only have access to Thumbnails.
Extended Details of Ghost Images
Mylio Photos is made of two major components: the catalog/database and the library. These two parts hold specific and different information:
Mylio Photos Catalog – The Mylio Photos Catalog contains information about your Mylio Photos Library. This includes how many photos you have, where they are stored, your albums, places, people, edits, and additional information needed to keep your library in sync.
Mylio Photos Library – Your Library consists of your full-resolution photos, folder organization, and a Generated Images bundle that holds your Thumbnails and Optimized images.
The cloud is designed to keep your devices in sync by automatically updating your Mylio Photos Catalog to each device every time it comes online. This means that in some instances your device may receive the Mylio Photos Catalog, and thus information about new photos, before receiving the Mylio Photos Library, or the photos themselves.
The result of this incongruence is that Mylio Photos knows a new photo is needed but it has not yet received it, and thus displays a placeholder ghost image until the image is received.
If your devices meet all of the criteria mentioned above and you're still seeing ghost images, please Contact Mylio Support.