MemoryEmbers™ Hearth User Guide

What MemoryEmbers is

MemoryEmbers brings your family's photos back into the rooms where you live. It has two parts:

• The Hearth is a small server in your home. It keeps every photo, scan, home movie and song, organizes them by date, and backs them up. Nothing lives on someone else's cloud.
• The Lanterns are the screens around the house. When nobody is using one, it shows what happened on this day and in this month over the years, with music from the same years, the time, the tides and the weather.

Everyone's phone sends new photos to the Hearth by itself, so the Lanterns show today's moments too. You look after it all from the Hearth app, on a phone or a computer.

Quick start

Your installer sets up the Hearth and the first Lantern, and gives you the Hearth app's address and the family password.

1. Open the Hearth app's address on a computer or phone and sign in with the family password. On a phone, add it to the home screen so it opens like an app.
2. Read Home. It says "Everything is running" when all is well, and lists anything that needs a look.
3. Set up each person's phone so it backs up its photos: see Add a person's phone.
4. Plug in a USB drive and press I've plugged in my drive on the Backup page, so there's a second copy of everything: see Back up to USB drives.
5. Leave a Lantern untouched for 5 minutes and watch the slideshow begin. Tap it to go back to Google Home.

Next: Watch the Lanterns, Add photos, scans and music, Watch home movies on the TV.

Watch the Lanterns

A Lantern is your Google Home screen first. After 5 minutes with nobody touching it, it fades into the slideshow. Tap the screen at any time to go back to Google Home.

The slideshow shows, in this order:

1. Just in: camera photos from everyone's phones in the last day, newest first, with who took them.
2. Today, over the years: photos taken on this date in earlier years, with how long ago.
3. This month, over the years: a shuffled set from this month in earlier years.

Under each photo's date, the Lantern shows up to three of its tags from Immich, such as a place or "Fourth of July". To change them, open the photo in Immich and add or remove tags; the Lanterns follow within a few hours. A photo without tags shows just its date. With more than three, the most specific come first (a town before its state), then A to Z.

In Immich on a computer, Tags, Folders and Recently added are in the sidebar on the left. The Hearth turns them on once for everyone; each person can turn them off under their initial > Account Settings > Features.

The band along the bottom shows the tides (by the sea), the sun's path and tonight's moon, the weather for the next 12 hours, and any weather warning. While the photos play, music comes from your own library, half of it from the year of the photo on screen. Music plays from 9 am to 9 pm, and from 10 pm to 7 am the Lantern goes dark and quiet on purpose. Change both on Settings.

The music controls are on the Lanterns page of the Hearth app: Next song, Pause, Quiet for an hour and Play. They work on every Lantern at once.

Play one album for the day

For a birthday or a family trip, the Lanterns can play one of your albums instead. On the Lanterns page of the Hearth app, under Album for today, choose the album and tap Play it today. Every Lantern switches within a minute. New phone photos still show. At midnight the usual albums come back by themselves; to go back sooner, tap Back to the usual albums.

Albums anyone in the family makes in Immich appear in the list by themselves. To keep an album to yourself, start its name with Private. If the Phones page asks for someone's password, type it once so their albums can join the list.

Add a person's phone

Each person has their own account in Immich, the family's photo library on the Hearth. The Immich app on their phone backs up every photo and video to it, at home or away.

1. In the Hearth app, go to Phones, type the person's first name and a password, and tap Add them.
2. On their phone, install Tailscale and Immich (the Phones page has QR codes for both). Sign in to Tailscale with the family's Tailscale account and leave it on.
3. In the Immich app, enter the address the Phones page shows, and sign in with their own account.
4. Turn on Backup and allow it to run in the background. On Android, also set Immich's battery use to Unrestricted.

Their photos show on the Lanterns within a few minutes of being taken. Screenshots and saved pictures are left out.

To keep phone photos with the rest of the family's, on the Phones page under Add phone photos to the family archive, type the family account's Immich password once and press Turn it on. Each night, photos that came in a few days ago are added to the archive in folders by year and month, so they're in the backups too.

• Everyone sees all the family's photos in their own Immich app. Each photo is changed only by whoever took it.
• To keep a photo off the Lanterns, select it in Immich and choose Archive. It stays safe but leaves the slideshow.

Add photos, scans and music

• Photos and scans: on the Photos page, drag them in from a computer. The Hearth reads each one's date; for a scan without one, it asks for the year. They show up in Immich within minutes.
• Music: on the Music page, drag in songs. The Hearth reads each song's year, so it plays with photos from that time.
• Open the photos or music: the big Open buttons on Home and on each page open Immich or the music on a computer, or the app on a phone.
• Look at today's photos: on Home, tap a photo under Today, over the years to see it big, with its year, place and tags. Use the arrows (or swipe on a phone) for the next one. Open in Immich opens that photo in Immich, to download it, share it or fix a tag.

Names on faces, captions, albums and stars you add in Immich are written into a small file next to each photo every night, so they're backed up with it. Your photos themselves are never changed.

Watch home movies on the TV

If your Hearth has Videos (your installer sets it up), the Hearth app has a Videos page and your home movies play on the TV with the free Jellyfin app.

1. On the Videos page, drop the videos in. Type the year they were taken if you know it.
2. On the TV, install the Jellyfin app and open it. It finds the Hearth by itself.
3. Choose Quick Connect. Type the six numbers the TV shows on the Videos page and press Sign in the TV.

Phone videos are filed into home movies by year and month a few days after they come in, so they play on the TV too.

Back up to USB drives

The safe rule for photos is 3-2-1: 3 copies, on 2 kinds of storage, with 1 away from home. The Hearth's own drives are the first copy. Home's 3-2-1 backup line counts the others and says what would finish it.

1. If the Backup page says USB copies aren't switched on, press Switch on USB copies (once per Hearth).
2. Plug a USB drive into the Hearth. The first time, prepare it on the Backup page: choose drive 1 or 2, readable or encrypted, type ERASE and press Prepare.
3. Press I've plugged in my drive. The first copy takes hours; later ones copy only what's new.
4. When Home says safe to unplug, take it somewhere else: a relative's house or work. Press It's kept away from home on its line.

Bring each drive back and plug it in at least once a month. A drive left plugged in is brought up to date each night.

Turn on the off-site backup

The off-site backup copies everything, encrypted, to Backblaze every night. On the Backup page, under Off-site backup, follow the three steps, then press Turn on the off-site backup. The Hearth shows your encryption key once: save it in your password manager or print it. Without it nobody can read the backup, not even The Picture Org. The backup can't be wiped by ransomware: the Hearth's own key can add to it but not delete from it.

Keep the collection tidy

• Keep it, but not on the Lanterns: in Immich, select the photos and choose Archive.
• Receipts and screenshots: search Immich for "receipt" or "document", select what it finds, and Archive them in one go.
• Remove a photo from the family archive: on the Phones page, tick Can remove photos for the people you trust with it. They get a Remove from archive album in Immich. Photos added to it leave the archive that night and wait 30 days under Removed photos on the Photos page, where Undo puts them back.

Add a Lantern or another town

• A dedicated Lantern (best, an Android phone or tablet): install Fully Kiosk Browser from Google Play and open it. In Fully, open Settings > Remote Administration, turn on Enable Remote Administration and Remote Admin from Local Network, and set a password. On the Lanterns page of the Hearth app, under A dedicated Lantern, type that password, press Find it, then Make it a Lantern. The phone shows the Lantern full screen, stays on, and comes back by itself when it restarts. Fully's Remote Admin needs a Fully PLUS license for the phone (a small one-time fee); without it Fully shows a watermark.
• A Lantern on any other screen (an iPad, a computer, a TV's browser): on the Lanterns page, under A Lantern on any other screen, press Show the setup link and open it once on that screen, or point the screen's camera at the QR code under it. Keep that link and code private. Then name the Lantern after its room. On an iPad, tap Share > Add to Home Screen, and to keep it on the photos turn on Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access and triple-click the top (or Home) button with the Lantern open.
• A Portal: once Fully is on it (your installer does that), turn on Remote Admin the same way, then on the Lanterns page press Find it and choose Photos when idle (a Portal). It keeps Google Home and shows the Lantern after 5 minutes untouched. After secure names are set up, do this once more so each screen gets the new link.
• A phone or tablet as a Lantern, without Fully: open the setup link on it, then in Chrome open the menu and choose Add to Home screen (or Install app). The Lantern gets its own icon; if it ever closes, tap the icon to bring it back. Tap once and it fills the screen.
• Photos that don't fill the screen (a tall photo on a TV) slide slowly from one side to the other while they show.
• After secure names are set up, each Lantern moves itself to its https address the next time it checks in, once that address works from that screen.
• Show the family calendar on a Lantern: in Settings, under Family calendar, paste the calendar's private address (Google Calendar: Settings > the calendar > Secret address in iCal format; Outlook: Settings > Calendar > Shared calendars > Publish a calendar, then the ICS link) and press Save. Then on the Lanterns page tick Show the calendar beside each Lantern that should show it. The next two appointments show under the clock as Coming up, just the time and the title.
• How photos move: in Settings, under Lanterns, choose a gentle zoom, Ken Burns (a slow zoom and drift toward one part of each photo), or still.
• A screen that has to sit upside down (its power cord, or a device that can't turn its picture): tick Upside down beside it on the Lanterns page.
• Two photos side by side: tick Two photos side by side beside a Lantern on the Lanterns page. A wide photo starts filling its half, then slowly zooms out to show all of it. Each pair stays twice the usual time.
• A Lantern's own time on screen: choose it beside the Lantern on the Lanterns page, or keep The usual time on screen from Settings.
• Connect the Nest doorbells: in Settings, under Doorbells, follow Google's four one-time steps on a computer (a Google Cloud project, its consent screen, an OAuth client, and Google's Device Access project, which has a one-time US$5 fee), type the four values they give you and press Next: sign in to Google. Open Google's sign-in, allow everything, and paste the address of the google.com page you end up on, then press Connect. Enter the topic it shows in the Device Access Console, tick which doorbells should also react when someone's seen at the door, and optionally add the doorbell's camera page and the Portals that switch to it. Then ring the doorbell.
• A Lantern in another town: on the Lanterns page, under Towns, press Add a town, set where it is and its tide station, and choose it in that Lantern's Town list.

Update the Hearth

When The Picture Org sends a new version, go to Settings, then Update the Hearth, press Choose the update zip and pick it. The Hearth checks that The Picture Org signed it and that nothing in it was changed, then shows a green line. Press Install it. It takes 5 to 15 minutes, and the page carries on by itself.

• To hear when a new version is out, tick Check memoryembers.com once a day for a new version. It sends nothing about your family. Home then shows a note with See what's new, and Settings has Install it, which fetches the new version, checks it the same way and installs it.
• Settings lists What's new in each newer version before you install it.
• To have new versions install by themselves overnight, also tick Install new versions by themselves, overnight.

Settings

• Lanterns: seconds per photo, how long new phone photos count as "Just in", how often the tides and the sun take turns, the music (from the photo's year, one playlist, or off), its hours and volume, and the night hours. Changes reach every Lantern within half a minute. Back to the values from setup undoes them.
• Phone photos: whether phone photos are copied or moved into the family archive, and how many days the Hearth waits first.
• Family legacy page: a legacy contact, where the Hearth is kept and where the passwords are. Open the legacy page to print adds what the Hearth knows, never a password or key.
• Update the Hearth: see Update the Hearth.
• Setup checklist: for whoever sets up the Hearth, and the family name shown in the greeting.
• The Hearth as an app: once secure names are on, Home offers Install the Hearth app (Chrome and Edge) so it gets its own icon and window. On an iPhone or iPad, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
• Secure names: on the Setup page, type the enrolment code from The Picture Org and press Set up secure names. After a few minutes the Hearth app, the Lanterns and Immich have addresses with a padlock (like https://hearth.<name>:9443; port 9443 leaves 443 to Unraid's own page and 8443 to Tailscale), and music, videos and Unraid's own page do too (music.<name>, videos.<name>, server.<name>), shown on the same card. A phone Lantern can then be installed as an app from Chrome's menu. The old addresses keep working.
• Shut down the Hearth: before moving it or a power cut you know is coming. Turn it back on with its power button.

What Home checks

Home checks the photo library, the music, the Lanterns, room on the Hearth, the off-site backup, each USB drive, how close you are to 3-2-1, phone filing, each person's phone, the drives' health, and any warning about the drives or the battery backup. See details lists each line. Things not set up yet are a reminder, not a warning.

The Backup page's Drive health card shows each drive's health, age and temperature. Plan on replacing a drive after about 5 years. Once a year Home reminds you of the Yearly review, which takes about 10 minutes.

Troubleshooting

Help

In the Hearth app, go to Home, then Help, then Collect logs. Send to The Picture Org shows exactly what will go, and gives you a reference to mention if you call. Keys, passwords, photos and music are never included. With a service contract, Let them help for 24 hours lets The Picture Org look at the Hearth's health, never your photos or music; it turns itself off after 24 hours.

Appendix: What's new

0.49.1 · November 13, 2026

• On your installer's Docker page, the secure names part shows its own padlock icon instead of a blank one.

0.49.0 · November 13, 2026

• A new Hearth can be set up with one command, run by your installer on the server: it sets up Immich, music, home movies (if wanted), the Lanterns and the Hearth app in order, says what to do in a browser between them, and carries on where it stopped if a part needs fixing.
• For your installer, to try: the Lanterns page can make the QR code that sets up a reset Android phone or tablet as a Lantern, installing Fully on it as the phone's owner and joining the home Wi-Fi (open the Lanterns page with #reset-phone at the end of its address). The code is drawn in the browser; the Wi-Fi password isn't sent to the Hearth or kept.

0.48.0 · November 13, 2026

• The Nest doorbells can be connected from the Hearth app: Doorbells in Settings walks through Google's one-time steps, the sign-in, and which doorbells also react when someone's seen at the door. It can also set the doorbell's camera page and the Portals that switch to it. Before, this needed a command on the server. Google's sign-in and the passwords stay on the Hearth and aren't shown again.
• A Lantern can show two photos side by side: tick Two photos side by side beside it on the Lanterns page. A wide photo starts filling its half, then slowly zooms out to show all of it. Each pair stays twice the usual time, so the zoom finishes.
• Each Lantern can have its own time on screen, chosen beside it on the Lanterns page, or keep the usual time from Settings.

Earlier versions: see the release notes.

Appendix: License and credits

© 2026 The Picture Org LLC. MemoryEmbers is a trademark of The Picture Org LLC. The Hearth uses Unraid, Immich, Navidrome, Jellyfin and Tailscale, each under its own license.