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Set up the iPad for an event

Written by PixoShare Support

Set up the iPad once, connect it to your PixoShare PC or to PixoShare Cloud, and your guests can send themselves their photos.

Set up the app

  1. Get PixoShare - Sharing Station from the App Store. It runs on any iPad with iPadOS 15.1 or later, in landscape.

  2. Open it, tap Get started, and pick PixoShare PC or PixoShare Cloud. You can switch later with the tabs on the pairing screen.

  3. On Exit PIN (optional), tap Set a PIN so only staff can leave the station (staff leave with a triple-tap in the top-left corner). Set one for any event open to the public.

  4. Tap Connect this iPad.

Connect to your PixoShare PC

The iPad and the PC must be on the same Wi-Fi. Venue Wi-Fi often blocks devices from seeing each other, so bring your own router or hotspot (see Wi-Fi and internet at your event: router, speed and setup).

  1. On the PC, choose your event and click Start event. The iPad only finds a PC whose event is running.

  2. On the iPad's PixoShare PC tab, tap Allow when iPadOS asks to "find and connect to devices on your local network".

  3. Tap your PC's name and enter its 4-digit Local sharing PIN (on the PC: Settings → Online mode → Local sharing PIN).

The guest gallery opens, and the event is chosen on the PC. Change the PC's PIN from the one it came with, and click Save settings. Changing it later signs every iPad out.

PixoShare Settings on the PC, Online mode tab, with the Local sharing PIN (a sample PIN here) and the Save settings button marked

iPad can't find your PC? See iPad: connect to your PixoShare PC (and what to do when it can't find it).

Or connect with PixoShare Cloud

The iPad only needs internet. It shows the photos already uploaded to your event, so new photos take a little longer to show up.

1. In your dashboard, open Devices and click Pair New Device.

The dashboard's Devices page, with Devices in the sidebar and the Pair New Device button marked

2. On the iPad's PixoShare Cloud tab, type the 6-character code. It lasts 5 minutes.
​3. Under Select an Event, tap your event. Only today's published events are listed. Missing? Check its dates and that it's published, then pull down to refresh.

Guests can't print from a Cloud iPad. If your PC runs the event with Auto print on, the PC still prints every photo (see Printing: set up your printer, and print with more than one, section 8).

Checklist before guests arrive

  • Every iPad charged and plugged in, with Auto-Lock set to Never (iPad Settings → Display & Brightness), showing the right event's guest gallery.

  • An exit PIN set, for an event open to the public.

  • A test photo sent to your own phone with each sharing method the event uses.

  • With a PixoShare PC: the iPad on the same Wi-Fi as the PC, the event started on the PC, and a test print if printing is on.

  • With PixoShare Cloud: internet on the iPad, and the event's photos uploading, from your PC or the dashboard.

Good to know

  • Keep guests in the app with Apple's Guided Access (see Stuck in the sharing station? How to exit). If you use it, also set Settings → Accessibility → Guided Access → Display Auto-Lock to keep the screen on for your event.

  • The buttons guests see and the station's look are set on the event's Branding step in the dashboard, not on the iPad.

  • Storage: very little. PixoShare doesn't add event photos to the iPad's Photos library.

  • Texts and emails go out over the internet. With a PixoShare PC, they wait on the PC while it's offline (see Do I need internet at my event? What works offline).

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