Tour of the Permanent Mobile App
With the Permanent mobile app for Android and iOS, we've made it easier to preserve your most cherished and important photos and files directly from your mobile device. Below is an introduction to the Permanent mobile app, which highlights important features of your Permanent Account and Archive such as your Account Menu, Archive Menu, Archive Workspaces, File Preview, File Action Menu, and Search. If you have any questions as you get started with Permanent, please reach out to us at support@permanent.org and we would be happy to assist you.
Getting Started
A Permanent Archive is the collection of digital records to be preserved forever that are the legal property of an individual, family or organizational identity represented in the associated profile or have been legally released by that individual or others into the public commons. With a Permanent account, you can have as many archives as you want.
When you create your Permanent.org account and log into the mobile app, you will land in your first archive, in the Private Workspace (we'll talk more about Workspaces below). You can tell which workspace you're in by looking at the name of the workspace at the top of the screen. From your Private Workspace, you can access the main areas of your account and archive: the Account Menu, the Archive Menu, File or Folder Actions, the Upload Menu, and Search. We'll walk through each of those menus and features in the rest of the article.
Account Menu
Your Account Menu is accessible regardless of which archive you are currently working in, and contains settings and actions for your Permanent account. You can find your Account Menu by tapping the gear icon in the top right corner of your screen.
The Account Menu includes the following information and menu options:
- Storage Status Bar: view the amount of storage you have for your account (which you can use across any archive you are a member of and have the appropriate upload permissions for) and the amount of storage you have used.
- Account: Edit or add the account name, primary email, mobile phone number, and address for your Permanent account
- Activity Feed: View notifications for your account, such as share and archive member requests
- Archives: view the archives you are a member of, switch archives, delete archives, and create new archives
- Invitations: send and view invitations to friends, family members, and colleagues to join Permanent
- Security: Change your account password and change whether you wish to log into your Permanent account with Face ID or passcode
- Log Out: log out of your Permanent.org account
Archive Menu
You can tell what archive you are in by opening the Archive Menu. To open your Archive Menu, click the hamburger menu icon (the icon with three solid lines) in the top left corner of your screen
This menu is where you can edit your archive profile, change which workspace you are working in, and and manage the members of that archive.
Archive Profile and Public Archive
At the top of this menu is your archive's name and the profile photo for your archive. You can access your Archive Profile below the archive name. Your Archive Profile is where you can add descriptions and metadata about this archive, as well as change or add a profile photo or banner.
You can also toggle from your Archive Profile to your Public Archive by tapping Public Archive at the top of your screen. Your Public Archive is a gallery of your materials that is publicly available for anyone on the internet to view.
Archive Workspaces
Underneath your archive's name are the three Archive Workspaces in your archive. These workspaces are separate spaces, similar to drives or folders on your computer, that separate the private and public spaces of your archive. The workspace you are currently working in is highlighted purple in this menu and is labeled at the top of the workspace.
Private Workspace
The Private workspace is the workspace where you can store the files in this archive that you wish to keep private and not publish to the Public Archive. You can upload files directly to the archive's Private workspace, then organize them and add metadata.
Shared Files Workspace
The Shared Files Workspace is where you can view any files or folders that have been shared from another archive to this archive, as well as files or folders you have shared from this archive with another archive. Sharing files and folders with another archive can be helpful if a part of another archive is relevant to this archive.
You can toggle between the files shared with this archive and the files shared by this archive by tapping either Shared By Me or Shared With Me at the top of your workspace.
Sharing happens between two archives, and not between two accounts. Learn more about the difference between an account and an archive here.
For instance, if I have created an archive for my great grandmother, Eliza Federspill Pennington, and an archive for the Pennington Family, I may want to share some photographs in Eliza's archive with the Pennington Family Archive so that people who are members of the Pennington Family Archive can view those photographs as well.
Public Workspace
The Public Workspace is the workspace where you can store files that you wish to publish to the archive's Public Archive. You can upload files directly to the Public Workspace, or you can move or publish files from your My Files workspace to the Public Workspace. Learn more about publishing to your archive's Public Archive here.
Any files and information, including metadata you have added to your files, will be publicly available in the archive's Public Archive if it resides in the Public Workspace. Learn more about Public Archives here.
Upload and Create Folders
The orange plus (+) button in the lower right corner of your screen is the Upload and Create Folder button. You can upload files directly into your Private and Public workspaces, as well as create additional folders to organize your materials. You can learn more about uploading files in the mobile app and organizing your materials here.
Manage Members
Manage Members is where you can add and remove members from your archive, as well as change their access role to the archive. You can learn more about Access Roles by clicking the information symbol next to each Access Role or in this help article.
File Preview
You can open a preview of the files in your archive by tapping on the file. Within the File Preview, you can view your file, as well as the metadata associated with the file, and share the file.
Some files may not be available to view in the mobile app. You can learn more about file types that we support for viewing within Permanent here.
To view and edit the metadata associated with a file or folder within the preview, tap the information icon at the top of the screen. This will reveal the metadata fields below the file preview in the Info Tab, where you can tap in each field to edit the information within it.
Toggle between the Info tab to the Details tab by tapping Details to view the creation, upload, and modification dates for the file.
You can also share the file in this preview by tapping the three dots in the top right corner of your screen. This will open a window with two options:
- Share via Permanent: generates a link to share the selected file with another Permanent archive
- Share to Another App: share to another application on your phone, such as text messages or social media, or copy or save the image to your device
File or Folder Action Menu
Regardless of which workspace you are working in, you can find actions you can take on a file or folder by tapping the three dots next to the file.
A new menu will appear at the bottom of your workspace.
The File Action Menu includes the following buttons for actions you can take on the file or folder:
- Download: download a copy of the file (only available for files)
- Copy: choose where in your archive to create a copy of this file or folder
- Move: move the selected file or folder into another folder or workspace
- Delete: permanently delete the selected file or folder
- Rename: rename the file or folder
- Publish: publish the selected file or folder to the archive's Public Archive. This creates a second copy of the file or folder in the Public Workspace
- Share via Permanent: generates a link to share the selected file or folder with another Permanent archive
- Share to Another App: share to another application on your phone, such as text messages or social media, or copy or save the image to your device (only available for files)
Depending on what your access level of the archive is, some buttons in the File Action Menu may not be shown. This indicates that you do not have permission to perform that action on the file or folder. Learn more about roles and permissions here.
Search
To search within your current archive, click the magnifying glass icon in the top right corner of your screen. You can search by keyword or narrow down by tags.
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