Do you have an old iPad lying around that you no longer use? Instead of letting it collect dust, why not turn it into a digital photo frame? With the right product, you can easily display your favorite photos and memories on a beautiful screen. In this article, we’ll show you how to turn an old iPad into a digital photo frame.
Step 1: Choose Your Style
To turn your old iPad into a digital photo frame, you’ll need a product that can inconspicuously hold your iPad. One option is the iPad Mini Picture Frame, which is designed specifically for this purpose. It’s easy to use and doesn’t require any special technical knowledge and it’s the product that I personally used for the purpose of this article.
You’ll want to be sure that you choose the right size frame for your iPad. The iPad mini has a 7.9in viewable screen. The following image shows how you can measure your screen to determine the right frame size needed for your specific iPad.
Step 2: Install Your iPad
Once you’ve received your digital photo frame, you’ll need to install your iPad into the frame itself. The following image shows how the iPad fits inside the frame along with the charging cable, which was included with the frame that I had purchased.
Step 3: Configure Your iPad
To ensure that your iPad stays on and doesn’t go into sleep mode, you’ll need to configure the device settings. Go to “Settings” and select “Display & Brightness.” Then, set “Auto-Lock” to “Never.” This will prevent your iPad from turning off after a certain period of inactivity.
In addition, one of the biggest complaints about this specific digital photo frame is that it covers up the home button so that you are no longer able to interact with the device itself. However, I consider this a feature because then the iPad truly becomes a digital photo frame.
There’s a secret trick to actually enable a digital home button that appears on the screen itself. To enable this feature, you’ll need to go to “Settings” and select “General”. Then, navigate to “Accessibility” and choose “AssistiveTouch”. Toggle the “AssistiveTouch” to be enabled.
Then a little digital button will appear on your screen. You can move this button around wherever you like by simply dragging it to another location on the screen.
Then, you can tap the button and a bunch of options will appear, including a digital version of the home button. Now you have the same functionality as you did before except it’s even better because it looks like a super fancy digital photo frame!
Step 4: Add Photos to the Library
To display your photos on the digital photo frame, you’ll need to add them to an album in the Photo library. You can choose to save your photos to the device itself or you can create a shared album and have new photos automatically appear inside your new digital photo frame whenever you add photos to the shared album from your phone.
For this example, we will assume that you already have some photos on the device. First, you’ll need to go to your Photos app and tap on the “Albums” tab. Then find the “+” icon to create a new album and name it anything you want.
Once you have created an album, tap on your newly created album to add some photos.
Pro Tip: If you intend on placing your photo frame in either landscape or portrait, then prefer photos that are of the same orientation. Otherwise, you might have black bars or some photos may appear to be cutoff depending on the type of slideshow you choose.
Step 5: Start the Slideshow
Once you’ve added your photos to an album, you can start the slideshow from within the album. Select the ellipsis and choose the “Start Slideshow” option. Then, sit back and enjoy your photos. You can customize the slideshow settings to adjust the timing and transition effects.
Conclusion
With the iPad Mini Picture Frame and your old iPad, you can easily turn your device into a beautiful digital photo frame. Don’t let your old iPad go to waste – turn it into something useful and enjoyable. Here is a picture showcasing how my efforts turned out!
If you like some of the items pictured above, I have included links to them below:
