Symptoms: a moderator approves a photo, but it doesn’t appear on the wall. Or the wall is showing the same images it was showing 10 minutes ago even though uploads are coming in.
This is almost always a problem at the display device, not at the platform. Walk this checklist in order.
1. Is the wall paused?
The most common cause, and the most embarrassing to discover.
Check: From the admin dashboard (or your phone), see if the Pause wall button reads “Resume wall.” If so, you’re paused.
Fix: Click resume.
2. Is the display device still online?
The display might still be showing the last frame even though its internet connection has dropped — the photos are cached locally and the page doesn’t know it’s offline.
Check: On the display device, briefly open a new tab and load any website. If that fails, the device is offline.
Fix: Check the venue’s Wi-Fi or wired ethernet. If using Wi-Fi, switch to wired if possible. Once back online, refresh the wall page (F5 or Cmd+R).
3. Did the browser tab go background?
Browsers throttle background tabs. If the wall tab isn’t actively visible (another app on top, another tab in focus), it can stop updating.
Check: On the display device, click into the browser. Confirm the wall tab is the visible tab and the browser is the focused window.
Fix: Re-focus the wall tab. Press F11 (Windows) or Ctrl+Cmd+F (Mac) for full-screen, which prevents background-throttling.
4. Did full-screen mode exit?
When full-screen exits, browser chrome reappears and sometimes the wall layout reflows in a way that looks frozen.
Check: Is the URL bar visible?
Fix: Press F11 (Windows) or Ctrl+Cmd+F (Mac) to re-enter full-screen.
5. Refresh the page
If the first four checks pass and the wall is still frozen, refresh the page. The wall reconnects to the real-time stream on load and starts showing fresh photos immediately. The refresh interrupts the display for about 2 seconds.
Fix: F5 or Cmd+R on the display device.
6. The rare real-time-sync issue
Once in a while — usually under heavy load during a peak upload moment — the real-time connection between the display and our servers drops without the page noticing. The page thinks it’s still listening; the server doesn’t see it.
This is exactly the scenario that step 5 (refresh) fixes. If refreshing solves the problem, this was the cause.
If refreshing doesn’t solve the problem and steps 1-4 all pass, something is wrong on our end.
Fix: Email hello@fotowall.io with your event name and what you’ve already tried. We respond in under 15 minutes during business hours.
Preventing this
Three things during setup prevent ~95% of “wall not updating” reports:
- Use wired ethernet on the display device. Wi-Fi at the venue degrades as the room fills.
- Lock the browser into full-screen and prevent sleep. Cover this in Display the wall on a TV.
- Have the admin dashboard open on your phone. You can confirm the upload pipeline is healthy by checking the queue, even when the display looks stuck.
What to do next
- Display the wall on a TV at your venue for the full pre-event setup.
- Wall display goes blank or crashes for the more serious version of this problem.
- Pause and resume the wall so step 1 above is never a surprise.