# Content and playlists > Upload photos, videos and PDFs to ScreenTinker, put them in a playlist, set how long each one shows, publish it and put it on a screen or a group of screens. Source: https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-content-playlists ## Content and playlists Everything a screen shows starts in your Content Library: the photos, videos and PDFs you upload. You put them in a playlist, the running order a screen loops through, and set how long each one stays up. Then you publish the playlist and give it to a screen or a whole group of screens. This guide covers uploading, the Content Library, building a playlist, and the one step people most often miss: **Publish**. If you only want to put a few photos on a screen, the [Simple view](#simple) does it in three clicks and publishes for you. ### Before you start - **The Content and Playlists pages are in Advanced view.** New accounts start in Simple view. Switch with the **Simple / Advanced** buttons at the top of the menu. - **Every change to a playlist is a draft.** Screens keep showing the last published version until you press **Publish**. See [Publish your changes](#publish). ### Upload content - Choose **Content** in the sidebar, under **Publish**. This is the **Content Library**. - Press **Add content**. - Drop your files on **Upload files**, or click **browse files**. You can pick many at once. - Watch the **Uploads** panel. Each file goes from **Uploading** to **Processing** to **Ready**. If your connection drops, you are asked **Resume the upload?** when you come back. Add content: drop files at the top, or connect a source such as YouTube or a live stream. You can also drag files straight onto the Content Library page. **Destination** at the bottom of the window picks the folder the files go into. #### What you can upload - **Images:** JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, WebP, AVIF, HEIC and SVG. - **Video:** MP4, WebM, OGV, AVI, MOV and MKV. MP4 (H.264) plays on the most screens; see [a video will not play](https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-troubleshooting.html#video). - **Audio:** MP3, M4A, OGA, WAV and FLAC. - **PDF:** each page becomes an image, in a folder and a playlist named after the PDF. - **HTML bundles:** a .zip of a web page and its files. ScreenTinker checks what is really inside each file, not just its name. A file it cannot recognise is refused. The other tiles add things that are not files: **Media URL** (a picture or video hosted on another website), **YouTube**, **Live stream** (an .m3u8 or rtsp:// address), **ONVIF camera** and **HDMI input** (only on Android boxes with an HDMI input, such as the Fire TV Cube). **Google / Microsoft** adds a document or presentation as a widget, not as a library file. #### Size and storage limits Two limits apply: one for a single file, and one for everything you have uploaded together. - **One file:** if a file is too big, the upload fails with "That file is larger than the … MB limit for a single upload", which tells you the limit. - **All your files:** each plan includes a set amount of storage. When it is full, uploads stop with "Storage limit reached". Delete files you no longer use (the **Unused** list helps), or move to a larger plan. On the hosted service The Free plan includes 500 MB of storage; paid plans include more (see the pricing page). **Subscription** in the menu shows how much **Storage** you have used. **Media URL** is not on every plan; where it is missing, the tile shows a Pro label. Your uploads are stored by ScreenTinker, and screens download them from ScreenTinker. On a self-hosted server By default every account is on the Enterprise plan, which has no storage limit, so the only limit is your server's disk. A single file can be up to 500 MB unless whoever runs the server changes it (the `MAX_FILE_SIZE` setting). Uploads are kept on the server's own disk, in its `uploads` folder, unless it has been set up to keep them in S3-compatible or Azure storage. Either way, screens fetch files through your server. ### Find your way round the Content Library The Content Library. Each card says whether the file is ready and how many playlists use it. - **Search by name or tag**, and narrow the list by type, status (**Any status**) and usage (**Used or unused**). The buttons next to the sort list switch between grid and list view. - **Folders:** press **New folder** on the left. To move files, use **Move to folder…**. Deleting a folder moves the files in it back to the top level, the **Library root**. - **The … menu on each card** has **Open details**, **Full preview**, **Edit details…** (name, folder, **Tags**, expiry date, replace the file), **Add to playlist…**, **Move to folder…**, **Set expiry date…** and **Delete…**. - **Tick several cards** to add, move, tag or delete them all at once. Deleting a file that is in use takes it out of every playlist, wall and schedule that uses it, and the screens are updated. The delete window tells you how many of the files are in use first. It cannot be undone. ### Make a playlist - Choose **Playlists** in the sidebar, under **Publish**. - Press **+ New Playlist**, type a **Playlist name** and, if you like, a **Description (optional)**. - Press **Create**. The new playlist opens, empty. The list may also show playlists tagged **auto**. ScreenTinker makes these when you add content to a screen directly, from its page or from the Simple view. Untick **Show auto-generated** to hide them. A playlist with unpublished changes is tagged **draft**. ### Add, order and time the items - In the playlist, press **+ Add Content**. The **Add Content to Playlist** window lists your library. Press **Add** next to each item you want, or tick several and press the button that appears (for example **Add 3 selected**), then **Close**. The **Widgets** and **Playlists** tabs add a widget or a whole other playlist. - **Put them in order:** drag a row up or down, or use the arrows (**Move up**, **Move down**) at the right of each row. To sort the whole list once, pick an option in **Sort**, such as **Name (A-Z)**, and press **Apply order**. - **Set how long each shows:** type the seconds in the item's **Duration** box. - When it looks right, press **Publish**. + Add Content: press Add on each item, then Close. New items get a sensible duration to start with: 10 seconds for a photo or widget, the clip's own length for a video or audio file, and 5 minutes for a live stream. A YouTube item also has **Play to end**, which moves on when the video finishes. The other controls on each row: - **From** and **To**: a date and time window. Outside it, the screen skips the item. Leave them empty for "always". - The clock icon (**Schedule**) limits the item to certain days and hours, such as weekdays 7 to 11 am. The [scheduling guide](https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-scheduling.html#item-schedules) explains it. - The other icons replace the item with different content, duplicate it, and remove it. Above the list, **Order** plays the items **In order**, in a **Shuffle**, or as **Weighted random** (each item then gets a **Weight**). Tick several rows to change them together with the buttons above the list, for example **Duration** or **Delete**. **Transition** there plays a transition into the ticked items, once your workspace has transition widgets (see [widgets, layouts and transitions](https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-widgets-layouts-transitions.html)). **Add hold screen** adds a pause step: a blank screen or the last frame frozen, for 1 to 86400 seconds. ### Publish your changes As soon as you change a playlist, an orange **Unpublished changes** banner appears at the top. Your screens carry on showing the last published version until you press **Publish**. Then they get the new version, and you see "Playlist published — devices updated". A new item has been added, so the playlist is a draft. The screens still show the old three items until Publish is pressed. - **Discard Changes** throws away everything since the last publish and puts the playlist back as it was. - If the banner says "This playlist has never been published. Devices will show nothing until you publish.", a screen given this playlist shows "Waiting for content..." until you publish, or its **Default Content** picture if it has one (see [The screen says "Waiting for content..."](https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-troubleshooting.html#waiting)). - The same banner, with **Publish**, also appears on the screen's own page when the playlist it plays has unpublished changes. - Adding files from the Content Library with **Add to playlist…** also leaves a draft: "Screens show it once you publish the playlist." Nothing changes until you press Publish This is the most common reason a screen "ignores" a change. Edits, new items, durations and item schedules all wait in the draft. If your workspace reviews changes before they go out, **Publish** sends the playlist for review instead, and screens keep the live version until it is approved. ### Put a playlist on a screen or a group The playlist page shows how many screens use it ("Assigned to 1 display"), but you choose the playlist from the screen or the group: - **One screen:** open the screen from **Screens**, choose the **Playlist** tab and pick the playlist in the **Playlist** list. It changes straight away ("Playlist changed"). - **A group:** on the **Screens** page, pick the playlist in **Set Playlist...** on the group's bar and confirm. Every screen in the group gets it. Playlists with unpublished changes are marked "(draft)"; the screens get the published version. A screen's Playlist tab. "Set for this screen" means it was chosen here, not passed down from its group. A playlist chosen on the screen itself wins over its group's. **Use inherited** hands the choice back to the group. A schedule can swap in a different playlist at set times; see [Scheduling content on your screens](https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-scheduling.html). ### In Simple view If you stay in Simple view, you never see a draft: these two tasks on the home page publish for you. - **Change what a screen shows:** pick the screen, then choose **Replace what it shows now** or **Add to what it shows now**. Drop new photos or videos, or pick some under **Or pick from your photos and videos** and press **Show selected**. Or pick a screen under **Or show the same as another screen** and press **Use this**. - **Upload photos:** choose your files, then tick the screens under **Which screens should show it?** and press **Show on these screens**. Untick every screen to just keep the files for later. Change what a screen shows, in Simple view. It publishes for you. **Replace** never edits a playlist other screens share: the screen gets its own list. **Add** adds to the playlist the screen plays now, so if other screens play the same playlist, they get the new items too (the page tells you which). Simple view publishes the whole playlist If someone has unfinished changes to that playlist in Advanced view, **Add to what it shows now** publishes them too, together with your new items. ### FAQ #### I changed a playlist but the screen still shows the old one. Open the playlist. If the **Unpublished changes** banner is there, press **Publish**. If not, open the screen and check which playlist its **Playlist** tab shows, and whether a schedule is running (the **Preview at…** tab tells you). #### Can one file be in several playlists? Yes. The file is stored once, and each card in the library shows how many playlists use it. Changing an item's duration in one playlist does not change it in the others. #### Can a screen play two playlists at once? Not on the full screen: a screen plays one playlist at a time. To show several things side by side, use a layout with zones; see [Layouts and zones](https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-layouts-zones.html). You can also add one playlist inside another with the **Playlists** tab of **+ Add Content**. #### My upload was refused. Check the message in the **Uploads** panel. It is usually the file size limit, a full storage allowance, or a file type ScreenTinker does not accept (see [What you can upload](#formats)). ### Try it on your own screens Start a 14-day Pro trial on hosted ScreenTinker: up to 15 screens, every feature, no credit card. [Start your free trial](https://screentinker.com/app#/login) Or host it yourself, free and open source: [self-hosting guide](https://screentinker.com/guides/self-hosted-digital-signage.html) · [GitHub](https://github.com/screentinker/screentinker) ### Related guides - [Getting started](https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-getting-started.html) - [Layouts and zones](https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-layouts-zones.html) - [Groups and video walls](https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-groups-video-walls.html) - [Scheduling content on your screens](https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-scheduling.html) - [Widgets, layouts and transitions](https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-widgets-layouts-transitions.html) - [All guides](https://screentinker.com/guides/)