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AutoIngest/QUICKSTART.md

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Quick Start

AutoIngest — running in under 5 minutes. A Windows tray tool that moves photos off a camera, SD card, USB reader, or phone into a dated folder, converts them to JPG, and applies your branding. Built for ecommerce sellers.

1. Build

Prerequisite (build machine only)

Visual Studio 2022 with the .NET desktop development workload, or the .NET 8 SDK standalone. Windows 10/11.

Option A — Visual Studio

  1. Open AutoIngest.sln.
  2. Build → Build Solution (Ctrl+Shift+B).
  3. Output: AutoIngest\bin\Release\net8.0-windows\AutoIngest.exe.

Option B — Command line

cd AutoIngest
dotnet restore
dotnet build -c Release

2. Publish a single exe

Two profiles ship as scripts. Both produce a single self-contained AutoIngest.exe — pick the size/dependency trade-off.

Script Size Target PC needs
publish.bat ~15 MB .NET 8 Desktop Runtime (Win11 has it; Win10 may need it)
publish-standalone.bat ~150–200 MB Nothing. Runs on any Windows 10/11 PC. 
publish.bat             REM framework-dependent
publish-standalone.bat  REM self-contained (recommended for handing to a non-technical seller)

Output lands in publish\ or publish-standalone\.

3. Deploy

Copy AutoIngest.exe to the target PC. No installer, no admin rights. Put it anywhere the user can run it (Desktop, Downloads, anywhere).

4. First launch

  1. Double-click AutoIngest.exe. It starts in the system tray — no window opens.
  2. On a brand-new install (no config yet), a welcome wizard appears:
    • Skip for now — default settings, no branding. Get straight to importing.
    • Customize branding — enter store name / URL / handle, set a text or logo watermark, optionally embed EXIF copyright. A live preview shows the result. The tray icon renders your mark immediately on finish.
  3. The wizard runs exactly once. Reach branding later from the tray: Options ▸ Branding ▸ Edit branding….

5. Import photos

  1. Insert an SD card, USB reader, or phone.
  2. The first time a device connects, AutoIngest prompts: Register & Import (trusted forever), Import Once, or Ignore. A friend's device picks Ignore — it is never touched.
  3. Registered devices import silently on every future plug-in.
  4. A small toast pops into the bottom-right corner during import:
    • JPGs copy straight through.
    • RAW / HEIC / PNG / etc. convert to progressive JPG and the original is removed.
    • Same-day duplicates (size + SHA-256) skip automatically.
  5. Photos land in %USERPROFILE%\Pictures\YYYY-MM-DD\.

6. Tray menu

Right-click the tray icon for the menu:

Item Action
Show status Pop the toast to peek at the log
Open import folder Open today's Pictures\YYYY-MM-DD\ in Explorer
Settings… Device registry, retention, access-tracking
Reset drive memory Re-scan devices already seen this session
Options ▸ Auto-orient, Strip metadata, Delete from phone after import, Branding, Start with Windows
About Version, author, license
Exit Quit

Left-click the tray icon to toggle the toast.

7. Recommended first-run setup for a seller

  1. Complete the welcome wizard with the store name and a logo if available.
  2. Confirm Options ▸ Auto-orient and Options ▸ Strip metadata are on (defaults) — phones photos arrive right-way-up without leaking GPS.
  3. Options ▸ Start with Windows → on, so the seller never has to launch it.
  4. Plug in the seller's SD card → Register & Import. Done forever.

Troubleshooting

Problem Resolution
dotnet not found Install .NET 8 SDK.
Magick.NET restore fails Check internet; NuGet.org must be reachable.
Target PC says "missing runtime" Use publish-standalone.bat (self-contained).
SD card not detected Verify it mounts as a drive letter. Right-click tray → Show status for the log.
Phone not detected Unlock the phone and tap "Trust this PC." MTP enumeration needs an unlocked, trusted device.
Photos land in the wrong place Destination is %USERPROFILE%\Pictures\YYYY-MM-DD\. OneDrive redirection can move Pictures — check there too.
Branding not applying Branding applies to converted files only. JPGs that move straight through are byte-for-byte untouched.
Retention not firing Retention is off by default. Enable in Settings… and pick an age. The sweep runs on startup then daily.
"Delete from phone" log says "src kept" The phone driver did not honor the delete verb. The local copy is fine; the phone original remains. Re-run the import or delete manually.
"Photos disappeared" / need a record of what happened A persistent log lives at %LocalAppData%\AutoIngest\autoingest.log (with a .bak for the prior rotation). It records every import, retention sweep, and crash. Open it in Notepad.

Author: Jeremy Anderson — dcos.net — info@dcos.net License: MIT. See LICENSE.