Help with Panosphera.

Questions, bugs, or feature requests: support@panosphera.app. We read every message.

Getting started

Panosphera requires iOS 27 on iPhone, iPadOS 27 on iPad, or macOS 27 on the Mac.

• Allow access to your Photos library when asked. Panosphera then sorts out the 360° photos, 360° videos, and panoramas from the rest of your library on its own.
• The Library shows 360° items and panoramas by default. Choose Show ▸ All Media from the view options to see everything.
• In the viewer, drag to look around, or move your phone. Pinch to zoom. Double-tap to re-center.

Importing from a 360° camera

• Choose Import 360° Files from the Library's view options (on the Mac, File ▸ Import 360° Files, or drop the files on the window). Each file is checked before anything is written and the sheet says what it found.
• Any 360° camera that saves ordinary photo and video files works: Insta360, GoPro Max, Ricoh Theta, and others. Export the stitched file from the camera's own app, then bring it in.
• Camera-native files (.insv, .insp, .360, .lrv) are not imported: they hold unstitched footage only the camera's own app can flatten. Export a stitched file from that app first.

Sharing

Open a 360° photo or video and tap Share. The screen has three groups, and one row starts selected so Share is one tap.

• Keep it 360°. Link, on iPhone and iPad, sends a web address anyone can open in a browser to look around, no app needed. The photo or video is stored in your own iCloud, not with us; the link stops after 30 days, or at once with Stop Sharing in Settings ▸ Shared Links.
• Make it flat makes a picture or video that plays anywhere. Photo is what is on screen, in the shape you choose. Video pans across the scene: Panosphera looks for people and landmarks and moves between them, and turns the scene for you if it finds none. Little Planet folds the whole scene into a disc, turning or held still.
• More options. Original File sends the 360° itself, for apps and sites that show 360° and for anyone with a 360° viewer; anywhere else it shows as a stretched picture. The copy you share carries the 360° tag (added if the file had lost it) and none of the photo's location, camera, or owner details. Guided Clip records where you look while it plays.
• For a video, pick the shape (tall, square, or wide), the length, and the direction, then Render. Watch the preview, then Share, Adjust Settings, or Discard.

Orbit

• Orbit starts muted. Tap the speaker on the rail, or press either volume button, to hear a video.
• Double-tap a picture to favorite it.
• Press and hold a picture to hide it from Orbit. A hidden moment can be brought back in Settings ▸ Orbit.
• Orbit shows your whole library by default. The 360°/All switch on the card, or Settings ▸ Orbit ▸ Shows, limits it to 360° items.
• Orbit leads with moments from this day in past years when there are any.
• With Siri or the Shortcuts app: “Open Orbit,” “Show on this day,” and “Show me a moment from” a place.
• On the Mac, Orbit is in the toolbar (⌘2) and steps with the arrow keys or the scroll wheel.

On iPhone Duo

• Library, Orbit, and Explore sit in Apple's side strip, closed and open in landscape; held upright they return to the bottom. Open the phone and the Library and Explore become a book: the picture on the left page, the list on the right, with the picture's own buttons down its outer edge.
• Bent sideways, a 360° wraps across both halves. Bent upright, like a laptop, the picture stands on the top half and the whole scene lies flat on the bottom half: drag the map or tap a spot to turn the picture, and pinch to zoom. In Orbit, a 360° card lays its scene flat on the lower half the same way, any other card has the next moment waiting there, and a flick anywhere on it moves on.
• Tent Mode is under press-and-hold on an Orbit moment: prop the phone bent on a table and it turns slowly through your moments with the time. Tap to bring back the heart, next, and close buttons; pick the phone up to leave.

Settings and help

Settings is the gear beside the filter button in the Library (on the Mac, Panosphera ▸ Settings). Tips, Report a Problem, and Show Introduction are under Settings ▸ Help; on the Mac, Tips is in the Help menu.

Captions

Captions appear on videos that contain speech, transcribed on the device. The CC button hides or shows them. The first use downloads a language model from Apple; after that it works offline.

Common questions

• A 360° photo shows as flat. Panosphera recognizes a 360° two ways: by the tag the camera writes into the file, and by the picture's shape (a full 360° is exactly twice as wide as it is tall). A photo re-saved by another app can lose its tag; if it is still twice as wide as tall, it opens as a sphere.
• Music stopped when a video played. Playing a video with sound pauses your music, as any video player does. Muted videos and the rest of the app leave your music alone.
• Where was this taken? Choose Get Info on a photo or video that carries a location to see it on a map; tap the map to open it in Maps. Scenes and places in Explore show the same map on their page.
• Explore's full screen keeps showing places I do not care for. Tap Not for Me: it hides that place and shows fewer like it. Bring hidden places back in Settings ▸ Explore.
• Where do exported clips go? To the share sheet. Save to Photos, Files, Messages, or any app that accepts video.

Contact

Email support@panosphera.app. Tell us which device and which version of iOS, iPadOS, or macOS you are on, and what you were doing when it went wrong.