Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers to common questions about ZenTransfer.
No matching questions found.
ZenTransfer is built for pro photographers to help them streamline their workflow. First and foremost, it is a Free Open Source Tool for photographers, available on GitHub for Macintosh and Windows. The app is supported by a cloud service for those that need easy FTP transfers from their pro cameras.
The ZenTransfer app works on MacOS and Windows. It lets you import images from your camera, organize the files into folders, transfer to cloud services, and make backup copies. You can upload to ZenTransfer for relay to multiple destinations (post-production or if your camera does not support FTP). It can also automatically download all files you send to ZenTransfer via FTP. Your editor can run the app on their laptop to have any shot you take on your camera instantly downloaded to a folder where they can cull, edit, and publish.
The ZenTransfer app for iPhone, iPad, and Android lets you upload files to ZenTransfer from your photo library. The app is useful for photographers that sometimes shoot with their phone, or use a camera with Bluetooth/WiFi but not FTP support. When the file is received by the ZenTransfer.io service, it will forward it to as many cloud drives, storage buckets, FTP servers, or email recipients as you configure/enable in the dashboard.
ZenTransfer.io is a cloud service that lets you send images straight from your camera to anyone or anything in the cloud through FTP. We hope to have enough users of ZenTransfer.io to ensure we have the funding we need to keep developing the free open source app.
You can use ZenTransfer to transfer files to secure storage locations, directly to your clients, via email or SMS, or post to social media or anything else you can dream of and is supported by Zapier. Post to Slack, Teams, Discord, add AI or whatever.
Yes, it can. Configure your camera to send all shots via FTP to ZenTransfer. Use the ZenTansfer Desktop App in Download mode on one or more editor workstations. Every file coming in to ZenTransfer will be automatically downloaded to the laptops. No more cables!
ZenTransfer.io is an a global network of FTP servers in the cloud. When you transfer a file to ZenTransfer.io, it will be temporarily stored in the cloud and notifications will be sent to all your connected services so that they can import the file. As long as your camera have a WiFi connection and FTP support, it will be able to reach ZenTransfer.io.
You can also download the ZenTransfer Desktop application for Macintosh and Windows and use it to send files to any number of recipients via ZenTransfer.io.
Photojournalists often deliver to their agencies via FTP. They can use ZenTransfer to easily deliver to multiple wire services simultaneously and ensure they secure their own backup at the same time. Freelancers can easily change which agencies they send to by reconfiguring ZenTransfer from a smartphone while on the move. Read more about ZenTransfer for Photojournalists here.
Sports photographers need to capture the action and be first with the news. Sending directly from the camera means you do not miss any of the action while the game is still on. Deliver straight to news agencies or your editor via FTP. Read more about ZenTransfer for sports photography here.
ZenTransfer.io can natively transmit files to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Lightroom, Amazon S3, GCP and Azure Blob Storage.
Yes. You can set up any number of FTP destinations in your ZenTransfer Dashboard. When you send a file via ZenTransfer, it will relay the file to all of the enabled FTP servers so that you can quickly deliver to multiple clients at once. You can turn destinations on and off using your smartphone while on the move.
Yes, you can create a distribution list in your dashboard. When you send a file to ZenTransfer, it will distribute the download link via email to all enabled email addresses. The file will be available for download for 24 hours.
Yes. You can create one or more metadata templates and easily toggle them on and off from your smartphone. Prepare the metadata before you go on location, and then any file you send will have the enabled templates applied. Or change the template from your smartphone.
The subscription is $3.75 per month and $0.025 per file transferred. As an example, if you transfer 500 files one month, the total cost will be $16.25, and then only 10 files the next month, the cost will be $4.00. Each destination you enable will count as one transfer, so if you transfer files to both Google Drive and Dropbox, that will be 2 transfers. Only successful transfers are billable events. If you have a consistenly high transfer volume you may benefit from our prepaid plans for predictable costs. See pricing details here.
ZenTransfer supports all cameras that can transfer files via FTP over WiFi. You can read more about supported cameras by clicking here.
When you connect to
ftp.zentransfer.ioyou will be routed to the server closest to your current location. We currently operate servers in Australia, Brazil, France, India, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. We are evaluating other locations continously and will respond to customer demand. Our edge nodes ensure world class upload speeds and global resilience.ZenTransfer supports FTP to ensure wide compatibility with old and new equipment. We are currently rolling out support for FTPS (explicit mode) on all our servers to ensure end-to-end transport encryption. Change your server to
ftps.zentransfer.ioto start using FTPS right away.You may need to update the root certificates on your camera. A bundle of up-to-date and Mozilla-verified CAs is maintained by the cURL open source project on https://curl.se/ca/cacert.pem. See your camera manual for instructions on how to put it on your storage card and update the camera. Alternatively, disable root certificate validation. Your transfers will still be encrypted (but there is a slight chance of man-in-the-middle attacks if you are on insecure networks).
No, ZenTransfer does not support SFTP at the moment. While SFTP is a more modern alternative for file transfers, it is not widely supported in cameras. It has few benefits over classical FTP/FTPS for the use cases ZenTransfer cover. We listen to our customers, so let us know if SFTP would open exciting use cases for you.
ZenTransfer natively supports Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Lightroom, Amazon S3, Google Cloud Platform, and Azure Blob Storage. It can relay to one or more FTP/FTPS servers concurrently. It can deliver files as a link via email. It also supports any cloud service or automated process that can be built with Zapier.
Zapier is a powerful automation platform that connects thousands of apps together, allowing you to create automated workflows (called 'Zaps') between them. Click here to read more about ZenTransfer and Zapier integration.
Absolutely. Download the ZenTransfer Desktop App and use it to send to the relay service. Set up a FTP destination in Photo Mechanic. Or use a regular FTP Client, like FileZilla, CyberDuck, WinSCP or your terminal to transfer to
ftp.zentransfer.ioand all ZenTransfer's functionality is available to you too.ZenTransfer stores files for 24 hours. After that, they are deleted from our servers. This means that if you send an email notification via ZenTransfer, the recipient has 24 hours to download the file.
ZenTransfer.io is a convenience service, packed with features. We're one ship on a very large ocean, and we hope you'd like to join us for the journey. If not, check out CouchDrop, EasyFTP, or roll your own FTP server on your laptop or a VPS somewhere.
ZenTransfer takes the hassle out of setting up, configuring, securing, and monitoring your own server. It also has more features than the FTP servers you find out there, and many unique features for photographers. We believe that it is more than worth the price. However, if you consistently transfer very large amounts of files, you may want to contact us for an custom agreement. Companies that want to use ZenTransfer can have a private instance in their own AWS, GCP, or Azure subscription. Contact us on hello@zentransfer.io for more information.
ZenTransfer transfers thousands of files every day and has been doing so for more than a year. We run redundant servers across the globe. We have automated repairs of all known errors. You can see our historical uptime and subscribe to notifications of planned maintenance and ongoing events on status.zentransfer.io/.
We offer support on a best effort basis via email on hello@zentransfer.io. Paying customers can reach us via WhatsApp (phone number on our receipts and invoices). As a tiny company there is very little bureaucracy and short ways to a fix; you talk to the devs when you contact support. However, we haven't solved sleep, timezones, nor the need to occassionally do other stuff. We acknowledge that we're a tiny team, so we build using proven, reliable, and redundant architectures, automate testing and fail-fixing, and try to take ourselves out of the equation as much as possible to make a world-class service. However, we are still human and we make mistakes from time to time, and the internet does not always cooperate. See our historical uptime on status.zentransfer.io/. If you are using ZenTransfer for critical workflows we recommend that you have an emergency backup solution of sorts in case shit hits the fan. Subscribe to our status page and you will be notified of planned maintenance and ongoing incidents.
It's me. Chris. I am just an OK amateur photographer, but a professional software engineer for 30 years. I'm spending my free time building software products for photographers to give back to a community that gives me so much joy.
Use the Get Support button in your dashboard after creating an account and logging in or send us an email on hello@zentransfer.io. Paying subscribers will find my WhatsApp number on their receipts.