How to file to Alamy Live News from your iPhone

Alamy's news desk takes pictures by FTP, and most guides to it assume a laptop. Here is how to send captioned Live News pictures from the card to Alamy's server with nothing but an iPhone, following Alamy's own rules.

By João Daniel Pereira, London photographer, Alamy Live News contributor and the developer of Dispatches · 17 October 2026

Get news upload access first

FTP to the news feed isn't switched on for every account. Alamy asks existing contributors to apply from the "additional revenue options" section of the contributor dashboard; new contributors create an account first and then apply. The details are on Alamy's Sell news images page. Wait for the approval before you rely on it for a job.

Alamy's server details

These are the settings Alamy publishes on its news pages (checked 17 October 2026; if they change, Alamy's page wins):

Plain FTP isn't encrypted, so your password travels as readable text. That is how Alamy's news route works today; just know it, and avoid filing over public Wi-Fi you don't trust. More on FTP itself in how to send photos to an FTP server from your iPhone.

Alamy's rules that catch people out

From Alamy's page What images can I send to Alamy Live News?:

• 24 hours. Pictures older than 24 hours are rejected, except in exceptional circumstances. File the same day.
• JPEG only. If you shoot RAW+JPEG, send the JPEGs.
• One headline for the whole event, in the form "event, town or city, country", for example "Grammy Awards red carpet, Los Angeles, USA". Every picture from the event must carry exactly the same headline.
• The caption starts with place and date: town or city, country, date in the form "1st Dec, 2024.", then the description, then the credit. Alamy's example: "Liverpool, UK, 1st Dec, 2024. Liverpool's Mohamed Salah celebrates scoring his side's second goal during the Premier League match v Manchester City at Anfield, Liverpool. Credit: Sportimage Ltd/Alamy Live News".
• Caption in the IPTC description field, headline in the IPTC headline field, and the date the picture was taken (not the upload date), all in English.
• Nothing added, removed or altered. No edit that changes what the picture shows, such as lightening or darkening it so it changes its meaning.

Alamy will also email you an example image showing which fields to fill in: ask [email protected].

The job, step by step

Steps 1 to 3 are done once, at home. Steps 4 to 6 are the job.

1. Save Alamy as a destination

In Dispatches, open Destinations and add a server. Type the host, username, password and folder from the table above, or paste a note with those details and let the app read them, then check what it read before you save. If you file news and sport, save two destinations, one per folder.

2. Save your Alamy credit as a preset

Make a metadata preset with your name and the credit line in Alamy's form ("Your Name/Alamy Live News"). Keep it separate from presets for other clients, so the right credit goes to the right desk.

3. Build an "Alamy Live News" workflow

A workflow is the filing routine written down once: for example "frames tagged Wire, three stars and up: apply the Alamy preset, send to the Alamy News destination". Add a second destination to the same workflow if you also file elsewhere. See Build a workflow.

4. Import the take

Plug the card reader into the iPhone and import every frame, or filter first by in-camera rating or flag so the frames you already rejected stay on the card. Shooting RAW+JPEG? Dispatches edits RAW, so you can bring both; just remember Alamy takes JPEGs only. Import from the card rather than the photo library, which drops the camera's star ratings.

5. Caption it the way Alamy wants

Open the event's brief and describe the job in a sentence or two, typed or spoken: who, what, where, when, why it matters. Dispatches drafts one headline and one caption for the whole event and writes them into every picture as IPTC, so the identical-headline rule takes care of itself. Then check two things against Alamy's format: the headline reads "event, city, country", and the caption opens with "City, Country, date." and ends with your credit. Add a caption prefix on any frame that needs a name. How to write a photo caption.

6. Send, and stay in the app

From the event, tap the Alamy workflow, check the preview, and press send. Stay in Dispatches until the run summary appears: FTP uploads carry on only while the app is open. If the signal drops, send the failed frames again on their own.

How to check it landed

The run summary lists what was sent and what failed, and the Dashboard keeps the history of every send. Alamy then shows your news pictures in your contributor account; if nothing appears, check the folder path first, then the captions and the 24-hour rule.

Alamy is a trademark of its owner. Dispatches is not affiliated with or endorsed by Alamy. Settings and rules are quoted from Alamy's public pages as of 17 October 2026.