What happens to your child's photos when they leave daycare?

It depends on the app: Storypark lets families keep their child's profile for as long as they like, Famly keeps a limited version, and Xplor Home's own listing says you need a child attending an Xplor centre to log in at all. Whichever one your centre uses, the account is downgraded once your child leaves and the photos get harder to get out, so the simplest plan is to save everything, at full quality, in one go, before the last day.

In New Zealand the last day at daycare or kindy can fall in any term, because many children start school around their fifth birthday. Our checklist for starting school at five covers the rest of it. Here's what each app says, in its own words.

Storypark

Storypark is the generous one: your access isn't switched off when your child leaves. The reason to save now is different. The centre stops posting, the export is images and story pages rather than your videos, and you'll want every photo and video in one place on your own computer. NurseryDownloader saves every photo and video from your child's stories, asking Storypark for the original file first. It doesn't save the written story text, so keep Storypark's export for that. See how to download all your Storypark photos and Storypark's export explained.

Xplor Home

Of the three, Xplor is the one where the login itself is tied to your child attending, so this is the app to save from before the last day. NurseryDownloader works with Xplor Home on the web at home.myxplor.com and saves the photos and videos from your child's moments, only ever for your own children. Some videos Xplor only streams rather than storing as a file; those can't be saved, so it skips them and tells you how many there were. See how to download all your Xplor photos.

Famly

NurseryDownloader works with Famly. From the newsfeed it saves every feed photo and video, with a photo-captions.csv listing each post's date and caption. From your child's profile it saves their tagged photos, including learning-journey photos. Sign in to Famly on the web at app.famly.co in Chrome or Edge, and the NurseryDownloader panel appears on both pages.

Why save everything now

Leaving rarely deletes anything on the spot. What it does is downgrade the account: no new photos, the centre deciding whether you stay connected, and years of photos that are slow to get out one at a time. A goodbye portfolio or a handful of emailed favourites is lovely, but it isn't the full-size originals.

So the plan that never lets you down is to save every photo and video while your child is still enrolled, then back the folder up somewhere else.

How the one-click download works

1. Install it. On a laptop or desktop, open Chrome or Microsoft Edge and add NurseryDownloader from the Chrome Web Store. It doesn't run on phones or tablets.
2. Sign in to Storypark, Xplor Home or Famly on the web, as you normally would.
3. Click download in the NurseryDownloader panel at the top right of the page.

Everything lands in a folder for each child, then a folder for each month, with the date at the start of every filename. Your first 20 downloads are free. Your photos go straight from the app to your computer and never pass through our servers, and it never asks for your app password, because it works in your own browser, where you're already signed in.

Questions parents ask

Do daycare apps delete photos when a child leaves?

Not usually on the day. Storypark keeps a family's access open, and Famly keeps a limited version. Xplor ties the login to a child attending, so don't count on it afterwards. In every case the centre controls the account.

Isn't the app's own export enough?

It's worth having, especially Storypark's, which keeps the written stories. But Storypark's export is images and story pages, and Xplor's archive is the media your child was tagged in, sent by email. NurseryDownloader puts every photo and video in dated folders on your computer in one run.

Can I do this on my phone?

No. Chrome extensions only run on a computer, so use Chrome or Edge on a Windows PC, Mac or Chromebook. It's the same account you use on your phone.

Does it save the written stories and notes?

No. It saves the photos and videos, plus the feed captions on Famly. Storypark's written stories stay in Storypark, so use its export if you want those too.