The Kitchen Wall reads public links you paste in — calendars as ICS, photo albums as shared links, and news as RSS. Paste them while you’re paired; they’re edited only for that short setup session and are not permanently stored on our servers. The Apple TV keeps its own local settings after sync.
Privacy: Feed, calendar, and album URLs live only in your pairing session (and then on your Apple TV). When the session ends or expires, our server drops them. We never upload your photos or calendar events.
Paste an ICS or webcal:// subscription URL during a pairing session. The Kitchen Wall fetches it over the network — the calendar must be reachable without signing in. The URL is only held for that session on our side; your Apple TV stores the setting locally after sync.
The link often starts with webcal:// — that’s fine. It may also look like https://pXX-caldav.icloud.com/published/….
The address ends in .ics, for example https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/…/basic.ics. Anyone with that secret link can read the calendar — treat it like a password.
The ICS URL is what The Kitchen Wall needs — it usually looks like https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/…/calendar.ics or a similar Outlook host. Anyone with that link can read the published calendar; treat it like a password. If you don’t see Publish a calendar, your school or work admin may have turned publishing off.
The Kitchen Wall supports iCloud Shared Albums and Google Photos albums shared with a link. Private-only libraries (no share link) won’t work.
Links look like https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0…. The album must stay shared for the TV to keep loading photos.
Short links such as https://photos.app.goo.gl/… and full photos.google.com/share/… URLs both work. The album must remain shared via that link.
News mode needs a public RSS or Atom feed URL — the same kind of feed many sites expose for podcasts and readers. We’ll look up the feed’s own <title> when you add it.
/rss, /feed, or .xml.Don’t paste a normal article page or a calendar ICS URL into News. Calendars belong under Calendar; albums under Photos.
Frequently asked questions
On the Apple TV, open Settings in The Kitchen Wall. Scan the QR code for the fastest path, or visit this site and enter the eight-character code shown on the TV (like XXXX-XXXX — the hyphen is optional). You’ll land on a private setup link. Changes sync automatically while Settings stays open.
Setup only works while Settings is open on the Apple TV. If you leave Settings — or the code times out — open Settings again for a fresh code, then enter it here.
Each typed code works once, then you’re sent to a private setup URL. Keep that tab open. If you closed it: scan the QR code on the TV (it opens the same private link), or close and reopen Settings on the Apple TV for a brand-new code.
Common causes:
• The link isn’t public/shared (The Kitchen Wall can’t sign into your Apple, Google, or Microsoft account).
• You pasted a normal webpage instead of an ICS, Shared Album, or Google Photos share link.
• For Outlook, you copied the HTML publish link instead of the ICS link.
• You put an RSS feed in Calendar, or a calendar link in News — each section expects its own URL type.
• The share was turned off after you copied the link.
Try opening the same URL in a private/incognito browser window while logged out. If the calendar or album doesn’t load there, The Kitchen Wall can’t load it either.
Yes. Apple often shares calendars as webcal:// or webcals://. The Kitchen Wall converts those to HTTPS automatically when it fetches events.
Yes. Add as many ICS calendars, photo albums, and RSS feeds as you like. Use the On/Off toggle next to each item if you want to keep something configured without showing it.
Photos mode is a full-screen slideshow of the albums you add there. Under Calendar, “Photo pane albums” only appear beside the schedule when Calendar mode is on — they don’t drive the full-screen Photos mode.
No — and we don’t permanently store the feed or calendar URLs either.
While you pair from Settings, this site briefly holds the links and display options for that session so the Apple TV can sync them. When the session ends or expires, those URLs are deleted from our server. The Apple TV keeps its configuration locally and fetches calendars, albums, and feeds directly. Photos and calendar events are never uploaded to The Kitchen Wall.
No. You only edit them inside an active pairing session. They’re temporary scaffolding for sync — not a cloud account or lasting database of your feeds. Close Settings on the TV (or wait for the session to expire) and the server-side copy goes away.
Each album and each RSS feed is capped at 500 items so huge libraries don’t overwhelm the TV. Extra items beyond the first 500 are ignored.
Yes for Outlook.com / Outlook on the web when you publish an ICS link — see Calendar links above. Other services work the same way if they give you a public or secret ICS / iCal subscription URL that opens without logging in. If it only works inside a signed-in app, The Kitchen Wall can’t use it.
While paired (Settings open on the TV), use the options on the setup page — or change them on the TV in Settings. Interval, shuffle, list style, news slide style (including Tabloid), and the calendar photo overlay (time or weather) all sync both ways.
Check that each source is toggled On, that the share link still works in a browser, and that you’re on the matching mode (Calendar / Photos / News) with the Siri Remote. For News, try a feed that includes images. For Calendar, confirm the ICS has upcoming events in the next few weeks.
On Calendar mode, choose Weather for the bottom of the photo pane. The Apple TV uses its location services for local conditions — allow location access for The Kitchen Wall if the system asks. Weather data is provided by Open-Meteo.
Manual browsing jumps instantly to the next photo or news slide. The soft crossfade is only for the automatic slideshow timer.