How do photos get matched to trail cameras?

Every camera in TrailCamHub has a unique identifier — typically its serial number — and that's what decides which camera an incoming photo belongs to. You can view or edit each camera's identifier under Cameras.

When a new photo or video arrives by email, TrailCamHub looks for an identifier in two places: the email's subject and body, and the photo's EXIF metadata (camera make, model and serial). It then matches what it finds against the identifiers on your cameras, in this order:

1. A camera's identifier matches → the photo is filed to that camera. If more than one camera matches, it goes to your most recently updated one.

2. No identifier is found → the photo falls back to a camera that has no identifier set — a catch-all — so it still lands somewhere (the most recently updated one, if you have several).

3. Nothing fits at all → the photo stays unassigned, and you can assign it yourself.

When you create a new camera from an incoming photo stream, our AI reads the best identifier from the photos and sets it automatically, so future photos from that camera route themselves. You can always correct it under Cameras.

Tip: if photos land on the wrong camera — or stay unassigned — check that each camera's identifier under Cameras matches the serial number your camera actually puts in its emails.