I am having the same issue. I have a MP3 of original music that I would like to play with the slideshow but cannot find out how to add it to the photo show I've created.

UPDATE: I discovered you insert music into the slideshow using the Explorer icon (the four boxes) and navigating to your audio/music files and dragging and dropping the desired audio into the show just like you do with the photos. Ignore the Audio icon. Once inserted, the soundtrack /music automatically adjusts to the length of the slideshow. From there, you can go to the timeline mode and manipulate it.

@ScottC

Welcome to the Magix user to user forums.

Did you read my reply to the OP directly above your post? Did that method not work for you?

Jeff

@ScottC

Welcome to the Magix user to user forums.

Did you read my reply to the OP directly above your post? Did that method not work for you?

Jeff

Thank you for the welcome!

Maybe this worked in 2021 but it sure doesn't work in 2025. I did use the "explorer" icon (thank you!) to find my music file on the hard drive, but no luck at all dragging anything from it into the slideshow. Photostory Deluxe is garbage. Bring back Photostory Easy!

@Robert-Madison

Hi,

Are you running PhotoStory as Administrator? If so, don't. Windows blocks the Admin from using drag and drop.

I have 2025 and it works as you have been shown and told. There is no simpler method in any program to get objects onto the timeline than drag and drop or what I'll show below. In fact, pretty much every program on the market does it this way.

Rather than drag and drop, another way is to select multiple files, then click on the download button, either on one of the selected files or at the top right of the window. In the image below, I've selected 17 photos.

I'm in Timeline mode in the above images. The arrow is pointing to the Storyboard button. If it says Timeline, then you're in Storyboard mode.

An Audio file is media, just like photos and videos. You import audio the same way.

Select your music. Click on the import button. Audio goes on track 3 by default.

Scroll along the timeline. Use the +/- buttons to change the zoom factor of objects on the timeline. Place the playback marker at the end of the audio object if you want to add another file. Select a file and import it. It will probably go to track 4. Press on the Enlarge view button to see more tracks.

Drag the object on track 4 to track 3 or vice versa.

You have 8 tracks to play with. You can add narration to another track below the music and lower the music, for example, just for the narration part. You can adjust the volume of each audio object and even use a volume curve.

In my image, I don't have enough photos to cover the audio, so I'll import more. There should be photos/video at least to the end of the audio.

John CB

Thanks. Purely through trial and error I was able to import a musical track. Are you familiar with Photostory Easy? That is my only other experience with a slideshow builder. It was phenomenal and did everything I want to do. But it is no longer supported and multiple features have stopped working so I "upgraded". MAGIX managed to ruin a perfectly good program.

Now the latest problem is how to get a music clip to end at a specific slide. In Easy, this was super easy. Just grab the right end of the track and pull it left till it reached the desired slide where it was to end, and then drop the next track into the timeline to follow it. All those features are now gone. I have no idea how to shorten a track to end at the right place. Crucially, the manual has absolutely no instructions on how to use audio in any useful way.

@Robert-Madison

Just grab the right end of the track and pull it left till it reached the desired slide where it was to end, and then drop the next track into the timeline to follow it. All those features are now gone.

Assuming you are, as previously suggested, in Timeline view, the procedure is exactly the same! From what you write it would appear you are in the Storyboard view, where you cannot drag the end of any track.

HTH

Jeff
Forum Moderator

@Robert-Madison

Hi

Please do not duplicate post the same question.

EDIT: I will delete your other post, here is my response I originally posted in the duplicate question:-

To add your own music to your slideshow you can either use:

1. Windows Explorer to find the music on your computer and drag and drop the file into Photostory, dropping the file on timeline if you are in Storyboard mode or, if in Timeline mode, on track 4 - labelled Default audio track.
    
2. The Photostory built in explorer , browse to the location where the music files are, if the files are in the Windows Music library there will be a shortcut direct to that folder and drag and drop as above.

John EB
Forum Moderator

@Robert-Madison

Hi,

To answer this question:

When I click on the musical notes icon in the program itself, I get an ad for "free music" but there doesn't seem to be any way of accessing my own music.

As indicated in the manual, this is where any audio files that you purchase from the Store will be located. You should have some Free Songs and Free Sounds. You may have to download them first.

You have indicated things that PhotoStory Easy had that you say are not the same in PhotoStory Deluxe. As you have been shown, they are the same. Magix didn't invent some other way to do the same thing. In fact, all of Magix' video editing programs, Video Pro X, Movie Studio, PhotoStory share the same basic features, including importing and trimming (changing the length of an object like the audio object).

About multiple import, all I can think of is that you are clicking, releasing and clicking again before dragging multiple images. If you release the mouse button, even for an instant, the multiple selection is cancelled.

When you change the end of the audio object by dragging or trimming (look it up), the method is the same in all of Magix's editors. You can drag the end to the right, exactly the same as in PhotoStory Easy. Or, you can place the playback marker at the end of the images, select the audio object and trim the right hand side by using the shortcut U or by opening the scissors on the button bar above the timeline and you'll see the options. Learn to use these as they are amongst the most useful and oft-used tools for editing - videos, photos, and audio.

When you trim your audio like you did, it will end suddenly. You may want to fade out the music by dragging the right handle inwards.

Also, you can increase the duration of a photo by dragging the right end to the right, just like you dragged the right end of the audio object. Of course, a video or audio cannot be extended beyond its original duration, but a photo can.

You can change the default duration of photos (happens upon import, not after they are on the timeline) by going to File, Settings, Program, Options tab and changing the Image length to what you want.

You can change the duration once on the timeline by either dragging the end or right-clicking on a photo, View duration - change the duration. You can select multiple photos and do this to all selected photos, or to all photos on the timeline in one shot.

And so on.

John CB

OK... so what I found (through trial and error) is that if you click on the audio track enough, a small white triangle will appear on the bottom right of the track. You can grab this to shorten the track itself, which is what you could do in Photostory Easy (where there was no separate "create the white triangle" step). So that problem has been solved. It would be helpful for the user manual to mention this detail. I also notice that the audio track will jump from blue to green for no reason occasionally but this doesn't seem to affect it.

Another audio question. In Photostory Easy, you used Photostory Easy to pull up a Windows window to access your audio files, which meant I could right click on the audio file to listen to it (e.g. to make sure it's really what I want). In Deluxe, the audio icons appear in the Photostory Deluxe environment, where right-clicking on the audio icons does nothing. Is there a way to "preview" the audio files in Deluxe without having to open a separate Windows window to listen to them there?

@Robert-Madison

Hi

. . . . a small white triangle will appear on the bottom right of the track . . . . It would be helpful for the user manual to mention this detail. . . .

The adjustment of an objects length is described at the top of page 18 in the manual available under Help:-

'All objects can be resized using the “object handles” on the lower edges. Move the
mouse over one of the lower corners of the object until the mouse pointer becomes a
double arrow. You can now can shorten the object'

The white triangle has nothing to do with adjusting the length, as you can see below anywhere on the left or right edge, except for the small circle at the top or centre of an edge, can be used to change the length.

To preview an audio file, select it in the Media pool and click play on the preview monitor controls.

HTH

John EB

Attempting to add music to a slideshow. My first few clips have been successful. Now, suddenly, when I add a new clip (see picture) the first piece of music continues to play in the background under the second clip, so you hear both playing simultaneously for several seconds. Then the first clip cuts out, but several seconds after the 'boundary' appears on the image. Please advise.

SECOND QUESTION: I am going back in the same slideshow only to discover that my previous transitions between sound clips have become "modified" by the program in ways I didn't tell it to. In the second image, the first sound clip is supposed to end (and the second one begin) at the red vertical line. That's how I set it up, and that's how it was working. But after letting you know about the problem above, I went back to discover this "extended transition" had been created between the two pieces of music. What on earth is going on?

@Robert-Madison

Hi

. . . . the first piece of music continues to play in the background under the second clip, so you hear both playing simultaneously for several seconds . . .

This is usually caused by a stray section of a trimmed audio object not being deleted, check the lower tracks for a remnant of an edit as seen in the image below

. . . . . going back in the same slideshow only to discover that my previous transitions between sound clips have become "modified" by the program in ways I didn't tell it to . . . .

This has possibly been caused by a previous edit, eg adding a transition between image/video objects and the audio not being on the Default audio track as shown in your images and my example above.

To prevent unexpected issues, such as this, always put the main audio on the default audio track.

There is a very long topic here on this, which is relevant to Photostory, if you wish to read it.

John EB

"CHECK THE LOWER TRACKS". That may be the solution. Sure enough, there was a copy of an audio file on a "lower track" (I have no idea how it got there) but deleting it does appear to solve the problem. Thank you.

Now I don't want that problem to reappear. So far everything related to audio appears to be a disaster. When I add ("download"?) an audio file, it drops it into a different track than the one I have my audio on. So I have to move it manually to fit on the same line as my existing audio. This phenomenon is obviously related to the problem, so now how do I remove, erase, eliminate and destroy all tracks other than the one my pictures are on, and the one my audio is on? There is no reason at all to ever have more than two tracks.

Trying to burn my first slideshow CD using Photostory Deluxe. I'm at the point where I choose the title page. In Photostory Easy there were a dozen or more different options woith accompanying music. Now there is one option, which does nothing when clicked on. Any suggestions how to access all the other options?

@Robert-Madison

Have you downloaded and installed all the additional content that is available after you registered and activated the app?

Jeff

Forum Moderator

@Robert-Madison

Hi

. . . . how do I remove, erase, eliminate and destroy all tracks other than the one my pictures are on, and the one my audio is on? There is no reason at all to ever have more than two tracks. . . . .

You can only ensure that unused tracks are empty, you cannot remove them from the timeline pane.

The image/video/audio objects you see on the timeline are not the video/image/files themselves, they are 'references' which point to the original files of which between 1 - 2 secs are only loaded/processed, in real time, when playing back the timeline and when exporting.

John EB

OK... I will just have to be careful. But these things serve no useful purpose. Easy was a far superior product to Deluxe.

@Robert-Madison

Have you downloaded and installed all the additional content that is available after you registered and activated the app?

Jeff

Forum Moderator

As I was never informed that there was "additional content", no. I "upgraded" from Easy to Deluxe only because Easy is no longer supported, and because my own copy of Easy was malfunctioning (it stopped letting me insert video clips, for example, and -- as with this -- the slideshow intros all mysteriously disappeared from their folder).

So I am using Deluxe "under protest". Essentially I want Deluxe to function just like Easy, because there's nothing else that I need it to do. So how do I download the intro graphics? (Perhaps the manual tells me, but I have given up on the manual as it is extremely unhelpful.)

Problems moving photos into Slideshow (more problems)

This has been addressed before but a new problem has arisen. In Photostory Easy, you block all the images (and movie clips) you want to add to the Slideshow and drag/drop them into it in one big drop. In Photostory Deluxe, I am told, you can no longer do this. Instead, you have to hold down the CTRL button and then select each and every picture you want to use. OK, this is crazy but it at least worked for two Slideshows.

On my third slideshow, I am finding that when I hold the CTRL button down and click on each individual photo, some of the photos I already clicked on are becoming "unclicked" so they will not, I assume, transfer to the Slideshow when I finish clicking them all and try to move them. Any suggestions as to what to do?

I also need to go back to my last two slideshows and make sure all the images I clicked actually made it into the slideshows. This is another example of where Easy was a far superior product to Deluxe.

@Robert-Madison

Hi,

This has been addressed before but a new problem has arisen. In Photostory Easy, you block all the images (and movie clips) you want to add to the Slideshow and drag/drop them into it in one big drop. In Photostory Deluxe, I am told, you can no longer do this.

False and you were told how to do this. It's the same Microsoft command in almost every program that uses Windows.

Click the first image to select it. Hold down Shift and select the last image. All images will be selected. Import - as I showed you.

I am finding that when I hold the CTRL button down and click on each individual photo, some of the photos I already clicked on are becoming "unclicked" so they will not, I assume, transfer to the Slideshow when I finish clicking them all and try to move them. Any suggestions as to what to do?

Ok. When you turn on a light with a switch, it turns on, right? If you flip the switch again, it turns off, right? Did you expect it to stay on?

That is exactly what you are doing. You're selecting an image and it shows as selected, then you're clicking on it again. It turns off - deselected! That is what it is supposed to do.

So, don't deselect an image by clicking on it twice.

John CB

"Click the first image to select it. Hold down Shift and select the last image. All images will be selected. Import - as I showed you."

For the second time, THAT DOES NOT WORK. It only puts the first and last images (the ones I checked) into the slideshow. Or, as in the last time I tried (20 seconds ago) it takes the first and last images (the only ones checked) plus one random image from somewhere in the middle. Your instruction is FALSE.

Nowhere was I "deselecting" any image by clicking it twice. Your accusation is FALSE. I did succeed on two slideshows by clicking on each and every image ONCE (with CTRL held down the whole time); this did let me move the entire batch of hand-selected images into the slideshow successfully. But it takes 5 minutes where the old Photostory Easy took 5 seconds.

For kicks, I just went back and repeated the process you indicated. Again, it took the first image and the last image and put them in the slideshow, with NONE of the images in between.