Sundry Works Help · Threads
Posting your paintings to Threads
A second Meta connection, separate from Instagram and Facebook.
What it's for
Posting your branded picture and its caption straight to Threads, the same way the Instagram and Facebook connection does. Pick Threads in the Format row on the Post tab and the publish card appears underneath. It can go now or on a timer - see Posting on a timer.
This is a separate connection from Instagram and Facebook, even though the same company is behind all three. Connecting one does nothing for the other. Threads is its own app in the Meta dashboard with its own App ID and Secret.
Before you start
Two things have to be true, and neither is obvious:
- The Instagram & Facebook connection has to be working as well - but only for posting at the press of the button. Threads will not take an uploaded file: it wants a web address and fetches the picture itself, so the post is parked as a hidden photo on your Facebook Page for the half-minute that takes, then deleted. Nothing ever appears on the Page. Posting now with no Meta connection means no Threads post.
- Putting a Threads post on a timer does NOT need Meta. The picture is already sitting on sundry.works waiting for its moment, so there is a web address to hand and nothing has to be parked anywhere. Threads connected is the whole requirement.
- The web copy has to have been deployed since this feature arrived. The Threads sign-in comes home through a page on sundry.works, and if that page is not there the sign-in dies at the last step. If you have run a release since Threads was added, this is already done.
Threads refuses to send a sign-in back to a plain address on your own computer, which is what Facebook does. It insists on a secure web address. That is the whole reason for the page on sundry.works - it holds nothing and shows nothing, it just hands the sign-in back down to the app.
Setting it up
- Go to developers.facebook.com and open the app you made for Instagram and Facebook.
- Add the "Threads API" use case.
- Under that use case, switch on threads_basic and threads_content_publish.
- Set the Redirect Callback URL to https://sundry.works/threads.html - exactly that. It has to match what Sundry Works sends character for character, including the .html, or the sign-in is refused with "URL Blocked" before it starts.
- Add https://sundry.works/api/connect.php on the next line as well. That is the one the phone uses; the .html one above is the one the computer uses. Both can be listed and both are wanted, so that signing in works in either window.
- Fill in the Uninstall Callback URL and the Delete Callback URL as well, with the same address. The form will not save while they are empty, and the error it gives does not mention them.
- Save, then reload the page and look at the Redirect Callback URLs box again. Meta's form will sometimes report success without having stored anything, and the only way to know it took is to come back and see it there.
- On that same use case page, copy the Threads App ID and the Threads App Secret. These are NOT the same as the app's own App ID and Secret you used for Instagram - taking the wrong pair is the most common mistake here.
- Still on that page, find "Add or Remove Threads Testers" near the bottom and add your own Threads account. The app stays in development mode, which means only accounts listed there can use it - and your own is not on the list until you put it there.
- Then accept the invitation, which happens in Threads and not in the dashboard. In the Threads app: Settings, then More Settings, then Website Permissions, then Invites. Sundry Works is listed there. Press Accept.
- In Sundry Works, go to the Configuration tab, find "Post to Threads", and paste in the App ID and Secret.
- Press Save app, then Connect to Threads. A browser opens; authorize it, and you will be sent back.
The invitation step is the one everybody misses, because nothing tells you it exists. Skip it and the sign-in fails with "The user has not accepted the invite to test the app" - which sounds like somebody else's problem rather than a screen you have not visited yet. Note that Invites is its own item inside Website Permissions, not the first thing you see there. If nothing is listed, update the Threads app and open it again.
Posting
Open a painting, go to the Post tab, and pick Threads in the Format row. The picture goes to 1080 × 1350 and the publish card appears at the bottom with the Threads caption already in it.
Threads stops at 500 characters and quietly cuts anything past that, so the box counts as you type and tells you how far over you are. You can still press the button - the post goes out, just shorter than you wrote it.
If it goes wrong
- The browser opens and nothing comes back - the page on sundry.works is missing or out of date. Run a release, which deploys it, and try again.
- "URL Blocked: the redirect URI is not whitelisted" - the address Sundry Works sends and the address stored in the Meta dashboard are not identical. Meta compares them character for character. Reload the Threads settings page, read the Redirect Callback URLs box exactly as it stands, and make sure it says https://sundry.works/threads.html with no trailing slash.
- "Form can't be saved" while you are still setting it up - that is Meta, not you. Usually the Uninstall and Delete boxes are empty; the error names neither of them. The form is also erratic about file extensions, so if it will not take the address at all, say so rather than fighting it - the site answers at https://sundry.works/threads too, and the app can be pointed at whichever one the form accepts.
- "Threads needs the Instagram & Facebook connection too" - exactly what it says. Connect Meta first, on the card above.
- "The user has not accepted the invite to test the app" - you are on the tester list but have not approved it yet, or you were never added. Both halves are needed: added in the dashboard under "Add or Remove Threads Testers", then accepted in Threads under Settings, More Settings, Website Permissions, Invites.
- The sign-in works but posting fails - check that threads_content_publish is actually switched on, not just listed.
The rest of the Help
Start here
- Getting started with Sundry Works - What Sundry Works does and how the tabs fit together.
- Using Sundry Works on your phone - Setting up the phone, whether or not there is a computer as well.
Your catalogue
- What's due and what's unfinished - The first tab: what's coming up, what's still to do, what's unfinished.
- Cataloguing your paintings - Your catalog - add paintings and open the one you're working on.
- Reviewing everything one painting makes - Everything the open painting makes, on one page, with the one decision each needs.
- How to price a painting consistently - Work out a consistent price for the open painting.
- Tracking what sold and who bought it - What sold, who took it home, and what it brought in.
- Printing show labels and a portfolio - More than one at a time: a whole show's labels, or a portfolio to send.
Making things from a painting
- Writing a story for a painting - Generate a written story for the painting and keep the best one.
- Making a printed card for a painting - Lay out the printed card for the painting.
- How to make a certificate of authenticity - A painting's two printed documents: its certificate, and the label for its back.
- Web-sized copies of a painting's photo - Export web-sized copies of the painting's photo.
- Branded posts of your paintings - Branded static posts for Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.
- Making a reel of a painting - Build the vertical reel frame and video for social media.
- Designing an artist's business card - The card you hand out, laid out down to the last millimetre.
Running the business
- Setting up your artist brand - Set up once: your identity, brand assets, colours, and AI key.
- An address book for galleries and collectors - A simple address book for galleries, collectors, suppliers, and more.
- Checklists for shows and studio jobs - Reusable checklists for shows, errands, and anything you repeat.
- A calendar for shows and deadlines - Shows, deadlines, and events, with a countdown to each one.
- All your post comments in one list - What people said on your posts, from every platform, in one list.
Connections and setup
- Posting to Instagram and Facebook - Connect your accounts so you can post directly from Sundry Works.
- Posting your paintings to Threads - A second Meta connection, separate from Instagram and Facebook.
- Posting your paintings to Bluesky - The easiest connection of the four - a handle and an app password.
- Scheduling posts to go out later - Line a post up now and let it go out later, with the computer off.
- Configuring Sundry Works - Where everything plugs in: your social accounts, your website, your AI service, and where the catalogue lives.
Try it on one of your own paintings
Sundry Works is a catalogue for painters that also drafts the story, the card, the certificate and the reel from one photograph of the painting.
30 days free, no card to start.