Upload from your desktop.
Uploading photos to your new SmugMug site from your desktop can be done in a variety of ways. Like dragging and dropping photos or videos right into a gallery within the Organizer. If you're already in a gallery, you can click the Organize Gallery button from the section bar to pop right over to that gallery in the Organizer. Or you can click Organize in the navigation bar and select a gallery that way.
Once you've got your gallery selected, you can drag and drop images into it. Either way, your upload will begin automatically. If you are using a custom domain this information will be important.
Click image to enlarge.
Alternatively, you can always click the Upload button. The upload modal will appear and you may choose whether you want to create a new gallery, upload to an existing gallery, or upload a folder.
The uploader will appear. Here you can drag and drop photos or videos directly into the uploader area. (You can’t drag folders into galleries, but you can drag folders into folders! Check it out below.) Accounts with custom domains have different upload functions, check out the information here.
If you want to upload an entire folder from your computer, choose the Upload Folders option from the upload menu, then drag a folder from your computer to the uploader or browse to find one on your computer to begin the upload. If you accidentally have a gallery selected, you won’t see the folder upload option.
We’ll create a brand-new folder with your gallery or galleries' names automatically for you.
Uploading a folder that contains folders? No problem! We’ll create a brand-new folder on your site that has the same subfolders in it. (If your folder has subfolders and images in it, we’ll create one gallery for the subfolder and another gallery to contain the standalone images.)
Note: This feature supports nested folders up to five levels deep. If your folder is deeper than five levels, you'll need to do some reorganizing before uploading that top-level folder to your account.
Multiple top-level folders? Drag them all into the uploader window to queue everything up, and we’ll take it from there. If you try to browse and select multiple folders, most browsers won’t support selecting more than one folder, so we recommend the drag-and-drop method for multiple folders.
If you want to select only a portion of photos within a folder on your hard drive, click one file, hold down the shift key, and click another file to select a group of images to upload together.
The default setting for the uploader is to skip duplicates based on file name. So if you change a file's name between uploads, the uploader won't detect it as a duplicate.
Switching to Allow Duplicates using the drop-down menu will allow duplicates to upload. You can also choose to replace duplicates, which will replace older versions with the newer ones you’re uploading. This comes in handy if you have edited files and need to upload replacements.
Note: Videos don't have a replace option at this time. You'll have to upload a new version of the video and delete the old one.
Any single gallery can hold up to 5,000 photos and videos. Anything more and you’ll need to split up your photos into multiple galleries. Make browsing easy on your guests!
Important: Recent changes in Safari cause some issues when uploading thousands of files in the web uploader. After uploading a few thousand images, all uploading may fail. Once the browser window/tab is in this state, all future uploads will fail in the same manner and you'll see a "Couldn't read file" error message.
There are some workarounds you may try:
- Switch from Safari to Chrome or Firefox as they don't seem to encounter this issue.
- Reload the page, or open a new tab/window to continue uploading.
- Use folder uploading when uploading thousands of files at a time.
- Upload fewer files at a time.
Upload from mobile.
You can also upload from your mobile phone. When logged in to your SmugMug account on a mobile browser, make sure you're on your site homepage or in a gallery. If not, you can always tap on Site in the navigation drop-down menu.
Now tap the green + button to open the option to create a New Folder or New Gallery. If you create a new folder, you'll also need to create a new gallery within it to upload images.
Select an album on your device and choose which images you want to upload by tapping on them. When you've got everything selected, tap Done and the images will upload to the new gallery.
You can also upload to an existing gallery. Navigate to the gallery you want to upload to, then select the green upload icon in the lower-right corner. Tap Add Photos and choose one of the options. Select the photos you want to upload, then tap Done and relax as we take care of getting your photos safely uploaded from your phone to your photo site in the background.
Note: Using Safari to upload on an iOS device will strip out your photo's EXIF information. To keep your EXIF intact when uploading from your iPhone or iPad, we recommend using our iOS app instead.
Upload from other services.
You can also upload photos you’ve saved on other services: Amazon Photos, Dropbox, or Flickr.
First, log in to your SmugMug site and launch the uploader from the navigation bar. Then choose Into New Gallery or Into Existing Gallery. Once the gallery is chosen, click Upload, then select the service you want to upload from in the lower right.
Or you can navigate to an existing gallery on your site and click the green Upload button and select the service you want to use that way.
A new window will pop up prompting you to authorize your SmugMug account to access your photos on the other service. Wait until you see the pop-up confirming your accounts have been successfully linked.
Authorization of a Flickr account will open to the Photostream view of your account. You may choose images from that view to upload to SmugMug. This option doesn't let you view or select albums.
Once your accounts are successfully linked, click on each photo you want to upload. When you’ve selected everything you’d like, click Upload.
Tip: To select every image in a folder, click on the top file then hold down the shift key and click the last file. Everything should be selected!
Your selected photos will start uploading to SmugMug instantly.
Once your upload is complete, you’ll see the “happier photo" confirmation screen. Click the X to close the upload window and check out your new photos in your SmugMug gallery.
If you want to disconnect your Amazon, Dropbox, Google, or Flickr accounts from your SmugMug account, visit your Account Settings and click the Privacy tab. Scroll down until you see External Services, then click Revoke to disable the access of the service you want to remove.
Upload from SmugMug apps.
We have official apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac.
iOS app.
For the full lowdown on uploading from our iOS app, check out this article.
Android app.
And for uploading using our Android app, head on over to this article.
Windows uploader app.
To upload with the Windows uploader app, first download it from our apps page here. Make note of where it downloads on your system so you can launch and install it when you’re ready.
When you first launch the app, you’ll be prompted to log in to your SmugMug account.
Once logged in, you’ll see a familiar uploading screen (just like your SmugMug site’s web uploader). Click Browse Computer to search for photos you’d like to upload, then choose which gallery you want them to land in on your SmugMug site.
Alternatively, you can drag and drop photos from your desktop or another system folder right into the Windows app. Your upload will begin instantly!
The Windows uploader now supports auto uploads from your computer. To enable this feature, click the green no local folders text below your SmugMug site name in the Windows uploader menu. In the pop-up window that appears, select the button labeled Add on the right.
Navigate your computer's files to select the folder you want to have auto uploaded going forward and click the Select Folder button. Then sit back and relax as that folder is uploaded to your SmugMug site safely and securely in a private folder labeled Windows Auto Upload. Any time you add new photos or videos to that folder on your computer in the future, those changes will automatically be reflected on your SmugMug site as well.
This feature does support nested folders up to five levels deep, but anything beyond that won't be recognized by the auto uploader. Example:
- Okay: FOLDER > Folder > Folder > Folder > Photos
- Not Okay: FOLDER > Folder > Folder > Folder > Folder > Photos
To remove a folder from auto upload, click again on the green local folder text in the uploader menu. In the pop-up menu that appears, select the folder you no longer want to have automatically uploaded to SmugMug and click the Remove button on the right.
The Windows app also has the option to limit your bandwidth if you need to watch your bandwidth limits throughout the day. There's also a convenient option for scheduling uploads, perfect for working your uploads into your busy schedule. The status bar in the app will show you the progress of the upload. To schedule an upload select the the gear icon, then click Settings and the check box for Limit when auto uploads happen. Choose your start and stop times.
MacOS uploader app.
Download our MacOS uploader app to set up watch folders from your computer.
First, download the app by clicking this link. The link will download a zip file. Double click on the zip file to install the app. Once installed, locate the new app in your Downloads location, then drag/drop it into your Applications folder. For quick and easy access in the future, drag the SmugMug app icon into your dock.
When you first launch the app, you’ll be prompted to log in to your SmugMug account.
Once logged in, you’ll see an uploading screen. Click the plus sign next to Uploads to search for photos you’d like to upload, then choose which gallery you want them to land in on your SmugMug site.
The MacOS uploader app supports auto uploads from your computer. Have your photos automatically upload to your SmugMug account in the background for extra safekeeping as well!
To enable this feature, click the plus sign next to Auto Upload.
Navigate your computer's files to select the folder you want to have auto uploaded going forward and click the Add Folder button. Then sit back and relax as your selected folder is uploaded to your SmugMug site safely and securely in a private folder labeled Automatic macOS Uploads. Any time you add photos in that folder on your computer in the future, those photos will be auto uploaded to your SmugMug site as well.
This feature does support nested folders up to five levels deep, but anything beyond that won't be recognized by the auto-uploader. Example:
- Okay: FOLDER > Folder > Folder > Folder > Photos
- Not Okay: FOLDER > Folder > Folder > Folder > Folder > Photos
To remove a folder from auto upload, right-click on the folder you no longer want to have automatically uploaded to SmugMug. Select Remove Folder from the pop-up menu.
The MacOS app has a convenient scheduling option to help streamline your uploads with your busy schedule. In the app, select SmugMug from the toolbar, then Settings > Schedule > Enable auto upload schedule. Select your preferred days and times and you're good to go.
Upload from Lightroom.
SmugMug has a Lightroom plug-in that allows you to upload your photos directly to your online galleries from Lightroom. Get all the awesome details here.
Looking for more ways to upload? We have other uploading options you may want to try.
Upload from Custom Domain.
In our commitment to align with the latest privacy standards within browsers, we’ve made improvements in the upload process for customers with a custom domain.
When exploring a gallery on your Site, clicking the Upload button will direct you to that gallery within the Organizer and open the upload panel. This will streamline the process of uploading images directly to a chosen gallery.
As you view a folder on your Site, the Upload button will guide you to the Organizer to add to existing galleries, add new galleries, or upload an entire folder from your computer.
For traditional drag-and-drop uploading, you can view a gallery on your Site and click the Upload button, or visit the Organizer and view the gallery to drag and drop there.
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