Want to deliver several photos (or an entire gallery) digitally? You’ve got three ways to do it:
- Visitor downloads
- Owner-only downloads
- Client downloads
- What's in the .zip file?
- Can I offer this option for sale?
Visitor downloads.
Give your clients, friends, or family the power to download photos on their own for free. This is a great way to digitally share and deliver lots of photos and videos from an event.
To allow visitor downloads, first navigate to the gallery you want to make downloadable. Click the Settings button in the section bar to open the gallery settings.
Select the Photo Protection tab. Turn the Allow Downloads option ON to enable visitor downloads of your original images. You can also choose what size of downloads your visitor will receive by choosing a Download Size. This option will default to Original, but you can change that at anytime.
Enabling visitor downloads for a gallery will add a "download all" button to that gallery (a little downward-facing arrow). Your visitors simply need to click that button and follow the on-screen prompts to verify their email address so we can deliver the photos to them digitally in .zip files.
Any photos you've hidden in the gallery with the Hide option in the photo tools won't be included in the gallery download when requested from the gallery by a logged-out guest.
Important: Your gallery needs to have three or more photos or videos in it for the download button to appear. This option allows visitors to download galleries and images on their own for free.
Once the gallery is ready for download, we’ll send an email with the download link. This link will expire automatically after two weeks to help keep your photos safe and reduce storage of stale files in case you make changes to the gallery. Your visitors can request a fresh link any time.
Note for mobile downloads: The links we send are for .zip files, which are supported by laptops and desktops. On iOS 13 or later, .zip file support may be possible if your device has enough space. They aren't supported on older iOS versions for iPhones and iPads, nor most Android devices. To open .zip files on your mobile device, first grab our iOS or Android app, then tap your download link. Your photos will automatically unzip to your camera roll (iOS) or photos roll (Android).
If your gallery has a lot of photos, your download will be split into several .zip files to help speed up downloading. Just click each link that appears to ensure you grab every .zip file.
If the .zip files are very large, your browser will handle them in parts as well, so you may see temporary file extensions until the full .zip has been downloaded (unconfirmed.crdownload in Chrome and filename.zip.part in Firefox). These temporary filenames will disappear and become the regular .zip file once the download is fully complete. So wait until the download finishes before attempting to open the .zip file.
Note: For existing Basic and Power plans, visitor downloads are ON by default. You can use a gallery preset to ensure they are OFF on new galleries.
You can choose to password protect your visitor downloads, too. Turn the Require Download Password option ON to create a password your visitors will need to enter before they can download your photos. The password is whatever you’d like it to be! And you can change it any time.
Your visitors can download your original size files, or you can choose to allow downloads of a lower resolution. Once you enable the downloads option in the gallery settings, you'll then choose the download size. This feature defaults to the original size. Click on the drop-down and choose from the options to select a lower resolution to be delivered to your visitors.
Note: Collected images in the gallery where you're enabling the download size will inherit that download size as well.
As the account owner, when you're logged in, you'll always receive the original size of your files when using the download options. To see your visitor's experience with the download size, log out and view your site as a guest.
This setting can be saved in your gallery presets.
Owner-only downloads.
Entire gallery.
If you prefer to deliver your download link personally to friends, family, or clients, you can do that any time through your Organizer.
Important: If you subscribe to SmugMug Source and have RAW files in the gallery, those will be included with your gallery download as the logged-in account owner, along with any .xmp or sidecar files. If you don't want those sidecar files included—or if you plan to send the download link to someone else—you'll want to log out and request the download link as a guest.
Click Organize in the navigation bar and then select the gallery you'd like to download. Click the Select All button to select every image in the gallery, then click the download icon.
We’ll package up the gallery for you and email you the .zip link when it’s ready, so you don’t have to hang around waiting. Go back out photographing and leave the heavy lifting to us!
Note: Photos you've hidden with the Hide option in the photo tools will be included in this gallery download. Keep that in mind if you plan to share the download link with a guest.
Tip: As the account owner, if you request a gallery or multi-image download from within the Organizer, the .zip file link for that download request will not expire. However, the download you request as a logged-out guest from the gallery on the site expires in two weeks.
If your gallery is small and you decide to wait, the pop-up window will update automatically with your downloadable .zip link.
Copy the link in the pop-up and then send it along to your fans.
Select image(s).
If you'd prefer to download a single image or only a few images for yourself that you can forward on later, click Organize in the navigation bar and then select the gallery you'd like to download from. Click on the image(s) you want to download and then click the download button.
If you selected a single image, it will download to the location you selected on your computer. If you selected more than one image, we'll generate a .zip file for you just like we do for an entire gallery download above. Keep in mind that photo downloads generated by you while logged in will always be original-resolution photos.
Note: Each time you upload more photos to the gallery, you'll need to request a new download or the new images won't be included in the .zip file.
What's in the .zip file?
Your file includes photos and videos from your selected gallery. Collected photos are included as long as you own them, too.
Important: The .zip file is not locked with a password and can be opened by anyone who gets the link. Be aware when you share!
Can I offer this option for sale?
If you have a Portfolio or Pro account, check out the gallery option under the Downloads sections in your pricing page to price and sell downloads of entire galleries.