Using SmugMug
Views
Smugmug has three primary views: Library, Organize, and Site. You can switch between them from the navigation bar at the top of your screen.
The Site view is the primary way you should view your photos. This is also the view that visitors will see if you provide access. As the account owner you can view slideshows, download, have visitors leave comments, make edits to captions and keywords. Visitors can do some of these things depending on your settings. The primary purpose of this view is to enjoy your photos.
The organize view is the back end of your site, where you can create folders and galleries, change the sort order, edit metadata and do some light photo edits. The primary purpose of this view is to organize. Visitors never see this view.
The library view shows you all of your media. This view is rarely used, but you can view your photos by date here and search. This is also where you can access your trash, if you mistakenly deleted a photo or video you can recover it here for 30 days.
Site Security & Visitor Password
At the top, navigate to “Organize.” Then click on your top level “master photos” folder on the left, then “Settings” and “Folder.” This will change the settings for all galleries within that folder.
The visitor password is set under Security & Sharing.
If you don’t want your site public but don’t want to deal with a visitor password, choose “Unlisted” under Access. This will allow you to share the link with whomever you wish without requiring a password. The site is then technically public, but is hard to find without the direct link.
Privacy settings can be complicated, please reach out to me if you would like help changing them sitewide or for select galleries.
Viewing & Downloading Photos & Galleries
Click on any photo to view full screen. To view photos as a slideshow, click the arrow next to the download button on the top right of the screen.
To download an entire gallery, click the download button at the top of the gallery next to “Buy Photos”. SmugMug will ask for your email, then send you a zip file. Unfortunately at this time you can only download a gallery at a time without using external software.
To download an individual photo, click the download button on the lower right corner of the photo.
If you would like to share a link to a specific gallery, click the share link.
If you click on the photos, you will see download and share links on the menu on the left, as well as photo information that you can edit (title, caption, etc.) and a space to leave comments.
*The “Buy Photos” button only appears when you are logged in as the account owner. SmugMug allows you to purchase prints directly from your site. I have turned this feature off for visitors, but if you would like it on, please let me know.
Moving Photos Between Galleries
It’s easy to move photos from one gallery to another, to create new galleries, and to create collections.
First, some SmugMug definitions:
Gallery: where your photos live
Folder: houses one or more galleries
Move: moves a photo from one gallery to another
Collect: creates a virtual copy in another gallery. A single photo has one home folder, but can exist in multiple galleries as virtual copies. This allows you to create collections. For example:
My family travelled to Uganda. All of my Uganda photos live in the home folder labeled 2022, and the gallery labeled Uganda. There are roughly 6000 photos in this gallery.
My favorite Uganda photos are also collected in a gallery called “Uganda Favorites.” This gallery contains about 500 photos, this is the gallery I share with friends and family. These photos exist in two places on my site, but there is only one copy taking up space. If I delete a collected photo, the photo can still be seen in the home folder. This feature allows you to keep as many different collections of photos as you like.
The Organize view is the backend of your site. From here you an create new galleries and folders, move folders and galleries around with drag and drop, upload photos and videos, and collect photos into galleries.
Click on a photo to select it. Selected photos will have a white outline. Drag the photo(s) to the destination folder. You will then have the option to Move or Collect. “Move” moves the photo to the new destination. “Collect” places a virtual copy of the photo into the gallery or folder.
Photos can be collected into multiple locations. This is useful if you want a gallery of, for example, your favorite photos of your children together, but want to keep the original photos in the master chronological folder.
Pro tip:
Keep all of your photos in your master chronological folders. Do not move them. Then collect them into additional galleries as desired. This keeps your master copy clean and orderly. When it comes time to do your recommended monthly backup to an external hard drive, you can go right to the chronological folders and be sure that you have all of your photos. If you are adding photos to different galleries, it is easy to lose track of what was added since your last backup.
Searching with Keywords
You can search your photos using the keyword, caption, and title information added to your photos before they were uploaded, or added within the SmugMug site itself. Simply type the words in the search bar to see your photos. If we have set up a “keyword cloud” you can simply click on the individual keywords.
If you want to search by date, you’ll need to search in the Library view.
Using Keywords to Create Smart Galleries
Smart galleries allow you to use keywords to put a group of photos together into their own gallery, and every time another photo is added to your SmugMug library with that same combination of keywords, it will automatically be added to the library. For example, if you have two children and would like a gallery with all of the photos of those two children from the years 2010-2012. Or you find yourself regularly searching using the same keywords, make a smart gallery instead.
Start in the Organize view. Select a gallery or create a new one and click the Settings button. Note: if creating a new gallery, you will need to create the gallery, then go back into Settings to access the smart gallery settings.
Click Smart Rules and Setup.
Set your smart gallery rules:
Choose include or exclude, then choose the rest of your search criteria. You can preview your search with the Refresh button.
Note that it can take some time for the search to populate, especially if you just recently added the keywords.
The gallery will display up to a 1000 photos that follow your rules. These photos will be collected photos (virtual). If you delete the original source photo, the photo will be deleted from the gallery. You can have up to 5 rules at a time. If you add photos to your account that match these rules, the photos will be added to the Smart Gallery.
Using the SmugMug App
I highly recommend using the SmugMug app. In addition to accessing all of your photo galleries, you can use it to share photos on the site just like you do with the photos you take on your phone, and you can set it to automatically backup all of the photos on your phone.
The automatic uploads from your camera roll go into a private (no one can see it but you) folder called “Automatic IOS Uploads,” and are sorted by year and month. You can leave the photos there, you can move them to other galleries, or you can create new galleries to share.
I suggest reviewing your automatic uploads on a regular basis, cleaning them out, then moving the “keepers” to folders in your master chronological library. From there you can include them in your regular backup to your external hard drive.
Click on the person icon in the upper left of the app screen to get to your settings, and choose “Auto Upload.”
Turn on auto upload, and that’s it. You can choose whether to include videos, use cellular data, and to upload only when your device is charging.
When you first turn this on, it can take a while to upload your whole camera roll, but it works in the background. It will be faster with the app open.
To enable Auto Upload
Additional Cool SmugMug Features
There are many ways to use SmugMug!
Put the SmugMug app on your tv and watch a slideshow of your favorite photos and galleries
Upload videos into your account - you can watch these on your TV too
SmugMug allows for unlimited photos and videos (videos up to 20 minutes) so use it to automatically backup your camera roll.
Use it to collect photos from friends and family at an event: set up a new gallery and turn on "Guest Uploading" in the Security & Sharing view of the gallery settings. Guests can upload photos and videos right from their phones, then you can share the gallery with everyone at the event.
What Photo Problems Can I Solve For You?
My Services:
Scanning: photos, slides, negatives of any size
Video conversion: VHS, VHS-C, miniDV (camcorder tapes), DVDs, Mini Dvds, 8mm, 16mm, and more
Digital photo organizing: cleaning out digital libraries, removing duplicates, creating structure from chaos
Slideshow creation: graduations, birthdays, weddings, memorials, anything you can think of!
Photobook design: let me help you choose the right photos and create a beautiful keepsake book
If you have a photo problem, I bet I can solve it!
Page updated June 1, 2023