Creating albums

Albums let you organize your event’s photos by moment or theme – for example “Ceremony”, “Party” or “Best photos”. Albums can be filled manually, or fill themselves as a Smart album based on rules (e.g. all videos, or every photo of a specific person). This guide walks you as the host through the complete album manager. To see how guests browse albums later, see Browsing albums.

Reaching the album manager

1. Open your event’s Admin portal. Tap your profile menu at the top right and choose the Admin portal entry under Management. See Reaching the event admin for details.

2. In the left sidebar, open the Gallery category and click Albums. The route is /admin/gallery/album-manager. You can also reach the page from the dashboard or the global search.

3. The page heading reads Albums List; the browser tab reads Album Manager.

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The album manager: a list of all albums with search, list sorting and the button for a new album. ① the two header buttons Reorder and Add Album. The left one only exists while Sort by is set to Manual Order – with any other sorting it is gone; while it is active it reads Done and you drag the albums into the order you want. On a phone both buttons show icons only. ② the sorting row: the Sort by field, the two arrows for ascending and descending, and Rows per page – to the right on a computer, in the line below on a phone. ③ the three-dot menu of an album row with Select, View Images, Edit and Delete.

Understanding the album list

The top area controls how the list is displayed – this does not affect how photos are sorted inside an album (you set that later in the dialog).

1 Search Albums filters the list by title as you type, 2 Sort by: changes the order of the list (not the order in the gallery), 3 Add Album opens the dialog for a new album.

• Title & counter – the heading reads Albums List, with the total below it followed by album or albums. As soon as you mark albums, the heading switches to the count plus Selected.
• Search – the Search Albums field filters the list live by title (with a short delay of 300 ms).
• List sorting – the Sort by: dropdown orders the displayed list. Options: Manual Order, Title, Created At and Images Count. The two arrow buttons next to it toggle ascending and descending.
• Rows per page – the Rows: field sets how many albums appear per page (default 50).
• Reorder – this button appears only when “Sort by” is set to Manual Order (see “Reordering albums”). While the mode is active it reads Done.
• Add Album – the button with the plus icon opens the create dialog (icon only on narrow screens).

Each album row shows a selection checkbox, a translation-status icon, the title, plus the creation date and the number of images. Clicking the row opens the edit dialog directly. The three-dot menu (or right-click, or a long press on a phone) gives you:

• Select – mark the album for multi-selection.
• View Images – jumps to the filtered gallery showing only this album’s photos (route /admin/gallery?albums=…). This is how you assign photos to a manual album.
• Edit – opens the edit dialog.
• Delete – deletes the album after the prompt Delete Album / “Do you really want to delete this album?”. The photos themselves stay in the gallery; only the album assignment is removed.

As soon as you select at least one album, a selection bar appears showing how many albums are marked, plus a Delete Selected button. After the prompt Are you sure? / “This will permanently delete the selected albums.” all marked albums are deleted.

If there are no albums yet, the page shows No albums found. with the hint “Get started by creating a new album” and an Add Album button. If the search finds nothing, it shows No results for with your search term instead.

Creating an album: the dialog

Tap Add Album. The Add Album dialog opens (when editing it reads Edit Album). The fields appear top to bottom in this order:

1. Album type – two buttons:

   • Manual – a normal album you assign photos to manually.
   • Smart – fills itself automatically by rules. If you lack the smart-album feature, this button carries a star icon as a premium hint.

   There is no separate faces album type any more – people are now a rule inside a smart album.

2. Language selector / translation – here you pick the active event language. For multi-language events you maintain title and description per language separately.

3. Title – the required title for the active language.

4. Description – an optional description (a multi-line text field).

5. Auto-fill rules – appears only for the Smart type (see “Smart albums”).

6. Sort photos by and Order – control how guests see the photos within this album. “Sort photos by”: Event default, Upload date, Capture date, Likes or Comments. “Order”: Event default, Newest first or Oldest first. Don’t confuse this with the list sorting above – here it’s about the order of photos in the opened album. Event default inherits the event-wide setting.

7. Cover image – see “The cover”.

8. Tap Save at the bottom. While saving you’ll see Saving…, and during a cover upload Uploading… with a percentage. Cancel discards the dialog.

Note

Your cover choice takes effect only when you save – there is no separate “set cover” step (“Your choice is applied when you save the album.”). For a new album the album is created first and then the cover is applied; when editing, the album is updated first and then the cover is applied.

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The “Add Album” dialog: album type Manual or Smart, title and description per language, photo sorting and cover image.

The cover

The Cover image area has three tabs. A status badge next to it shows where the current cover comes from: Automatic, Manual (picked from the gallery) or Uploaded.

• Automatic – the cover is picked from the album’s photos: “A cover is picked automatically from the album’s photos (most liked, then newest).” The simplest choice for new or empty albums.
• From gallery – available only for albums that are already saved; a brand-new album does not show this tab yet because it has no photos. Pick a single photo, or turn on Collage and pick 2–4 photos – the hint “Pick 2–4 photos” and a counter guide you, and the chosen photos are numbered. If no photos are published yet, it shows “No published photos in this album yet.”; with many photos, the button below loads more.
• Upload – upload your own cover: “Upload your own cover image (square works best).” After the upload, open Image settings via the gear icon on the image: Set focus point, Rotate 90° left, Rotate 90° right and Crop …. The focus point decides which part of the image stays visible in a square crop. Below the upload field, Browse Templates opens the Choose Template dialog with ready-made images – handy when you have no picture of your own at hand.

The cover block in a brand-new album: the badge on the right names the current state (‘Automatic’), but only ‘Automatic’ and ‘Upload’ are on offer – the ‘From gallery’ tab is missing as long as the album has no photos. ‘Upload’ is preselected, with the upload field and ‘Browse Templates’.

Caution

Cropping replaces the image. Before cropping, Photogala asks Replace image? – cropping creates a new version and replaces the current image, and the original is not kept. Rotating or cropping also resets the focus point, because the image geometry changes.

Best practice: For a consistent album look, upload square and place the focus point on faces or the main subject. For mixed collections, use the collage.

Smart albums: fill automatically

When you choose Smart as the album type, the Auto-fill rules section appears. The album then continuously fills itself with every photo that matches your rules.

1. Tap Add rule and pick a field. The X icon removes a rule again.

2. From two rules onward, Match appears at the top right with all (AND – every rule must match) or any (OR – one is enough).

3. Watch the live preview below: Counting… or ≈ N photos shows how many photos currently match. Check this before saving.

4. Tap Save.

With the album type on ‘Smart’, the ‘Auto-fill rules’ block slides in between description and sorting – still empty here, with ‘Add rule’ as its only button. The album-type switch itself sits above this crop.

The available rule fields:

• Media type – Photos, Videos or Live photos.
• Minimum likes – a minimum number of likes.
• Uploaded by – one or more people (“Select people…”).
• Caption contains – text that appears in the caption.
• In album / Not in album – in or not in the selected album (the album itself is excluded).
• From task – photos from a specific task (see Managing tasks).
• Captured between / Uploaded between – a date range with a start and an end field (each with date plus time; the time activates only once a date is set).
• Person – only with face recognition enabled (see below).

Best practice: Combine rules with all to narrow the result – e.g. “Media type = Photos” AND “Minimum likes = 5” for a “Best photos” album. Use the ≈ preview as a sanity check.

Example

You want an album The best shots that fills itself.

In the dialog you pick Smart as the album type and add two rules in the Auto-fill rules section: Media type = Photos and Minimum likes = 5. As soon as the second rule is there, Match appears at the top right – leave it on all, so both have to be true. On any, every video would slip in as well.

The live preview runs along at the bottom: if it says ≈ 12 photos, your threshold is right. If it says ≈ 0 photos, your rules are too strict – lower the minimum likes instead of saving and wondering about an empty album later. Then Save.

The album stays alive: when a photo picks up its fifth like later on, it shows up there by itself – nothing for you to maintain.

Smart albums by person

With face recognition unlocked, the field list offers Person as well. Choosing it opens the People in this album section with the hint: “Pick one or more detected people, or upload a reference photo. The album updates automatically.”

• Path A – pick detected people: Tap the tiles of the detected faces to select them. Show more people (N) loads additional tiles. If no people are detected yet, it shows “No people detected yet. Face recognition runs as photos are uploaded.”
• Path B – upload a reference photo: In the Or upload reference photos section you upload a clear photo of one face (JPEG, PNG, WebP or HEIC/HEIF). This works only for an already-saved album – for a new album it reads “Save the album first, then upload reference photos here.” Each reference shows its state as an icon: loading dots while processing, a green checkmark on success, a red exclamation mark on error. The X icon on the tile removes a reference again (Remove reference).
• A ≈ counter shows live how many photos match the selected people. If it says there are no matching photos yet, processing is still running – the album fills itself as soon as faces are recognized.

More on face recognition: AI processing.

Reordering albums

The order in which guests see the albums is controlled by manual ordering:

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In reorder mode you drag the albums into place; the number on the left shows the position. “Done” leaves the mode.

1. Set Sort by: at the top to Manual Order. Only then does the Reorder button appear.

2. Tap Reorder. A hint appears: “Drag and drop albums to reorder them. Click ‘Done’ when finished.” Now drag the albums by their handle into the order you want. Alternatively, type the sort position directly as a number in a row (Edit sort order).

3. Tap Done to save the order. While the mode is active, the list shows all albums without paging.

This order takes effect on the albums page when its sorting is set to manual – you set that in the Style settings.

What guests can – and cannot – do

Note

Guests can only view and browse albums. They cannot create their own albums, cannot rename or delete albums, and cannot set a cover – the guest interface reads albums only. Everything on this page is the host’s job. The guest view is covered in Browsing albums.

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The gallery’s albums page, here in the managing view: the “+ Add” next to “Photo Albums” only shows for people who manage the event – guests may browse, but not create or rename. ① Sort Order: Manual Order, Random Order, Alphabetical, Most Images and Your Uploads. The arrow next to it flips the direction – with *Manual* and *Random* it has no effect, and *Random* adds a Reshuffle button instead. What the page starts with is set in the event settings; a guest’s own choice only lasts for their visit. ② The Photo Albums section. The + Add next to it only shows for people who manage the event. ③ Every album card shows its cover, name, the number of images and – once you contributed something yourself – Your Uploads: N; clicking it opens the gallery filtered to that album. The same layout follows once more below for Photo Tasks.

Premium & roles

Note

Creating albums depends on the event’s plan. If the album feature is missing, the Add Album dialog shows a premium hint instead of the fields – but existing albums can still be edited. Smart albums and the person rule (face recognition) are additional premium features.

Troubleshooting

• No album feature: The create dialog shows a premium hint. You can still edit existing albums.
• Smart chosen but no smart feature: Instead of the rule builder a premium hint appears and the Save button stays disabled. Switch to Manual or upgrade.
• “Person” missing from the field list: Face recognition is not active. See AI processing.
• Reference photo won’t upload: Save the album first, reopen it, then upload the reference.
• Preview shows ≈ 0 photos: The rules are too strict (too many combined with all) or people aren’t detected yet. Wait for processing or loosen the rules.
• The “Reorder” button is missing: “Sort by:” is not set to Manual Order. Switch it.
• Cover doesn’t change: The choice only takes effect after Save.
• The “From gallery” tab is missing: The album is not saved yet. Save it first, then reopen it.

Best-practice tips

• Prefer few, clearly named albums over many overlapping ones. For international guests, maintain titles in multiple languages.
• Smart albums are great for “Best photos” (minimum likes), “Videos” (media type) or “Per person” (bride/groom via reference photo).
• Leave the album-internal photo sorting on Event default in most cases and override it only deliberately.
• Set the album order via Manual Order and Reorder – this matches the manual albums-page sorting in the style settings.

Related help

• Guests: Browsing albums
• Admin: AI processing / face recognition
• Admin: Style settings
• Admin: Managing tasks