Browsing albums

At larger events, hundreds or thousands of photos pile up quickly. Albums group related photos together so you don’t have to scroll endlessly through the whole gallery – for example all photos from the ceremony, all pictures of one particular person, or all contributions to a photo task.

The albums overview is a start page made of tiles. One thing to understand up front: an album has no separate detail page. When you open an album, you land in the gallery, filtered to that one album – so you only see the photos that belong to it.

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The albums overview: all albums and task collections of your event at a glance. 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.

Where do I find albums?

There are three ways to reach albums: the Albums menu item in the navigation (the full overview with every album), the Albums section inside the filter (jump straight to a single album), and – if the host switched it on – the album quick select right above the gallery grid.

Way 1 – The “Albums” menu item in the navigation

1. Open your event’s navigation. On desktop, Albums sits in the top header; on mobile it’s in the bottom tab bar or the menu.

   

   On desktop, “Albums” sits in the top header.

   

   On mobile, the bottom tab bar leads to the albums. ① Gallery, ② Tasks, ③ the round button in the middle opens the upload, ④ Albums, ⑤ Leaderboard. Switched-off areas are missing from the bar – without photo tasks, for instance, the remaining entries close the gap.

2. Tap Albums. The overview opens.

Way 2 – Through the filter

If you just want to filter to one specific album, you don’t need the detour via the overview: the gallery filter has its own Albums section.

1. In the gallery toolbar, tap Filter.

2. Scroll down in the filter panel to the Albums section and pick the album you want – or No album for all photos without an album assignment.

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   The “Albums” section is the fourth one in the filter panel – below Quick Filters, Media Type and Sort Order, above Tasks and Filter by People. The number next to the heading says how many albums exist. ① Quick Filters: My Uploads shows only what you uploaded yourself, My Likes only your hearts, Tasks only photos taken for a photo task – one tap switches a filter on, the next one off again. ② Media Type: All, Photos, Videos, Motion Photos. ③ Apply commits your choice; to its left Clear resets everything and Cancel closes without changes. Further down come Sort Order and Albums – and, depending on the event, Tasks, Filter by People, Filter by Number of People and Filter by Number of Likes; on a phone you scroll to reach them. There is no filter for a date or a time range.

3. Tap Apply. The gallery now shows only that album’s photos.

The filter lets you pick several albums at once

The album chips in the filter are a multi-select: each tap adds an album or takes it away again, and every selected album gets a checkmark. That’s how you combine “Ceremony” and “Party” into one view.

A tile in the overview can’t do that – it always opens exactly one album and replaces any previous album selection. Without album is the exception: that chip excludes all other albums (and vice versa).

Way 3 – The album quick select above the gallery

The fastest route from the gallery into an album is the album quick select: a horizontally scrollable row of chips right above the photo grid (below the sort bar). Each chip is an album and shows its photo count next to the name.

1. Tap an album chip. The gallery filters to that single album immediately – no filter panel, no Apply.

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   Above the grid sit the toolbar and the sort bar; when the album quick select is switched on, a band with the albums appears above them. ① the progress card – it only shows when photo tasks are switched on and tasks exist, ② the toolbar with Filter, Upload, Select, Photowall, Map, Deleted and the column picker – on a phone only Filter and the upload button stay, the rest moves into the three-dot menu next to them, ③ the Sort by bar with Upload, Capture, Likes and Comments; the control on the far right reverses the direction.

2. Tapping the same (active) chip again clears the album filter. So does the All chip on the far left.

The quick select has to be switched on by the host

The album quick select is an event option and off by default. The host enables it under Settings → Appearance → Photo grid → Controls above the grid (“Album Quick Select” – “Show scrollable album shortcuts below the sort bar”). It used to sit under “Features”. If you see no chip row, it simply isn’t enabled – or there are no albums yet. All other ways still work.

The chips don’t replace the filter: they always select one album. Several albums at once still only work in the filter panel – if several are selected there, several chips are highlighted here.

Filter, quick select or overview – what's the difference?

All three ways end up in the same filtered gallery. The overview (Albums menu item) first shows every album as tiles to browse; the filter jumps straight into a single album and is the only one that can combine several; the quick select is the one-tap route without a dialog. More about filters in the filter guide.

No Albums menu item?

The Albums menu item only appears when there is at least one album or at least one enabled photo task. If there are neither albums nor tasks, the item is hidden. Albums themselves depend on the plan (“Unlimited Albums”; smart albums are the premium feature “Smart Albums”). If nothing has been created yet, the menu item is missing.

What does the overview show?

The page has up to two sections (in this order):

• Photo Albums (with a photo icon) – the albums themselves.
• Photo Tasks (with a clipboard icon) – only shown when tasks are enabled and at least one exists. More on this below and in the photo tasks guide.

At the very top there is also the Sort Order card, which controls the order of the tiles (see Sorting).

What’s on an album tile?

Each album tile shows:

• A cover image on the left (see below).
• The album title.
• A badge “N Images” – the number of photos in the album.
• An extra badge “Your Uploads: N” – shown only if you have already contributed photos to this album.

A task tile works the same way, except its badge reads “N Solutions” (the number of submitted photos). A task without a title shows as “Unnamed Task”.

Where the cover image comes from

The picture on the left of the tile can come from four different sources – the host decides which:

• Chosen automatically – Photogala picks a photo from the album.
• Chosen by hand – the host designates one specific gallery photo as the cover.
• An uploaded image of their own – the host uploads a picture that need not be in the gallery at all (a graphic or a logo, for example). Those covers additionally get their own framing: the host sets a focus point so the right part shows on the narrow tile. Only uploaded covers carry this album-specific focus point; for gallery photos the photo’s own focus point applies.
• Collage – up to four photos from the album in a grid. The layout follows count and orientation: two photos side by side (stacked instead when both are landscape), three as one large plus two small, four as a classic 2 × 2.

While the album is still empty and no cover is set, you see a placeholder with a photo icon.

Only the host sets cover images

As a guest you can neither choose a cover image nor change its framing – that happens entirely in album management in the admin area. See Creating albums.

Only 9 tiles? Load more

Each section shows only 9 tiles at first. If there are more, a button appears at the bottom: “Load More Albums” or “Load More Tasks”, loading 9 more each time. So no albums are missing – they’re just not expanded yet.

Understanding album types

For you as a guest, the interaction is identical for all types: tap the tile, view the photos. The difference is only in how an album fills up:

• Manual / shared albums – collections the host assembles by hand (e.g. “Ceremony”, “Party”). The contents are fixed.
• Smart albums (premium) – fill automatically by rules, e.g. by uploader, capture time, media type, or likes. New matching photos land in them on their own once uploaded and processed.
• People albums – a special kind of smart album that collects every photo of one specific person. Technically it is virtual: when opened, the gallery filters by that person’s recognized faces rather than by a fixed album membership. To you it looks like a normal album.

Why is a smart album sometimes (almost) empty?

Smart and people albums fill by rules or face recognition. If such an album shows fewer photos than expected, matching pictures are either not uploaded yet or still being processed – they appear automatically afterwards.

Which rules apply, or which person a people album represents, is set by the host. That belongs in the admin area – you reach it (with the right role) via the profile menu in the top right.

Opening an album

Opening happens in two levels: first the album, then a photo within it.

1. In the overview, tap an album tile (the whole tile is clickable).

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   Tapping the highlighted tile does not open a single photo but the filtered gallery of that album. The number on the tile shows how many images it holds.

2. You land in the gallery, filtered to exactly that album. Only that album’s photos are shown.

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   The opened album as a filtered gallery grid — the Active Filters box names the album and clears it in one click.

3. A tap on a photo opens it in fullscreen or the slideshow.

Re-sorting inside an album

An album can carry its own default sort order (e.g. “newest first”). If it doesn’t, the gallery uses the host’s event default sort order. You can change it yourself at any time – fastest via the quick sort bar right above the photo grid:

• On the left it reads Sort by (just an icon on a phone), followed by the options Upload, Capture and – when the respective feature is on – Likes and Comments.
• On the right sits an arrow button toggling between Newest and Oldest (for likes and comments it reads Most and Least).
• The change takes effect immediately, with no Apply. The album filter stays in place.

You’ll find the same settings in the filter panel under Sort Order; the bar is just the shorter route. More on that in the filter guide.

Note

The quick sort bar is an event option too (Settings → Appearance → Photo grid → Controls above the grid → “Quick Sort Bar”), but it is on by default. If it’s missing, the host switched it off – then you sort via the filter.

Example

You are looking for the ceremony photos. The overview shows the tile Ceremony with the badge 128 Images and, below it, Your Uploads: 3 — that many pictures are your own. Tapping the tile does not open a photo, it takes you into the gallery filtered to “Ceremony”. In the quick sort bar you switch to Capture and Oldest so the ceremony runs front to back — the album filter stays in place. If you want Ceremony and Party in one view, only Filter → Albums can do that: tap both chips (each gets a tick) and confirm with Apply. To get back to everything, tap “Clear Filters to See All Uploads”.

Back to the whole gallery

Because an opened album is just a filter on the gallery, you’ll only see the album’s photos afterwards. To see all uploads again, clear the filter:

1. In the filtered gallery, tap the “Clear Filters to See All Uploads” button. The gallery then shows every photo again.

2. Alternatively, use the navigation to switch back to Albums or Gallery.

Common pitfall

If you see “only a few photos” after opening an album, that’s not a bug – you’re in the filtered gallery. “Clear Filters to See All Uploads” brings you back to the full gallery. More on album filters is in the filter guide.

Sorting the overview

The Sort Order card at the top controls the order of the tiles. The sort applies to both sections (albums and tasks) at once.

1. Open the dropdown at the top with the placeholder “Sort by”.

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   The sort dropdown with all five modes.

2. Pick one of the five modes:

   • Manual Order – the order defined by the host (no ascending/descending direction).
   • Random Order – shuffles the tiles. A “Reshuffle” button also appears (a dice icon on mobile) to shuffle again. No direction.
   • Alphabetical – by title.
   • Most Images – by number of photos.
   • Your Uploads – the albums/tasks you contributed to most come first.

3. Use the arrow button next to the dropdown to toggle between ascending and descending. This direction does not apply to “Manual Order” and “Random Order”.

Note

Below the “Sort Order” heading you can see the current mode and direction. Until you pick something yourself, the host’s event default sort applies (fallback: “Most Images”, descending). Once you sort yourself, your choice applies – for your current session only. Every time you change the sort, the visible count resets to 9.

Photo tasks in the overview

The second section, Photo Tasks, works like albums: tapping a task tile opens the gallery filtered to that task, where you see every submitted solution. The only visible difference is the badge “N Solutions” instead of “Images”.

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Below the regular albums sits the highlighted Photo Tasks section: every task collects the photos uploaded for it like an album of its own.

This section only appears when photo tasks are enabled. How to solve a task and contribute a photo yourself is in the photo tasks guide.

What guests cannot do

Creating albums is the host's job

As a guest you can browse and filter albums, but:

• You cannot create an album. The “Add album” button in the overview only appears for hosts and admins.
• You cannot set a cover image or change its framing.
• You cannot rename, reorder or delete albums.

What you certainly can do: assign your own photos to an album – while uploading, or later via Edit in the image details (see Can I crop or adjust a photo?). Everything else belongs in album management: Creating albums.

For hosts and moderators

As an admin, the overview shows extra elements that are invisible to guests:

• An “Add” button per section (labeled “Add album” or “Add task”).
• A management menu per tile: right-click (on desktop) or long-press (on mobile) opens the actions Open / Edit / Delete. Delete asks for confirmation before running (“Delete album?”).

Removing a photo from an album

Moderators can take a single photo out of an album straight from the gallery – without deleting it.

1. Filter the gallery to exactly one album (tile, quick-select chip or filter). That’s a precondition: the entry only appears when exactly one album is filtered – otherwise it wouldn’t be clear which album to remove from.

2. Right-click the photo (on desktop) or long-press it (on mobile).

   

   Gallery filtered to an album – you can tell by the 1 Filter chip on the left of the toolbar. Only then does Remove from album sit between Edit and Delete, and only if you may moderate.

3. Choose Remove from album. The photo disappears from that album but stays in the gallery.

Tip

For several photos at once: in selection mode the same button exists as a bulk action (“Remove from album”) whenever exactly one album is filtered. How selection works is covered in Selecting multiple photos.

Creating and configuring albums (including smart-album rules, cover images and people reference photos) happens in the admin area. You reach it via the profile menu in the top right.

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Use the profile menu in the top right to reach the moderation and admin areas (with a role). ① your points and solved tasks, ② Profile options with My Profile, Language, Theme and Help, ③ Management with Account Settings, Moderation and Admin Portal – this section is missing until you hold a role for it, ④ Account with Sign out.

Troubleshooting

If something looks off

• No “Albums” menu item. There are no albums and no enabled tasks yet.
• “No Albums or Tasks Found”. Nothing has been created yet. Check back later.
• Only a few photos after opening. You’re in the filtered gallery; use “Clear Filters to See All Uploads” to see everything again.
• Only 9 albums visible. Tap “Load More Albums”.
• Smart / people album (almost) empty. Matching photos appear automatically once they’re uploaded and processed.
• No chip row above the gallery. The album quick select is off by default; the host enables it under Settings → Appearance → Photo grid. Without albums it doesn’t show either.
• No “Add album” button. Only the host creates albums – as a guest the button isn’t visible.
• “Remove from album” missing in the context menu. Either you may not moderate, or no album or more than one is currently filtered.

Related help pages

• Gallery & viewing
• Fullscreen & slideshow
• Filtering (incl. album filter)
• Solving photo tasks
• Uploading photos
• Creating albums (for hosts)