Selecting multiple photos

When you want to act on several photos at once, use selection mode. Instead of handling each photo separately, you mark a whole group and apply an action in one go – for example, give every photo of one round a heart, or save them all as a ZIP archive.

Marked photos get a border in the event colour. 1 the selection counter, 2 the actions, 3 select every photo in the current view. Save only appears when the host allows downloads; Hide only for moderators, Delete and Bulk actions only for hosts and admins; Remove from album only while the gallery is filtered to exactly one album.

Note

This guide is for guests. Four actions matter for you as a guest: selection mode, Like, Save (ZIP) and Range. Hosts, moderators and admins see extra actions in the same bar (Hide, Delete, Bulk Actions) – those are covered briefly further down.

Entering selection mode

There are two ways into selection mode. Both work on a computer and on a phone – only the gesture or the place in the bar differs. Take whichever one you come across.

Way A – via the gallery bar

1. When there is room in the bar (computer, tablet, wide window): tap Select in the gallery bar at the top.

   Phone

   

   Computer

   

   The Select button sits in the gallery bar as soon as the screen is wide enough.

2. On narrow screens the button moves into the “…” menu (three dots on the right of the bar) – there it reads Select Photos.

3. The selection bar appears. It replaces the gallery bar at the top, in the same place. The counter first reads Select photos until you mark your first photo; after that it counts live (“N photos”).

   

   The selection bar with counter, Select All and Range – it replaces the gallery bar at the top. ① the counter: it says how many photos are currently marked; the × in front of it leaves selection mode. ② the action row. As a guest it holds Like, Save and Range – Range marks everything between two taps. If you manage the event, Hide, Delete and Bulk Actions join them (as in this shot); guests never see those three. The button that takes photos with you is called Save, not “Download”. ③ Select All marks the whole loaded gallery, Deselect All clears the marks again.

There is no hard line between computer and phone

Whether the button sits directly in the bar or inside the “…” menu depends purely on the window width, not on the device type. In between there is a middle range – a tablet, say, or a narrow browser window – where both ways exist at the same time: the Select button in the bar and the “…” menu beside it. If you can’t find one, just take the other.

Way B – via a photo’s context menu

This way saves a step, because the photo you press is marked straight away.

1. Open a tile’s context menu:

   • On a computer: right-click any photo in the grid.
   • On a phone or tablet: press and hold the photo (long-press) – about half a second, with your finger still.

   

   Right-click and press-and-hold open the very same context menu with Select. ① Select and Open, ② Like, Comments, Share and Download – Share only appears when sharing is switched on for the event, Download only when single downloads are allowed, ③ Edit and Delete – on your own photos, on other people’s only with moderation rights, ④ Unpublish – only with moderation rights; on a photo that is not approved yet the entry reads Publish, ⑤ Customize gallery – for hosts and admins only.

2. Choose Select. The photo is marked instantly and selection mode turns on.

3. When selection mode is already active, that same menu item reads Deselect and removes the mark again.

Press and hold on a phone

Press-and-hold opens exactly the same menu as a right-click on a computer. It exists because iPhones and iPads have no right-click event – without this gesture the menu would be unreachable there.

The press is cancelled if you move your finger, zoom with a second finger, or let go too early. If nothing happens: hold still and wait a little longer.

Marking and unmarking photos

Once selection mode is active, you collect your photos:

• Tap a photo once to mark it – it gets a red border. Tap again to clear the mark.
• Keyboard (accessibility): use Tab to focus a photo, then press Enter or the Space bar to mark or unmark it.
• Select All (top of the bar) marks every currently loaded photo at once. If a filter is active, it only marks the filtered set.
• Range is the fastest way to grab a continuous group: mark the first and the last photo of the group, then tap Range – every photo in between is marked as well. The button is greyed out while you have fewer than two photos marked.
• The counter at the top (“N photos”) updates live as you mark.

When “Select All” turns into “Deselect All”

That same button only changes its label to Deselect All once truly every loaded photo is marked. If even one is missing, it still reads Select All – and tapping it marks the rest as well. So to clear the selection you may need two taps, or you simply leave selection mode.

Tip

Range is perfect for grabbing “all photos of one round” or “everything from the dance floor” without tapping each one: mark the first photo, scroll to the end, mark the last one, tap Range – done.

Leaving selection mode

You leave selection mode via the X at the top left or via Cancel Selection (which appears as soon as at least one photo is marked). Selection mode also turns off automatically once an action (such as Like or Save) is finished.

Note

Leaving selection mode discards the selection. So if you cancel by accident, you have to mark the photos again.

What you can do with the selection – as a guest

The selection bar offers these actions for all marked photos at once. All three stay greyed out while nothing is marked.

• Like – gives every marked photo a heart in one go. The button only appears when liking is enabled for this event. More on this: Likes & comments.

  Phone

  

  Computer

  

  Like gives all marked photos a heart in one sweep.

• Save – downloads the selection as a ZIP archive (see the next section).

• Range – fills the gap between the first and last marked photo (see above).

Saving the selection as a ZIP

There is one more dialog between the Save button and the finished ZIP file – that is where you pick the quality.

1. Mark your photos and tap Save in the selection bar.

2. The Download Options dialog opens. Choose one of the two versions:

   • Original Quality – subtitle “Highest resolution available”. Full resolution without any optimization, ideal for print and archiving.
   • Web Optimized – subtitle “Recommended for sharing online”. Balanced quality at a smaller file size, ideal for passing photos on quickly.

   The dialog also tells you how many files are involved and notes that they will be packaged as a ZIP archive.

   Phone

   

   Computer

   

   The same dialog as for a single download – just with the ZIP additions. ① “Select the version you want to download for 2 files:” names the count, and below it: “Files will be packaged as a ZIP archive”. ② Original Quality, its subtitle now ending in “· as single ZIP file”. ③ Web Optimized with the same addition. ④ the box When downloading multiple files: explains the compression and both quality levels. As long as you pick neither, nothing downloads – Close at the bottom backs out.

3. Only after this choice does the download start. You see a progress bar with a status text (“Creating ZIP archive…”, and at the end “Download complete!”) and can step in with Pause, Resume and Cancel.

“Save” depends on a host setting

The Save button appears only when the host has enabled bulk download (Settings → Features) and the event’s plan includes it. If it’s missing, you can still save photos one at a time – provided single download is on. The two switches are independent of each other. All the details: Downloading photos.

Example

You want to take home every photo from the dance floor. On your phone you long-press the first dance photo and pick Select from the context menu — the photo is marked and selection mode is running. You scroll to the end of the dance-floor series, tap the last photo (the counter at the top now reads 2 photos) and then tap Range: everything in between is marked as well and the counter jumps to 34 photos. A tap on Save opens Download Options; you pick Web Optimized (“Recommended for sharing online”), because you want to send the pictures to the family group chat. The progress bar reports “Creating ZIP archive…” and finally “Download complete!” — after that selection mode ends by itself and the marks are gone.

Extra actions for hosts and moderators

Note

The following actions are visible only to hosts, moderators and admins – as a guest they don’t appear at all. If you are the host yourself, switch to moderation or the admin portal via the profile menu at the top right.

Phone

Computer

As a host, you reach moderation and the admin portal via the profile menu at the top right. 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.

• Hide / Publish – toggles the visibility of the marked photos. See Moderation.
• Delete – moves the photos to the recycle bin (recoverable for 30 days). See Recycle bin.
• Remove from album – only appears when exactly one album filter is active, and removes the photos from that album only. See Browsing albums.
• Bulk Actions – opens a powerful dialog (admin/owner only), see the next section.

The “Bulk Actions” dialog (admin/owner only)

Caution

The Bulk Actions button and its dialog are tied to the admin or owner roles. As a guest you never see it – that’s normal. Which role can do what is covered under Roles and permissions.

The Bulk Actions dialog has several tabs. Which ones appear depends on the event: Challenge only if the event has photo challenges; Album only if there are albums. Description, Rotate and Metadata are always there.

• Challenge – assign marked photos to a photo challenge or remove the assignment. Ties in with your event’s photo challenges.
• Album – add photos to albums or remove them from albums. The “Search albums…” box helps you find the right album quickly; you can tick several albums. See Browsing albums and Managing albums.
• Description – set a shared description for all photos (up to 2000 characters), prepend some text (up to 500 characters), or clear the description (red, irreversible).
• Rotate – Clockwise, Flip or Counter-clockwise. Rotation is queued for background processing, so it isn’t visible immediately.
• Metadata – add location (latitude/longitude/altitude; “Pick on map” or “Current position”), capture time, camera/lens, and artist name/copyright notice. Only the filled-in fields are updated.

At the bottom you confirm with the action button, whose text changes per tab (e.g. “Add to albums” or “Update metadata”). For very large selections the action runs automatically in blocks of 500 photos; at the end you see one combined message.

Troubleshooting

Tip

I don’t see “Select”. On narrow screens the entry lives inside the “…” menu of the gallery bar (“Select Photos”). You can also always get in through a photo’s context menu – right-click on a computer, press and hold on a phone.

Press-and-hold doesn’t open a menu. Your finger slipped, a second finger was on the screen, or you let go too early. Hold still and wait a little longer.

“Save” is missing. The host has disabled bulk download (Settings → Features) or the plan doesn’t include it. You can still save a single photo via the context menu → Download. See Features.

“Like” is missing. Liking is turned off for this event or not included in the plan.

“Bulk Actions”, “Delete” or “Hide” are missing. Those are host/moderator features. Normal as a guest.

“Select All” marks too few. It only covers loaded or filtered photos. Remove the filter or scroll further so more photos load.

The button still reads “Select All”. Then not every loaded photo is marked yet – only then does it become Deselect All.

Large ZIP downloads: the ZIP is built right in the browser; above about 100 MB it automatically splits into several ZIP parts. If needed, allow your browser to download several files at once.

Selection gone after an action? That’s intended – after a successful action, selection mode is left.

Note

Missing an action here? Some actions depend on your plan and the event settings (Settings → Features), others on your role in the event. Bulk Actions, Delete and Hide are only visible to hosts and moderators. More on this under Features and Roles and permissions.

Related topics

• Downloading photos – single downloads and the two quality levels.
• Likes & comments – every way to like, including one at a time.
• Browsing albums – filter photos by album before you mark them.
• Backing up all photos – the full export for hosts.
• Settings: Features – the download and like switches.