Whether you require the visibility of a Gallery to be limited to a specific Client, the Client and designated Guests, or to Visitors (accessible to the general public), the access of a Gallery can be managed through the Settings of that specific Gallery.
In addition to configuring Access at the Gallery level, you also have the option to establish Folder Access Settings. For more information on how to manage Folder Access, please refer to this support article.
Types of Gallery Access & Permissions
There are three distinct types of access that can be granted to individuals viewing your Zenfolio Galleries:
Clients are the main individuals who will be accessing the Gallery. They are typically the ones who have engaged your services. For instance, in the case of a wedding shoot, the bride and groom would most likely be designated as Clients and granted access to the Gallery.
Guests are individuals who are considered secondary and are also granted special access. For instance, the family or bridal party of a wedding can be added to the Gallery as Invited Guests.
Gallery Contacts refer to individuals who are intended to be added to a Gallery without granting them any additional Client or Guest privileges. Gallery Contacts will have ongoing access to their respective Galleries, but their level of permissions within the Gallery will be limited to that of a standard Visitor.
In addition to the mentioned types of individuals that can be specified for your galleries, any person not specifically designated in the Gallery will be classified as a Visitor.
Visitors refer to individuals whom you wish to grant access to the Gallery in a public format. By selecting the option to have a Public Gallery anyone possessing the link will be able to access the Gallery. To enhance security measures for these Visitors, you have the option to implement additional safeguards such as password protection and email address requirement.
When configuring the Access Settings for the Gallery, it is crucial to select appropriate settings that align with the intended visitors of the Gallery in order to prevent any potential confusion regarding accessing the Gallery.
For instance, if the intention is to restrict access to only specified Clients or Guests and not allow public access, the Restricted setting should be chosen. This setting will grant access to these individuals when they visit a Gallery they have been added to as a Client or Guest. During their initial visit, they will be prompted to create a unique password associated with their email address. This password will be used for accessing this Gallery and any other Galleries they have been granted access to.
It is important to note that the password added to a Gallery through the Password Protection option is different from the password created by a Client or Guest for their own access.
To avoid any confusion regarding passwords, if there are no intended visitors to the Gallery other than the specified Clients or Guests, it is recommended to use the Restricted setting instead of Password Protection. However, if the intention is to allow access for Clients, Guests, and regular Visitors, it is advised to enable the option to require an email address for Gallery access. This ensures that any specified Clients or Guests will be promptly identified.
Getting to the Access & Permissions Settings
- Click on the Galleries icon
on the left-hand side of your account. If the My Library panel is collapsed, click on the Galleries icon again.
- Under My Folders select the Folder that contains the Gallery you need to edit. Then select the specific Gallery to open it.
- With that Gallery open, click on the Settings button.
- Here you will find the Access & Permissions Settings.
Once you've reached the Access & Permissions Settings you'll begin choosing what kind of access is allowed for this particular Gallery.
Public
The Public setting will allow anyone that can reach the Gallery to have access to it and the images uploaded. You can however turn ON the optional requirement of an email address when visiting this Gallery.
If you have specific Clients assigned to this Gallery, it is highly recommended that you enable the "Require email for gallery access" option.
If you have specific Clients assigned to this Gallery, but still want the Gallery to be Public, it is highly recommended that you enable the "Client & Guest Privileges require account sign in" option. This will ensure that any Clients visiting the Gallery are properly recognized by their email address, giving them proper access to any Client Only or Client & Guest Only options.
Password Protected
The Password Protected option will allow you to designate a unique password for the Gallery. Anyone that is attempting to visit this Gallery will need to provide the appropriate password to gain entry. You can also turn on the optional requirement of an email address when visiting this Password Protected Gallery.
If you have specific Clients assigned to this Gallery, it is highly recommended that you enable the "Require email for gallery access" option.
If you have specific Clients assigned to this Gallery, but still want the Gallery to be Password Protected for other visitors, it is highly recommended that you enable the "Client & Guest Privileges require account sign in" option. This will ensure that any Clients visiting the Gallery are properly recognized by their email address, giving them proper access to any Client Only or Client & Guest Only options.
Note: The password added to a Gallery through this Password Protection option is NOT the same password a Client or Guest will create and use for their account. To avoid confusion between passwords, if you do not intend to have any visitors other than the indicated Clients or Guests, it is recommend that you change the Access of this Gallery to Restricted.
For more information about adding Clients and Guests to a gallery, click HERE.
Restricted
The Restricted option will give access to anyone that has been added directly to the Contacts of this particular Gallery and indicated as Clients or Guests. Anyone that has not be specifically added to this Gallery as such will not have any way to access the Gallery. The Gallery will not be able to be shared until at least one Client or Guest has been added to the Gallery.
If you do not have any Clients or Guest added to the Gallery, you will be given a notification signaling that you will need to add at least one Client or Guest or switch to another form of Gallery Access.
For more information about adding Clients and Guests to a Gallery, click HERE.
Offline
The Offline setting will take the Gallery completely offline, making it inaccessible to anyone that may be trying to access it. Setting a Gallery to Offline will change the Gallery to an inactive status within the Expiration tab of the Gallery Settings.
You can still add contacts to the Gallery, however it will not be possible for anyone to actually visit the Gallery unless the Access setting is changed to Public, Password Protected, or Restricted.
As an additional note, if you have set an expiration date for a Gallery and that expiration has passed, the Offline setting option will change to Expired, indicated the date on which this Gallery expired and became inactive. To make this Gallery accessible again you will need to change the Access setting to Public, Password Protected, or Restricted.
Adding Clients and Guests to a Gallery
Within the Settings of a Gallery, you can add contacts to be associated with the Gallery. These Contacts can be added as Clients or Guests as well if you would like to give special access to these individual Contacts.
For anyone that has been indicated as a Client or Guest within the contacts, when they visit the Gallery and enter in their email address it will be recognized and they will be able to create a password for their own special access or they can enter in their own password if they've already created one previously. The email address that they use must be the same email address that you add in the Settings of the Gallery.
When setting up the Clients and Guests, if you're not sure of who to put where, think of Clients as your actual contracted clients that will have the most access (i.e. bride and groom), and think of Guests as other authorized viewers that you have contact information for but may not want to give full access to (i.e parents of the bride and groom).
There are a couple different ways you can add Clients and Guests to a Gallery:
Add Client or Guest Manually
- Go into the Contacts section of the Gallery Settings.
- Select Add Manually.
- If you have someone added to your account's contact list that you want to add as a Client or Guest, you can use the Add from Contacts button to select an individual from your account's Contact list.
- You can also enter in the name and email address of the Client or Guest manually.
- Once you provide the First and Last name as well as the email address of the individual, click on Other. Here you can use the Add as a Client or Add as a Guest buttons to add this individual as a Client or a Guest.
Those individuals that you add to a gallery as Clients will be able to comment on photos within the Gallery, when you enable Commenting (exclusive to PortfolioPlus and ProSuite subscribers). You can also indicate other settings like Downloading and Sharing to be only accessible to Clients.
Importing Contacts with CSV Files
If you have a CSV file containing contacts, you may import them directly into your Gallery's contact table by utilizing the import CSV feature.
- In your Zenfolio account go to Galleries.
- Navigate to the desired Gallery.
- Select Settings.
- Access the Contacts tab.
- Click on the text labeled Import CSV.
- This action will launch the Import Contacts Modal.
- Select your CSV file by utilizing the browse option, or alternatively, drag and drop your file into the designated drop zone.
CSV File Format:
- File Type: Please ensure that you are utilizing a CSV file. Other file formats such as .txt, .numbers (Apple Numbers), or Excel files will not be compatible.
- Columns: At present, the import process will only capture names and email addresses. There is no need to remove additional columns, as they will be disregarded.
- Required Column: The sole required column in your CSV file is the email column, which must contain at least one email address.
CSV Headers:
- If your CSV file includes headers, which we recommend, make sure to keep the option "My CSV file has headers" selected.
- If your file does not have headers, select the other option.
To make the import process easier, we recommend using column headers with the following labels:
- First Name
- Last Name
If you have the first and last name in a single column, you can use a single Name column instead.
Handling Existing Contacts:
If you are importing contacts into a gallery that already has contacts, you will see two options at the bottom of the modal:
- Append the import: This will add the new contacts to the existing ones.
- Overwrite existing contacts: This will replace the current gallery contacts with the new import.
Be sure to choose the appropriate action for your needs.
Matching Your Data:
Once you have selected your CSV file and chosen the appropriate options, click the orange Next button.
On the Data Matching Screen, you'll see:
- CSV Header column: Displays the first row of your CSV file headers.
- Preview column: Shows a preview of the next row of data.
- Zenfolio Header Match column: Aligns your data with the appropriate Zenfolio contact headers. If you used the recommended headers (email, first name, last name), Zenfolio will likely auto-match the data for you.
The email column is the only required field. Any unmatched columns will be ignored, and only names and emails are supported at this time.
Contact Roles:
Once your data is matched, click Import As. Here, you can choose which role to import the contacts as (e.g., Client, Guest, Contacts). For more information on contact roles, click here. If you're unsure, we recommend importing them as Contacts—roles can be changed later.
Error Handling:
If your CSV file contains any errors, such as improperly formatted email addresses, you will be prompted to correct or ignore the errors before continuing.
Import Processing:
Once the import begins, depending on the number of contacts, it may take a few moments to complete.
Now that your contacts are imported, you are ready to share the gallery with them. Click here to learn about gallery sharing.
Add Client From Existing BookMe Booking
- Go into the Contacts section of the Gallery Settings.
- Select Add from bookings.
- Click on the dropdown menu that will say "None" by default.
- You will then be able to select from any client bookings that are not already associated with another Gallery. Your selection will add the individual that made the booking to this gallery's Contacts as a Client role.
Additional Options after adding Contacts to a Gallery
After adding Clients and Guests to a gallery, you can edit them by clicking on the elipsis icon to the right-hand side of that Client/Guest information.
Through this menu you can:
- Send an Email direct to this contact.
- Change the role between Client and Guest.
- View them in your contacts.
- Edit their information.
- Remove them from the Gallery.
Note: Removing someone from a Gallery will make any Favorites that they've selected from that Gallery temporarily unavailable. You will need to re-add them to the Gallery as a Client or Guest to make their Favorites available again.
Access Settings FAQ
Is there a limit to how many Contacts I can add to a Gallery?
Please be aware that gallery contacts are limited by your Zenfolio plan:
- Portfolio: 30 contacts per gallery
- PortfolioPlus: 2,500 contacts per gallery
- ProSuite: 5,000 contacts per gallery
If the CSV file that you're importing exceeds the contact limit for your plan, you will have the option to import only the first X number of contacts, up to the plan limit. If you need to be selective about which contacts to import, it may be helpful to do that in your CSV file before importing.
Why can't the Gallery be shared, share button is inactive?
In some cases there may be some conflicting settings within the Gallery that are preventing you from sharing. For example, if you have Download settings set to Clients Only, but there are not any Clients actually added to the contacts of the Gallery, this will prevent you from being able to share the Gallery. In this case, you would need to add a Client to the Gallery through the Access & Permissions settings, or set downloading to Everyone can download.
What’s the difference between a client account password and a gallery password?
A client account password is a personal login credential set up by an individual client. It is unique to their account and is managed by the client.A folder or gallery password is set up and managed by you, the account owner.
Why is my client getting an “Incorrect Password” message when they try to visit their gallery
Password issues are very often related to some type of user input error. Some common things to look for are:- mistaking the gallery/folder password for their personal client account password (or vice versa)
- making sure the caps lock key is OFF
- typing the password directly as opposed to using a copy/paste function
- verifying that a browser is not auto-filling a wrong password
- making sure there is not a blank space either before or after the password
- mistaking a zero (0) for an O, or one (1) for an L, or uppercase l
Why can’t my client see the option to download their images or leave a comment?
If your Clients or Guests are telling you they can’t see their special privileges, like downloading options, in the Gallery, it’s likely they’re accessing it as a regular visitor. They should enter their email and client account password to get the special access they were given.
How can a client change or recover their account password?
Clients have control over changing or recovering their account password if it’s forgotten or compromised. They can usually manage this through account settings.