Sharing an album

A shared album is a link: whoever you send it to opens the photos in their browser — on a computer or a phone — without signing up or installing anything. It is how a shoot gets to the family, the couple or the client. Only an album is shared: to send a whole folder, make an album from it first.

This page is the link and its settings. How the album opens — a gallery, a slideshow, a story in chapters, a contact sheet — is its template; what the people you send it to can do with it, and what comes back to you, is Visitors, views and hearts.

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Create the link

1. Open the album's Share tab: click Share beside the album's name, or choose Share in the album's ⋯ under Albums in the left column (or right-click it). An album with photos gets its link as a draft the first time you open it: anyone else who tries the link is told it does not exist.
2. Set it up. The settings are on the left (on a phone, under the link). To see the album's page exactly as the people you share with will, with every setting as you left it, open the album's Preview tab: on a Phone or a Computer, as the Link preview a pasted link shows, as the pages it Prints, or as a photo Frame — and Open in a new tab shows the page full size.
3. When it looks right, look at the card at the top of the Share tab. It says where the link is — Draft, which only you can open — and, along its foot, what the link will be: who can open it (Access), the size of the photos, whether their location is removed and whether they are watermarked (Photos), when it Expires, and the Template. Publish link takes it live. A draft whose expiry date has passed can't be published until you choose a new one.
4. Click Copy link — there, or beside the album's name on any of its tabs — and send it however you like, or Copy as to send the same link opening in another template. Email it…, under Ways to send it, has Media Moana email it for you.

Until you publish, nothing is public, so try anything: a password, a list of people, an expiry — each change is saved in the draft as you make it. There is nothing to throw away: a draft opens for nobody else, so an album always has one until you publish it. Beside the album's name, on every tab, you see which it is — Draft · not published in a dashed outline, Published with a green dot, or Expired.

Change a published link

Once a link is published, the people you sent it to see the version you published — v1, then v2 each time you publish again — not your edits as you make them. Add photos, reorder them, write captions, pick another template, change what visitors see or allow downloads: it all waits, and the card at the top of the Share tab lists it under Your changes, beside Publish changes, above the version your visitors have ("Published v2 · Oct 7, 2026"). Beside the album's name the link reads Published · 3 unpublished changes until you publish. While something waits, the Preview tab switches between Your changes — the album as your next publish will put it out — and What visitors see, the album as they get it now; with nothing waiting they're the same, and the preview is just the album.

What takes something away from your visitors doesn't wait: taking a photo out of the album or moving it to the trash, setting or changing a password, taking someone off the list, turning downloads or the location in them off, hiding a line of what visitors see, an earlier expiry date, and turning the link off all apply at once — the Share tab lists them under Already live. Removing a password, a later expiry, or switching back to Anyone with the link waits for the publish, so a link is never more open than you published it. Your name and logo on the page are your account's, and change on every link at once.

Under the link's card, Ways to send it lists Email this album, Use as a photo frame once it is published (its Set up unfolds the frame link), Print or save as PDF, which opens the album's page in a tab of its own — its Print / Save as PDF is the one visitors have — and Photobook (PDF), to make a photobook for a printer, which needs no link at all.

The template and what the page says beside the photos aren't set here: they are the album's, chosen on its Preview tab (see Choose a template and What visitors see). The Share tab decides who can open the album and what they can take away.

The preview is yours alone: it records no visit, and hearts, Keep in Media Moana, Save to my Media Moana and Report this album aren't on it.

An album with a published link carries a link mark in the left column, so you can see at a glance which albums others can open. A draft, or a link past its expiry date, doesn't count — opening an album doesn't share it.

Each album has one link at a time.

What the album shows

A link shows the album as you last published it: the photos you put in it, in the order you gave them, under its cover and description, with your captions — see Albums. Photos you add show up when you publish again; photos you take out disappear on the visitor's next visit; moving or renaming a folder changes nothing in it.

A photo that is in several albums can be seen through the link of each one you share. Photos still being prepared, and photos in the trash, are not shown.

Options

The settings column of the Share tab runs, top to bottom: Who can open it (with the password and Link expires), Downloads and watermark and When the link is pasted. Each setting is saved as you change it; to change one later, open the album's Share tab again. The template and what visitors see beside the photos are the album's, not the link's: Templates, slideshow and print, where the photo frame and What visitors see are too. The rest:

Only the people you add

For photos that should stay with the people they are for — children's photos, a client's delivery — choose Only people I add under Who can open it, type their email addresses under Email addresses (or paste a list) and click Add. Then publish the link — Media Moana can email each of them an invitation as you do — or send it yourself as usual: while it is a draft, nobody on the list can open it either. Anyone else who gets hold of the link can't open it.

• Opening it. The button in their invitation opens it, no code needed. Without one, the person enters their email address on the album's page, gets a 6-digit code by email, and types it in on the same page — no account, no app, and it works in the browser WhatsApp, Instagram or WeChat open a link in. After that, that browser opens the album for 30 days (or until the link expires).
• Already on Media Moana? Someone signed in to Media Moana with an address on the list goes straight in — no code. Signed in with a different address, the page says so and asks for a code as usual; not signed in, they can sign in from the page or use the code.
• Shared with me. People on the list who use Media Moana also find the album in their own library, under Shared with me below their albums (see Albums shared with you): its cover, its title and your brand name if you've set one — never your email address. It leaves their list when you take them off, turn the link off, the link expires or you delete the album.
• Keeping it in their own account. Someone who isn't on Media Moana can keep a received album too: right after their code opens it, a card at the bottom of the page offers to keep it in a free account of their own. Keep this album, then Email me a sign-in link, sends one to the address they just used (they can change it); it brings them back to the album, signed in, and from then on it is under Shared with me and opens without a code. They can close the offer, and it doesn't come back on that link in that browser.
• What they get from us. The invitations you send, and the emails they ask for — the code, and a sign-in link if they choose to keep the album. Each invitation ends with a link that stops every invitation to them, from anyone; the codes they ask for still come.
• Who has opened it. Under each address on the Share tab you see "Opened Oct 6" (after "Invited Oct 5" when you sent an invitation) — the last day they opened the album, in your own time zone, with the first day after it if that was another one — or "Not opened yet". It updates at most once an hour, and starts again from "Not opened yet" if you take someone off and add them back. Only you see it.
• Taking someone off stops their access on their next visit. A photo they already have open stops loading within a few minutes — the same as turning the link off.
• Switching from Anyone to Only people I add locks everyone else out straight away. A list and a password don't go together: choosing the list removes the password.
• Up to 100 addresses per link. The other options — original downloads, location, expiry, watermark — apply to the people on the list as to anyone.
• The page never tells a visitor whether an address is on the list: it says a code is on its way if the address can open the album. If no code comes within a few minutes, check the spam folder and ask for a new one.

Invitations

When you publish a link that only the people you add can open, Email an invitation to the N people (ticked unless you untick it) has Media Moana email each of them one on your behalf: from Media Moana, under your name — your brand name if you've set one — with the album's cover, a strip of a few of its photos, your note if you write one, and an Open the album button that lets them straight in, no code, for 30 days. Replies go to your own email address. People you add to a published link can open it once you publish your changes, and Publish changes offers to email each of them one then (Email an invitation to the N new people); until then their line says "Can open it once you publish". Your note and the album's title can't contain a web address (a name on your share pages that has one is left out, and the email goes under your account's name), and the name it goes under can't contain "Media Moana" — the email would read as one from us. You're told before anything is sent, and where to change it: Account → General.

• Under each address you see "Invited Oct 5", "Couldn't be emailed" — we don't say why, it may be their choice — or "Not invited" with Send invitation. Resend sends it again, at most twice, a day apart; one that couldn't be emailed can go again straight away (Try again). That count belongs to the address on this album: taking someone off the list and adding them back, or emailing the album to them first, doesn't start it over — someone you add back who was invited less than a day ago shows "Not invited", and Send invitation says from when it can go. A resend has a new button: the one in the earlier email then asks for the code.
• The button stops working once you take the person off the list or turn the link off, and 30 days after the invitation was sent; the album's page then asks for their address and a code as usual. Its pictures stop loading after 60 days, or as soon as the link is off, the person is off the list or the photo is out of the album.
• No cover outside Media Moana? Switch Show the cover preview off (below): its invitations then carry no photos — a mail app keeps the pictures it loaded, as a messaging app keeps a preview.
• Limits. One account's invitations reach up to 100 people a day (20 on the Free plan). If Media Moana's invitations are paused for a while, the page says so: copy the link and send it yourself. If several of yours bounce at once, the ones still waiting are held back and say "Not sent — several invitations bounced": check the addresses and try again in an hour.
• Invite only people who expect to hear from you (Acceptable Use). When several of your invitations are reported as spam or bounce, Media Moana turns your invitations off: the Share tab says so in place of the box, and your links keep working — copy them and send them yourself. Contact support to have invitations turned back on.

Email the album

Many email apps show a pasted link as a bare address, with no card. On a published link anyone can open — with a password or without — Email it… (under Ways to send it) has Media Moana email it for you: type up to 20 addresses (or paste a list), add a note if you like, and choose what it Opens as — the album's template, or another one, as Copy as does. Each address gets the email the people on a list get (Invitations): from Media Moana, under your name, with the album's cover, a strip of a few of its photos, your note and an Open the album button. Replies go to your own email address.

• The password stays yours to send. On a link with a password, the email says they'll need the password you gave them and never contains it. Its button opens the album's page as the link does, and the page asks for the password.
• What became of each. After Send, each address says how it went: on its way, "Couldn't be emailed" (it bounced or was reported before), emailed already less than a day ago, or not sent because of a limit. Your own address is skipped.
• Under Emailed on the Share tab: "Sent Oct 8", and "Opened Oct 9" once its button was used, or "Not opened yet" — or "Couldn't be emailed" once we know it didn't arrive: we don't say why, it may be their choice. Resend sends it again, at most twice, a day apart (one that couldn't be emailed can go again straight away) — counting any invitation the address had from the album's list. Remove takes the address off the list and stops recording when it is opened — the email's button still opens the album, because it is the link; to stop that, turn the link off.
• Photos in the email follow the same rules as an invitation's: none while Show the cover preview is off (below), and on a watermarked album only the watermarked photos.
• Limits. Up to 20 addresses at a time and 100 different addresses for one link; together with your invitations to lists, one account's emails reach up to 100 people a day (20 on the Free plan). Each email ends with a link that stops every invitation to that address, from anyone.
• A link only the people you add can open is not emailed this way: invite them from its list. Email only people who expect to hear from you (Acceptable Use) — when several of your invitations are reported as spam or bounce, these emails are turned off with them.

Your name, logo and watermark

In Account → General → Share pages, set the name and logo your albums show. Every album you share then opens with them at the top, in place of the plain page. The name can't contain "Media Moana": your albums, and the invitations sent under that name, come from you. With neither set, the page carries no name or logo. Either way, one small line at the bottom says the album was shared with Media Moana, with a link for visitors who shoot with a camera themselves. On an album shared in a template other than Gallery, that line names the template instead — Made with Film · Make yours — and links to the template's page.

• The logo is a PNG, JPEG or WebP file of up to 2 MB. Media Moana keeps a copy at most 512 pixels wide with no metadata in it — not the file you uploaded — so the preview in your account is exactly what visitors see. A logo with a transparent background looks best.
• The name is up to 60 characters — your studio or your own name.
• The watermark is that logo, laid over every photo of an album with Watermark with your logo on: about a fifth of the photo's width, slightly see-through, in the bottom-right corner — on the larger full-screen copy too. Turning it on takes a few seconds per batch of photos; until a photo is ready its tile says Preparing… — a visitor is never shown it without the watermark. Download all gives the watermarked photos once every one is ready. Originals you allow visitors to download stay exactly as you uploaded them, unmarked — and so does the full-size photo they zoom into.

Changing your logo changes the watermark on every album; removing it turns the watermark off on all of them.

The With my watermark presets put the same logo on the copies you export.

When you paste the link

Paste the link into WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack or most other messaging apps and they show a preview card with it (many email apps don't — Email the album sends one that shows the cover): the album's cover, its title, how many photos it holds and the month they were taken in — with your logo and name when you have set them (above), and a small "Media Moana". A link to one photo shows that photo on the card instead of the cover. On an album with the watermark on, the card uses the watermarked photo; until that is ready, the card is the plain one.

The plain card shows no photo and no title — only that this is a shared album. It is what a link with a password or a list of people always shows, and what any link shows once you switch Show the cover preview off, turn the link off or it expires. The invitations Media Moana emails — to the people on a list, or the addresses you email the album to — are the exception: each recipient's at an address of their own, they show the real cover — while this switch is on.

To see the card before you send the link — a draft's too: the one it will show once you publish it — pick Link preview under the preview on the album's Preview tab. When it is the plain card, the line under it says why.

Messaging apps keep a preview once they have fetched it. Switching the preview off, or turning the link off, changes what a newly pasted link shows — it can't take back a preview someone has already received. If an album shouldn't show its cover in a conversation, switch the preview off (or set a password, or let in only the people you add) before you send the link.

Location stays with you

The photos a visitor sees never carry a location — the viewing copies are made without any. If you choose to show where each photo was taken, the album names the city or the country — never the position itself. Originals downloaded from the album, and the full-size photo a visitor zooms into, have their GPS position removed too, unless you switch on Keep location (GPS) in downloaded originals. In the rare file Media Moana can't take the position out of — an unusual format, or one that stores it somewhere unusual — visitors get that photo's viewing copy instead: never an original that still says where it was taken. Your own library keeps the position either way, for the map and for search.

Turning a link off

Click Turn off link under the link on the Share tab, and Turn off link again to confirm. The link stops opening straight away, and a photo someone already has open stops loading within a few minutes. Its list of people, if it had one, is deleted with it. The album goes back to a draft with a new link, which only you can open until you publish it — the old address stays dead, and the options, the count and the hearts start again from scratch.

Deleting an album turns off its link too; deleting a folder doesn't — its photos go to the trash and drop out of the album until you restore them. Deleting an album never deletes a photo — see Albums.

Who can find an album

Only the people you send the link to. The address is a long random string that can't be guessed, and album pages ask search engines not to list them. A link you post publicly — on a blog, a forum, a social profile — can still show up in search results as a bare address, with nothing from the album itself. (The apps that draw a link's preview card do open it — that is how the card is made — but they show it only in the conversation where the link was pasted.) Anyone who has the link can open it, though, so send it only to the people it is for — and when that matters, add a password or an expiry date, or let in only the people you add.

If a visitor finds something in an album that shouldn't be there, Report this album at the bottom of the page reaches us.