Questions and answers.

Photo storage, search and sharing for photographers. Your shoots — RAW, HEIC or JPEG — are kept exactly as they came off the card; you find any photo by what is in it or by how you took it; and you share a whole shoot, or only the photos you pick, as an album with one link that family or clients open in a browser, with no account.

Sign up with Google, GitHub or a link sent to your email — no card needed. The Free plan has 10 GB for your originals, room for a RAW shoot: upload the folder, find what you need in it, and share it.

No. The Free plan needs no card. A card is only asked for when you move to Pro or Studio.

No. You use Media Moana in a web browser, and the people you share with open albums in any browser, on a phone too. There is no app and no automatic backup of a phone's camera roll — it is made for the photos on your camera's card.

Yes. The file you upload is stored byte for byte, and it is what you download or export later. Media Moana makes a preview of it for viewing, so a RAW or HEIC file opens in any browser. Presets and AI actions always make a new photo and leave the original untouched.

JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, TIFF, GIF, BMP, SVG, HEIC and HEIF, and camera RAW files from Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, Leica, Samsung, Hasselblad, Phase One, Mamiya, Kodak and Minolta, plus DNG — up to 250 MB a file. The help guide lists every extension.

It is skipped. Each file is fingerprinted in your browser before it is sent, and one your library already holds is not uploaded again — so importing the same card twice doesn't fill your storage with copies. A photo that is only in the trash counts as gone and uploads again.

In folders, nested as deep as you like — one per shoot works well. Folders keep your photos; albums are what you share: make one from a whole folder in one step, or gather photos from any folder into one, and a photo can be in several albums. You can mark favorites, move photos between folders, and upload straight into the folder you have open — or into an open album, which adds the photos to it.

Type what you remember — “beach”, “birthday cake”, the name on a shop sign. Search reads what the analysis found in each photo — the scene, objects, text in the frame, landmarks and events — by meaning as well as by word, so “kids at the seaside” finds children on a beach, and it allows for typos and common synonyms. The best matches come first. Filters narrow by camera, lens, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, focal length, date taken, place (country, state, county, nearest city), star rating and number of people. Browsing by date taken, month by month, the map and the groups of look-alike shots are other ways in.

The scene, the objects in it, any text in the photo, landmarks and events, how many people there are, and a 1–5 star rating with what works and what doesn't. All of it is searchable, on every plan, and it is never counted against anything.

Yes. Similar photos, in the library's left column or a folder's menu, groups shots taken moments apart that look alike and marks one as recommended — the one the analysis rated highest, then the sharpest. Keep that one or choose another, and move the rest of the group to the trash in one step.

It moves to the trash, where you can restore it for 30 days; after that it is deleted for good. Photos in the trash still count toward your storage, and you can empty it whenever you like.

What you share is an album. For a whole shoot, choose New album from folder… in the folder's menu — the album holds the folder's photos and those of the folders inside it — then open the album: it opens on a preview of what they will see. On its Share tab, choose who can open it and Publish link. To share only some photos, select them — in a folder, in All photos or in search results — choose Add to album…, then share that album the same way. Anyone with the link opens it in a browser, without signing up or installing anything.

Yes. An album only lists its photos — nothing is moved or copied, and nothing takes extra storage — so a photo can be in as many albums as you like. Deleting an album never deletes a photo: only the album goes, with its link if it had one.

Up to 2,000, and an account can have up to 1,000 albums — the same on every plan. For a shoot larger than that, make one album per subfolder: choose New album from folder… on each one, and each album gets a link of its own to share.

Look through the album full-screen, play it as a slideshow, print it or save it as a PDF, mark the photos they love with a heart, and download it as one zip. By default they get viewing copies; allow original downloads and they get your files as you uploaded them. A link can also expire after 1, 7 or 30 days, or ask for a password — and you can turn it off at any time, after which it no longer opens.

Yes. Open the album — it opens on its Preview tab — and pick Gallery — the cover, then every photo in rows — Film, a full-screen slideshow, Story, a long page in chapters by day and place with your captions, or Contact Sheet, numbered frames with the best photos circled — and, under them, what it says beside the photos: the day, the city or the country, the camera, your captions. The preview beside them shows the album as they will see it, both stay with the album, and every template is on every plan. Set your name and logo once, and every album you share opens with them.

Yes — by anyone who can open it, you included. Print / Save as PDF on the album's page prints it as an album, a contact sheet or postcards on A4 or US Letter, or saves it as a PDF to take to a print shop. It is made in the browser from the photos the page shows, with your watermark when it is on, and it is free. For a bound book, Make a photobook on the album's Share tab gives you print-ready PDFs of the pages and the cover at a Blurb or Lulu size, from your full-size photos. Media Moana doesn't sell prints.

Yes. On the album's Share tab choose Only people I add and enter their email addresses, then publish the link: Media Moana can email each of them an invitation with a button that opens the album, or you send the link yourself. Without the invitation's button, they enter their email address and the 6-digit code we email them — no account needed. Anyone else who gets hold of the link can't open it, and taking someone off the list stops their access on their next visit. A link anyone can open can be emailed too: Email it… on the Share tab sends it to up to 20 addresses at a time.

You see how often an album was opened — each visitor counted once a day — and how many hearts each photo got, and a weekly email sums up both. Not who: visitors don't sign in. Only on an album you let just the people you add open do you see when each of them last opened it.

Yes, when you allow original downloads. Anyone with a Media Moana account sees Save to my Media Moana on the album: the whole album, or the photos they choose, goes into a new folder of theirs — exactly what a download would give them, so without the GPS position unless you chose to keep it. The copies count toward their storage, not yours, and a photo already in their library is skipped.

Not by default. The photos shown in a shared album carry no location at all, and originals downloaded from it have their GPS position removed unless you choose to keep it. You can choose to show the city or the country each photo was taken in, on the album's Preview tab — never the exact spot. Your own library keeps the location, for the map and for search.

Not on its own. A share link is a long random address that can't be guessed, and album pages ask search engines not to list them — but a link posted publicly, on a blog, a forum or a social profile, can still show up as a bare address, with nothing from the album itself. Anyone you send the link to can open it, though — so send it to the people it is for, or let only the people you add open it.

Free ($0): 10 GB of storage. Pro ($15 a month or $150 a year): 500 GB and 20 AI actions a month. Studio ($30 a month or $300 a year): 1 TB and 50 AI actions a month. Every plan analyzes every photo and makes it searchable, shares albums by link and includes email support; the ready-made presets run without limit on every plan.

One subscription, priced by storage: Free ($0, 10 GB), Pro ($15 a month, 500 GB) and Studio ($30 a month, 1 TB); a year costs ten months. Pro and Studio add AI actions — 20 and 50 a month. Nothing is priced per photo, and there are no add-ons or overage bills.

Your library turns read-only — never held hostage. Uploads, copies and new photos from presets or AI actions wait until you upgrade or empty the trash (photos in the trash still count); browsing, sharing, downloading and exporting keep working. The same holds after a failed payment's 7-day grace, when a cancelled plan ends, or after a move to a smaller plan. The library warns you once it is nine-tenths full.

Yes, from Account → Plan & billing. An upgrade applies immediately: your subscription switches in place and only the prorated difference for the rest of the current period is charged (the confirm dialog shows the exact amount). To move to a lower plan, cancel at the end of the current period and subscribe to the lower plan afterwards.

Yes, at any time from your account. You keep your plan until the end of the period you paid for, then move to Free. If your library is larger than Free's 10 GB, it becomes read-only: you can still browse, share, download and export everything.

Yes — in full within 14 days of a new subscription. After that, refunds are decided case by case; just contact support.

Only you. Photos stay private until you share an album by link — a whole folder, or photos you pick — and you can turn the link off at any time.

No — we don't train any model on your photos. The analysis is only sent to model providers that don't collect the data they are given, and for an AI action the provider gets a copy of the photo with its metadata, location included, removed.

No. The analysis counts how many people are in a photo, but it does not identify anyone or group photos by who is in them.

In Cloudflare R2, which encrypts everything it stores; your photos travel to and from it over HTTPS. The database that holds your folders, albums, share links and photo details is backed up several times a day.

Yes. Export is always available — at any time, on any plan, over your storage or not: Account → Privacy & GDPR → Export your library. You get your originals, byte for byte, in their folders, a metadata file for each photo and your account data, as one or more zip files. We email you when it is ready, and it stays downloadable for 7 days.

You hear from us first: we email every account at least 30 days before Media Moana stops, and export keeps working the whole time, so you can take your whole library with you — your originals, byte for byte, in their folders.

Account → Privacy & GDPR → Delete Account. This is permanent: it cancels any subscription and deletes your photos, folders, albums, share links and account data. Export your library from the same page first if you want to keep a copy.

Account → Plan & billing. We accept all major cards, processed securely by Stripe.

Check your connection first, then try a smaller batch. If it persists, contact support — we'll look at what the server saw for your account.

Current versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge. Shared albums open in any modern browser, on a phone too.

Email support@mediamoana.com or use the form on the support page. We read every message.