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private photos copied to unlisted/public folders.
georgelowcar
Registered Users Posts: 3 Beginner grinner
Hey all - new to this site and looks like quite a bit of useful information. I just recently signed up to smugmug and hopefully can contribute some tricks and lessons learned going forward.
My goal for smugmug would be to backup my local photos onto smugmug. With the unlimited data, its a great candidate for this. Having access to pictures anywhere i have an internet connection is a bonus. My second goal would be to be able to make additional gallery's that i can organize for family and friends. Above all, my goals is privacy. Not that i'm ashamed of my 'little kitten' photos, i just prefer to keep photos as private as possible. (and yes, i do understand smugmug has visibility to all photos).
So - initially, i createf a private folder at the root. I created sub folders below the private root folder which inherits the privacy from its parent (nice). i then created a private gallery below the private folders.
My second step was to create a unlisted/public folder & gallary at the root in parallel to my private folder. My thinking was that these "unlisted" or "Public" folders i would be able to drag some of my private pictures into it. Hence, i could control which pictures where visible and which pictures were not. Immediately i found out that a "unlisted" or "public" gallery can't access a "private" folder/gallery.
I was told by smugmug that this is intentional. No private/unlisted folder could reference a private folder. I was informed my options where to make a copy of the photo into the unlisted/public folder. I tried that and it did work - but the procedure and interface to do this was ridiculous and furthermore you couldn't tell which photo is the copy and which was the private. I wouldn't' even credit this solution a hack.
So, i'm trying to find out from you out there. How would one organize their folders to achieve private photos with unlisted/public photos
As far as i can tell i have the following options:
1) Smugmug Copy each photo i want to place into put into the unlisted/public folder as mentioned above.
2) Change my private folder to be unlisted w/ password.
3) Upload another copy of photo to unlisted/public folder.
4) Use some 3rd party application that would copy the photo in a much more elegant manner. I'm on Mac OSx.
Really, unless i'm missing an option, i can only see option #4 being feasible, yet i haven't found any 3rd party apps that do this.
If i did change my private folder to unlisted/ password, does that equal to the same privacy as a folder being private?
thank you
~george
My goal for smugmug would be to backup my local photos onto smugmug. With the unlimited data, its a great candidate for this. Having access to pictures anywhere i have an internet connection is a bonus. My second goal would be to be able to make additional gallery's that i can organize for family and friends. Above all, my goals is privacy. Not that i'm ashamed of my 'little kitten' photos, i just prefer to keep photos as private as possible. (and yes, i do understand smugmug has visibility to all photos).
So - initially, i createf a private folder at the root. I created sub folders below the private root folder which inherits the privacy from its parent (nice). i then created a private gallery below the private folders.
My second step was to create a unlisted/public folder & gallary at the root in parallel to my private folder. My thinking was that these "unlisted" or "Public" folders i would be able to drag some of my private pictures into it. Hence, i could control which pictures where visible and which pictures were not. Immediately i found out that a "unlisted" or "public" gallery can't access a "private" folder/gallery.
I was told by smugmug that this is intentional. No private/unlisted folder could reference a private folder. I was informed my options where to make a copy of the photo into the unlisted/public folder. I tried that and it did work - but the procedure and interface to do this was ridiculous and furthermore you couldn't tell which photo is the copy and which was the private. I wouldn't' even credit this solution a hack.
So, i'm trying to find out from you out there. How would one organize their folders to achieve private photos with unlisted/public photos
As far as i can tell i have the following options:
1) Smugmug Copy each photo i want to place into put into the unlisted/public folder as mentioned above.
2) Change my private folder to be unlisted w/ password.
3) Upload another copy of photo to unlisted/public folder.
4) Use some 3rd party application that would copy the photo in a much more elegant manner. I'm on Mac OSx.
Really, unless i'm missing an option, i can only see option #4 being feasible, yet i haven't found any 3rd party apps that do this.
If i did change my private folder to unlisted/ password, does that equal to the same privacy as a folder being private?
thank you
~george
0
Comments
Private folders and galleries are for your access only. From the help page at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/1229910-how-do-i-set-gallery-page-and-folder-privacy-settings-: You may have some galleries you never want to share. Marking the folder in which they reside as private will lock them from outside viewing.
I can't imagine managing a duplicate set of galleries with one copy private and one unlisted. If you intend to share the photos then they shouldn't be in private galleries. I guess I don't understand your statement about uploading a second copy of the photos in your private galleries.
If you have photos you want to share with some individuals but not others, add a password to the gallery. The gallery can be either unlisted or public - public with a password will require entry of that password to view the gallery.
Another option that you didn't include in your post above is to set a sitewide password. See http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93321.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
The purpose is to separate how my photos are organized and what is actually shared. My intent is to create the private folder which contains all of my photos. Basically, think if it like an archive gallery. Then i wanted to create additional galleries that i would select which photos from my archive i wanted visible to the outside. I don't want to move files to a shared folder just to share it, i still want it in my archive. Furthermore, by keeping files in my one archive private folder, i could safely delete galleries and i would know i have the picture.
Here is what smugmug does in my scenario:
Private archive Folder
my archive gallery (inherits private from folder)
photo1
photo2
photo3
public or unlisted folder
Friend gallery1
photo1 (collected from my archive)
Now if the public/unlisted folder is viewed by someone, photo1 would not be visible because it originates in a private folder.
However - i do the following layout the friend gallery does show the photo because it originate in a non private folder. That photo is also visible in my private archive folder. Furthermore, even removing the Friend gallery leaves the photo1 intact in my archive.
Private archive Folder
my archive gallery (inherits private from folder)
photo1 (collected from Friend Gallery1)
photo2
photo3
public or unlisted folder
Friend gallery1
photo1
Its kind of a funky way of getting around smugmugs organization but appears to work. The ideal feature from smugmug would be to add a "copy to" or gallery (not only a "collected" or "move"). I don't really care if the photo is actually copied or referenced. I just would like the option that the photo inherits the security of its current folder and not its originating folder.
I thought about this, but isn't this assume that the viewing party have a smugmug account?
See help page at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93321.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
I think I followed the question and possible solutions so far, but here's my two cents on your situation. I'm going to avoid commentary on whether or not I agree with SM's security implementation.
I do something very similar to you. I use SM to backup all the photos I care about. My account currently has 63,000 photos and takes up 445GB. It is almost all edited shoots, so not a raw backup out of the camera. Most of my backup is accessible with a simple password - low security is intended. I share the password with any family or friends who may want to view photos.
For the public, in my case a Portfolio, I collect photos from my public/passworded galleries.
I do have some Private galleries, but those do not generally contain photos I would want to share.
Anyway...
What I would suggest for you is that the backup portion of your site is in a top level Unlisted folder with a very secure password. In my mind, that is equally secure to a Private gallery since all that is needed to access the Private gallery is your SmugMug login password. Either way, the photos are protected by a password and are not listed or searchable.
Then, you could easily collect photos from the Unlisted/Password galleries to the Public folder/galleries.
A word of caution on the organization you are currently using (if I'm reading it right)
I would strongly suggest the photo be uploaded to your archive gallery. That's where you want the file and you only want to share one-way. I could be mistaken, but I believe the collected photo is a shortcut or link back to the original photo. I believe deleting the source photo will delete the collected photo. (This is not made clear enough in the SM help section)
Hope that helps.
Adam
Regarding "collecting" photos to other galleries. I did a test by "collecting" a source photo to another gallery and then deleting the source photo, it still left the photo in the collected gallery.
i don't understand if any loss in strong security exists between private folders and unlisted folders w/ passwords. I understand the concepts between the two, but i don't know if one is really more secure than the other. Anyone know?
thanks again
- george
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I have the same issue as the OP.
The response above, especially the point about the public Portfolio suggests two separate collections, one private, and one unlisted/public.
For me, like the OP I suspect, I am thinking in terms of sets and subsets. Think of it this way:
Ideally, all the subsets can be "collected" from the superset, and then shared with whatever settings make sense - unlisted, password protected, sharegroups, public.
However, all of this is predicated on one critical assumption - that the superset (entire collection) not be private.
I think I can implement this by making my superset collection unlisted, but idelly, I'd like that to be private.
To me, this is the crux of thie issue.
Advice or suggestions to work around would be appreciated.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Yes, I had got that. What I am pointing out is that this is an enhancement (and what I described is the user story in SW dev terms) for Smugmug development to consider.
Perhaps my perspective (and the OP's I would guess) is different from the more professional users of Smugmug. I represent that portion of the user base that views SM both as a cloud backup of their entire repository of photos and videos, and as a means to publish selected portions of their repository for others to see.
For now, I acknowledge that the only way I can do what I want is to use the unlisted form of security for my repository.
That's just not sufficiently secure, in my view.
Unlisted galleries are still invisible on your site, and cannot be accessed unless you were to give someone a direct gallery link. Gallery links have a string of random letters/numbers appended to the URL, so they are essentially 'unguessable'. So, for all intents and purposes, Unlisted galleries *are* private, and you can still collect images from Unlisted galleries normally, without revealing any access to the Unlisted gallery that houses those photos.
The PRIVATE gallery setting is 100% total lockdown -- only the logged in account owner can view images from Private galleries, collected, or displayed anywhere else on your site, or otherwise. The Private setting is intended to NOT have sharing available, in any scenario.
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