How to password protect a photo gallery

A set of photos often needs a smaller audience than a public album. A wedding photographer delivering to a couple, parents sharing a newborn’s first weeks with the grandparents, an architect sending site progress shots to a client, a school team passing round photos of the children who took part. Each case calls for one link that the right people can open and others can’t.

This guide covers the ways people usually gate a gallery, and how to do it in Fabric by protecting a folder of photos and publishing or sharing it. If the gallery is part of a client proofing round, how to let clients proof and choose photos online goes further into that workflow.

How people usually password protect a photo gallery

Professional photographers often use a dedicated client gallery service such as Pixieset, ShootProof or SmugMug. These let you set a gallery password, brand the page and sell prints, and they’re well suited to that work. They also add another subscription, and the gallery sits apart from the original files, edits and notes for the same shoot, so delivering means exporting and uploading a second time.

For family photos, a shared album in Google Photos or iCloud is the default. Setup is quick and relatives know how to open them. Access usually comes down to who has the link or who has been invited, which makes it harder to keep a private album private once the link starts being forwarded around a family group chat.

A shared folder in Dropbox or Google Drive is the other common route. It handles full-resolution files well. The viewing experience is a file browser, and restricting access tends to mean asking each viewer to sign in to the same service.

Step 1: Gather the photos in one folder

Create a folder for the gallery and add the photos. You can drag them in or click Upload a file, which handles large batches at once. Working from a camera card, the desktop app lets you copy photos into the Fabric drive in Finder or File Explorer, where they take no space on your computer.

For photos taken on a phone, the Fabric mobile app can back up the camera roll automatically, either all photos or specific folders. How to back up your camera roll automatically explains that setup. From there, move the photos you want into the gallery folder.

Fabric analyzes each image as it arrives, so you can later search the folder for what’s in a photo, the text in it, or a color. That helps when someone asks for “the one with the red umbrella” six months on.

Step 2: Add a password to the folder

Right-click the folder, or open it and click the three-dot menu, then choose Add password protection and enter a password. Password protection is on the Pro and Team plans.

Protecting the folder rather than individual photos means the whole gallery sits behind one password. A password on a folder also covers files added to it later, so photos you add after the first delivery are protected without any extra step.

There’s no password reset. Keep the password in a password manager, especially if you run many galleries for different clients. Visitors enter it once and have access for 6 hours, then enter it again.

Step 3: Publish the folder as a gallery page

Click Share, open the Publish tab, and click Create link. A folder publishes as a web page, so the person you send it to sees the photos laid out in the browser after entering the password. More on how published folders look is on the publish page, and how to turn a folder into a website covers the same feature for other uses.

Set up the link as you create it. Name it after the client or the event. Choose whether to allow downloads: on for a final delivery where the couple needs the full-resolution files, off for a preview where you only want them to look. Leave indexing by search engines off for a private gallery, and decide whether visitors can copy the gallery to their own Fabric.

Turn on engagement analytics if you’d like to know when the gallery is viewed. Link analytics show visits with dates, location and device, and are on the Pro and Team plans. Because editing the source in Fabric updates the published version, the same link stays current as you add or remove photos.

Step 4: Share instead when you need picks or comments

Published links are view only. If the client needs to choose favorites or ask for retouching, share the protected folder with them as a commenter. They can draw on an image and attach a comment to the drawing, and you mark each comment completed as you handle it. Roles and permissions lists what each role allows.

Many photographers do both: a shared link with commenter access for the proofing round, then a published link with downloads on for the final set.

Frequently asked questions

How do I make a private photo gallery with a password?

Put the photos in a Fabric folder, add password protection to the folder, then publish it from the Share button. The folder appears as a web page once the password is entered.

Will new photos I add to the gallery be protected too?

Yes. A password on a folder also covers files added to it later.

Can clients download the photos?

Only if you allow it. Allow downloads is a setting on each published link, and it’s available on every plan.

Can clients mark which photos they like?

Share the folder with them as a commenter and they can comment on the photos they want or draw on them. Published links don’t support comments, so picks need a shared link.

Do guests need to sign up to view the gallery?

No. External people can open shared and published links without a Fabric account. They just enter the password.

Can I send different people different links to the same gallery?

Yes. You can create as many published links as you like, each with its own name and settings, so a couple and their parents could each get their own link.

What plan do I need for a password-protected gallery?

Password protection and link analytics are on the Pro and Team plans. Publishing itself, with the download option, is on every plan. See pricing for details.

Can I publish the gallery on my own website address?

Yes, on the Pro plan. Add a custom domain or subdomain from the domain selector in the publish screen, then choose it when you create the gallery link. The password still applies.