Keep the album private afterwards

The order matters

Download, then close. Doing it the other way round works too, but it means a period where you have closed the album and have not yet got the files — and that is the window in which a mistake costs something.

With the files on your own disk, every remaining decision is low-risk.

1. Download the album. Everything after this except archiving is reversible. Not having the files is not.
2. Make the album private. In Album, open “Public” above your photos and switch off “Album link”. The link then shows nothing at all, to everyone.
3. Archive the event when you are done collecting. Under Settings → “End this event”. New uploads stop immediately, and this step cannot be undone from the dashboard.

Stopping uploads

Archive the event under Settings → “End this event”. Contributions stop at once: the code and the guest link show “This link has expired”, and a page somebody left open can no longer send anything. Viewing is unaffected — the album stays visible unless you change that separately.

Archiving cannot be undone from the dashboard, so leave the event open for a few days first. The second wave comes from people who were too busy on the night.

Making it private

This stops viewing for everyone holding the link, and the page then shows only “Album not found” — no explanation, no photos. Guests who were told to look at it will report the album as broken unless you say what you have done.

It is reversible: making it public again restores everything exactly as it was.

Only the last line removes anything. Of the rest, only archiving cannot be flipped back.

A password instead of private

If you want the album reachable for family but not for everyone who was handed the link, a viewing password is the middle option. It needs at least 4 characters and it applies to everybody, including people who saw the album before you set it.

Send the password in the same message as the link. A second message gets lost.

Tell people what you did

A guest who taps a link and sees nothing assumes something broke. One line prevents a week of messages: the album is closed now, and here is where the pictures went.

If you are handing the album over to somebody, say when it expires. That date is theirs to plan around.

Or do nothing at all

The album ends on its own at the close of its retention window plus the 14-day grace period, with warnings before it. For a private party among people you know, letting it run out is a perfectly reasonable plan.

The 1 thing that is not optional is the download. That is time-limited in a way none of the switches are.