How does dotphoto security and the dotphoto guest password system work?

dotPhoto is designed to share your photos in both open and protected ways. For instance, you can set up your account so you can easily 

1. Share all of your photos with everyone who has your login or whom you invite
2. Share all your photos with someone who has your login and your account's guest password
3. Share one album or a group of albums with someone who has a particular album password.
4. Share a single photo in a single album with someone who has only that album password.

This is slightly complex and a little confusing, but that is the nature of multi-level security. Specific instructions for these situations are provided at the bottom of this article.

Background and Password Options

Many dotPhoto customers want to share photos with everyone they can. For instance, young people and newspapers tend to want people to see their photos. On the other hand, older people and boudoir photographers are often more concerned with security and discretion. 

Two password options control guest access to your photos:

1. Add a Guest password to MyAccount.

Click on Account Settings on the left, then Account Information, enter a Guest Password for your account as shown below, and then click on the Save button. A simple password like the name of your street will make it easier for your guests to remember and to return to your account. A more random password like "3ch902Nm" will ensure that most people never return -- though some may record the password for later visits. You can change the guest password at any time so that people who had the password can no longer access your photos.

Account guest passwords will interfere with the use of the MyWebSite function because MyWebSite is designed -- like any other web site -- to be available for public access.

2. Add an Album password to each album.

Click on an album, click on Organize and then Album Settings:

Add an Album Password and click on the Save button in the lower right.

• Album passwords can be used with or without account guest passwords. 
• If all your album passwords are blank, someone visiting with a guest password will see all of your albums. 
• If some of your album passwords are identical to the guest password, someone visiting with the guest password will see only those albums and the albums with blank guest passwords.
• Albums with the same password will display together. For instance, if you have three albums with the same password, those three albums will all display when someone signs in with that album password.

1. Share all of your photos with everyone who has your login or whom you invite.
   Do not set your account's Guest password or any Album passwords.
2. Share all your photos with someone who has your login and your account's guest password.
   Set only your account's Guest password. Do not set any Album passwords. Your guests will not be able to see your photos unless they sign in with both your account name and the guest password. Guests will see all of your albums unless you set Album passwords that are different from your Guest password.
3. Share one album or a group of albums with someone who has a particular album password.
   Two solutions: (a) Apply a guest password to your account and a different guest password to the album or albums that you want to share. (b) Apply different passwords to all of your albums. Apply the same album passwords for groups of albums that you want to share together. Any albums with blank passwords will also be visible.
4. Share a single photo in a single album with someone who has only that album password.
   Share the photo link for that image: this is the hosted image so there there is no context within dotphoto. Copy the link called Image under the sharing tool.
   Alternatively, create an album for a single photo and apply a unique password to that album. Only someone signing in with that album password will see that album and photo. Albums with blank passwords will also be visible.
   

How does a guest sign in?

Guest sign in on the right side of the sign-in page. There are no "Remember Me" or "Forgot Password" options for guests.