Creating new Sharegroups disabled?

ancar

Trying to create new sharegroups for private sharing.
As usual it's a bit tricky finding the Sharegroup managing in the Account setting, but it's all there with my Sharegroups created earlier.

They are all editable BUT I cannot seem to find the Add new button.
I don't know if this is a bug or if there's been change of this SmugMug feature? I cannot find any information or news about this and oddly the help section from Smugmug about Sharegroups is not accessible.
Searching Sharegroup on Smugmug Help Center results in 0 (zero!) results!?

What am I doing wrong?!

denisegoldberg

I found this help page, hopefully it is what you are looking for.
https://help.smugmug.com/share-photos-privately-with-only-people-i-choose-H1S7exwJ4Sf

If that doesn't answer your question I suggest contacting the SmugMug help desk directly. The heroes sometimes answer here in the forum but in my experience it's faster to reach out to them directly, https://help.smugmug.com/email-a-smugmug-support-hero-rkwelDyVrz

ancar

Thank you for fast reply @denisegoldberg . This article doesn't really apply to the Sharegroup feature though.
The Sharegroup can contain several galleries and the shared URL. It's also possible for a customized URL wich is handy when sharing.

denisegoldberg

@ancar then I believe your best option is to email the help desk, https://help.smugmug.com/email-a-smugmug-support-hero-rkwelDyVrz

James Lyall

@ancar Triggered by your posting, I have had a look at my sharegroups and find exactly the same as you. The Add New button has disappeared. I hope that it will be fixed soon.

DMatt

Yes it's missing. I hope they'll do something about sharing ...

James Lyall

@denisegoldberg suggested that the SmugMug help desk be contacted by email to seek a solution to this problem. I have done this, and was informed that the "Sharegroups" feature had been retired. To my knowledge, this occurred without us being notified. I quote from the response which I received:

As you have mentioned, your existing sharegroups will remain available to you (in your Account Settings), and those you've shared them with but it will no longer be possible to create new sharegroups. You will still be able to modify your existing sharegroups, but you will not be able to create new ones.
"Sharegroups" were an old tool designed as a way to share multiple unlisted galleries with a single link. They predate our creation of the Folder tool. Folders allow you to share an entire group of galleries with a single url.

So there it is; we must now adopt a fresh approach, and use the new Folder tool.

booksurfer

Thank you @ancar and @"James Lyall" for your inquires. I just went to find the “add share group feature missing too, and unhappy. Please bring Sharegourps, or equivalent feature back! I have three accounts and have heavily relied on the tool to share photo galleries with several different clubs and people over the last 8 years! Big loss in functionality for us to have Sharegoups gone! Previously the folder tool could not accommodate, and hope they come up with a good option. Thank you again for inquiries!

Bea

The Sharegroups feature is being discontinued as we're now able to create the same functionality with Folder and Gallery settings. Existing Sharegroups will continue to work for now, but no new Sharegroups can be created.

If you want to share a group of galleries with one link and have them all protected but still visible to those who have the link, you can do that with an Unlisted Folder that has public galleries inside. Viewers would need just the one link to the Unlisted Folder, and they'd be able to access all of the public galleries within that folder. The folder's privacy setting still protects the galleries within. You can also add a password to the Folder if you'd like to keep it protected and accessible to only those with the password.

Another option is you can create a Folder to share, but then move existing galleries into that folder. This is done in the Organizer by dragging/dropping the galleries. Collecting may also be a useful feature for you, if you want to collect photos from one gallery, and display them in a second gallery to share. There are some settings that carry over from the source gallery so that's something to keep in mind. Details on 'collecting' are available here:
https://help.smugmug.com/display-a-photo-in-multiple-galleries-ryaGgev1EBM

srgb111

Is it possible to create a folder w/ a custom URL not ending in extra "salt" being added (i.e. something like: -ns312fg)? The benefit of sharegroups was a simple URL that was easy for someone to remember/share. Is it possible replicate this functionality with folders?

Jenuine

There is a way to create a folder that doesn't have the extra, "salt" if the folder is set to, Public. If the folder is set to, Unlisted, that is what creates the additional information at the end of the folder url. That is a locater and allows the site to "find" the folder that is not visible without the link being sent.

DaveH

I'm disappointed that Sharegroups have been discontinued. They were great for setting up a set of "virtual" Galleries that were different for different audiences (much like collections in Lightroom) without duplicating photos and putting the duplicates into the new folder / gallery sharing structure.. I have not been able to figure out how to satisfy my need with the new shared folder / gallery concept...... Here is a link to another users use case that is similar to what I've done with Sharegroups, but now that they are discontinued, can no longer create new ones

https://dgrin.com/discussion/266543/trying-to-isolate-folders-galleries-not-quite-the-same-as-hide-owner#latest

zmtiger

> @Bea said:
> The Sharegroups feature is being discontinued as we're now able to create the same functionality with Folder and Gallery settings. Existing Sharegroups will continue to work for now, but no new Sharegroups can be created.
>
> If you want to share a group of galleries with one link and have them all protected but still visible to those who have the link, you can do that with an Unlisted Folder that has public galleries inside. Viewers would need just the one link to the Unlisted Folder, and they'd be able to access all of the public galleries within that folder. The folder's privacy setting still protects the galleries within.

Yeah. Late to the party here. Have not had a need to continue my use of Sharegroups since last February. Pandemic and all. Now I am forced to reuse some old groups for new sets.
The suggestion (@Bea) for an Unlisted Folder with public galleries is viable. Was afraid that public galleries would be visible on the main Smugmug page. That is not the case. They're not so 'public' once in the Unlisted Folder.

> @srgb111 said:
> Is it possible to create a folder w/ a custom URL not ending in extra "salt" being added (i.e. something like: -ns312fg)? The benefit of sharegroups was a simple URL that was easy for someone to remember/share. Is it possible replicate this functionality with folders?

But the Unlisted Folder URL has salt added (@srgb111). Sharegroup URL's did not have this added text.

- Sharegroup – https://****.smugmug.com/share/ShareName
- Unlisted Folder – https://****.smugmug.com/FolderName/n-XXCs5Q

Although long it was nice to be able to say the URL when sharing.