Guide
Gallery delivery vs backup: why delivery is never an archive
A client gallery is not a backup. Delivery gets finished photos into your client's hands; backup protects your business from losing files forever. Treating a delivery tool as your safety net puts your archive at risk.
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The short answer
A delivery gallery is a handoff mechanism, not an archive. Photos in a gallery exist for browsing and downloading, and you can revoke, delete or expire them at any time. That makes a gallery an active workspace for delivery, not a permanent storage vault.
Real backup follows the 3-2-1 rule: three copies of your data, on two different media types, with one copy offsite. Treat every client gallery as your client's working copy, and keep your own independent archive.
What delivery is for
A delivery gallery solves one problem: getting finished images to your client. When you send photos to clients through shoots.page, you publish a set so they can view and download their images on their own devices.
Galleries are designed to be flexible rather than permanent. You can set gallery expiry dates, protect sets with passwords, toggle downloads, or revoke access entirely — and you can delete and expire galleries whenever you choose. Controls that let files be modified or removed at will are exactly what make a gallery the wrong tool for archival storage.
What backup is for
Backup protects you against hardware failure, theft and accidental deletion. Delivery serves the client; backup protects the photographer. Different jobs, different tools.
The standard rule of thumb is 3-2-1: at least three copies of important files, on two different types of media, with one copy offsite or in the cloud. Under that standard, camera memory cards are not a backup, a single external drive is not a backup, and a delivery gallery is not a backup — each is a single point of failure.
A true archive protects your master assets. When a drive crashes or files go missing, it restores the work without depending on client-facing links.
How the two fit together
Delivery and backup work well when their roles stay separate. Import your shoot, copy the files into your 3-2-1 archive, and only then export a set to deliver. shoots.page includes 2 GB of free storage — see files and limits — which gives you room to stage active client sets.
Want a client to keep access long-term? Leave the expiry date unset. Even then, never let the gallery be the only copy: if a client loses their files years later, your archive — not the gallery — is what saves them.
Common questions
Is a shoots.page gallery a backup?
No. shoots.page is a delivery platform, not an archival service. Galleries can be expired, revoked or deleted by the owner at any time, so they provide neither the safety nor the redundancy a backup needs.
Can I leave a gallery online forever?
Expiry dates are optional, so a gallery can stay online indefinitely. It is still a delivery vehicle, though — keep your own offline and cloud backups regardless of how long a gallery stays live.
Does byte-for-byte storage make it an archive?
No. Byte-for-byte storage protects fidelity — clients download exact copies of your exported work while the gallery exists. Fidelity is not retention, and it is no substitute for disaster recovery.
What is a simple 3-2-1 setup?
Your primary working drive, a second copy mirrored to a local external drive, and a third copy offsite — a drive in another building or an automated cloud backup provider.
Protect your archive, then deliver the work
Once your master files are safely backed up, publishing a gallery and sharing finished photos takes minutes from the homepage.