SmugMug - Store & Share Photos Reviews

by Prasingh

SmugMug works fine as long as you keep SmugMug open 100% of the time(which is never possible unless you are backing up less than 10 pics at a time). If the lock screen comes up during the upload SmugMug doesn't work. The progress bar for each picture gets stuck, overall progress bar gets stuck,eventually you realise some pics are still getting uploaded but no progress being displayed. A few hours later you check SmugMug again and it tries to upload from the start while trying to omit the ones it thinks were previous uploaded. This process keeps repeating forever and eventually SmugMug gives up without telling you what went thru and what failed. You have to manually sift thru 100s of pictures to see what is missing. Terrible software written by someone in elementary school perhaps :(

by Photographer On The Go

Once again, this app has once again managed to be the only major developer with nothing except a complete loss of locally saved info and images as a fix for a failed app update.

I have been a this app user (Web) for over 15 years. I think it’s a fantastic Web service, and have always considered the this app Heroes (support team) to be top notch.

As SmugMug gained features, I added it to my daily routine, and have come to count on it. As with any important system I use, I back up my mobile device data regularly (iCloud daily, with occasional backups to a Mac). Unfortunately, that’s of little use when a developer ‘improves’ an app, and causes the saved data to be useless.

The iOS app currently works for new installations, but appears to be completely dead for many existing users. The only fix offered by this app isn’t something like a rollback that would allow us to keep downloaded files and favorites, but rather “Uninstall SmugMug , reboot the device, and reinstall SmugMug ,” which results in the permanent loss of anything saved locally.

If you use the this app app casually, and don’t mind occasionally losing everything you save locally on your iOS device, then it’s a good app. If you use it for business, then I urge you to reconsider. No amount of backing up will save you from poor development choices.

by Tim Anh Vu

I really don’t know what happened to SmugMug. It worked mostly fine up until about a year ago. Since then, it’s barely usable and that’s putting it nicely. Nearly impossible to create folders or galleries, upload photos, or download photos. When you attempt to do so, it either hangs on crashes. So much that I’ve given up. It’s much easier to install Chrome on my device and do what I have to do if I’m not on my computer. The approve mentioned issues have been experienced on my iPhone as well as my iPad. If by chance you ever get around to fixing these issues, some nice to have enhancements would be the ability to change gallery settings such as the cover photo, sort order, display order, and other settings available from a browser.

by Mommies2girls

SmugMug is very frustrating and for what we pay yearly I expect so much more from SmugMug .
IOS Auto back up does not work.
Nothing backs up from my phone newer than 2018 but it says my backup is up to date and complete. Can only back up one iPhone so my husband is out of luck as well as my teenage daughters.
Also have never understood why they limit video size. Sometimes stopping in the middle of something important like graduation isn’t an option but I would really like to still back up these to my site to be able to share with family.
Uploads freeze constantly on mobile devices and time out or won’t upload at all. So many errors.
It’s extremely frustrating and makes backing up your phone impossible. After you have to scroll through thousands of photos to manually back your phone up it gets tedious and you give up and never complete the back up.
I expect more from the this app app but would be happy if it would just work. The prices are increasing but the reliability and ease of use are not.
Please fix IOS Auto Back Up. Please allow all family members to back up their phones too.
Please fix the upload and crash problems.

by Theyoonius

I was a long time Flickr and Google Photos user. I have to say that Flickr is probably the best, I just don’t feel secure with Flickr being around a long while. This is my first time giving Smug a shot. It has potentials. It’s nice to have the ability to use templates to create photo sites and galleries. I even find it a tad faster to upload batch photos than Flickr or Google Photos.

If Smug can figure this out, they would be perfect! I would love to have the ability to double tap with a single finger to zoom in. I’m a pixel peeper and it’s important. Also would be nice to swipe down on a full photo view to return back to the gallery view. And I’d like to view the exif data without having to reach my thumb far up to the more icon in the upper nav bar. These are basically the mental model that users have towards photo apps. But for some reason, I either have to use two fingers to zoom in and zoom out or at times it doesn’t even let me zoom in at all. Please update this and you’ll have a paying member for life. And I’d actually open SmugMug a whole lot more.

Otherwise, I’m currently paying for storage and a slightly improved upload speed more than anything else.

by ProfessorHines

I hate to be so negative about SmugMug, but I stopped updating SmugMug a long while ago but unfortunately I accidentally got the latest and it’s terrible. Photos aren’t showing, the controls have been moved for no apparent reason and now downloads are arranged by the date vs showing as recently added as they did before.
If it isn’t broke don’t fix it. I don’t know why the updates for SmugMug are always something like this but it’s unfortunate that I and I’m sure many others pay for their this app accounts and to have an app being updated that isn’t ever just import i gotta what works it’s always something drastic that makes SmugMug function poorly.

by 4VooDude

...are you aware of this?

You offer a way to keep images on the device, for display when the network is unavailable. Good idea ... flawed implementation. I have this option set on most of my galleries. I discover some images display “thumbnail” resolution when in full-screen display.

I watch the progess of the download (the little green “thermometer” bar; the eventual grey circle checkmark) ... I think “good, that one is downloaded” ... I open that image, and it is full resolution. I move on, and then come back to that same image ... the grey circle checkmark is gone, and the black space for the green progress thermometer is there again. I wait and watch it all happen again ... green thermometer, then circled grey checkmark ... high resolution photo ... then, the process repeats! I cannot rely on this offline storage. I cannot afford to display my professional artwork this way!!! This happens to the same images, time amd time again, yet does not happen to other images. I note no pattern to this problem.

by Miniorila

I love SmugMug, and it has been great for my photo and video storage. But for the first few days, I couldn’t watch any videos within SmugMug . I finally figured out that if I saved the videos to my iPad’s camera roll, I could then watch them on my app. But I have quite a lot of videos, and it is frustrating to have to do this every time I want to watch a video. I have also been having trouble uploading certain videos in the first place. It isn’t the case with every video, but fairly often I will be told that a video can not be uploaded, even when I try to upload it multiple times. I would GREATLY appreciate these being fixed, as it would save me a lot of time and work. But, overall I am very pleased with SmugMug!

by Mr. Ekted

This is the update I’ve been waiting for. this app has always been, understandably, weird about videos.(huge files, file types, etc) All my photos uploaded with ease while my videos just clogged up my phone unless I did some weird workaround to get them to this app (even the desktop app was weird about videos for a long time - that has been fixed as well). I’m happy. I tested the update and can confirm all my videos are safely uploaded.

Cheers, this app. Thank you for this update!

by Amberm81

**Updated** I emailed customer service and they immediately responded and helped me figure out what the issue was. Now my videos are playing again. Back to 5 stars.
I love SmugMug for photos but it won’t ever play uploaded videos. When trying to play them from SmugMug , nothing happens and when logging into the website via Internet browser I get an error saying that the page is not found when trying to play an uploaded video. If I can’t play videos, I’ll have to be looking at different options.

by SusanF2013

I just subscribed to Smug at the Power level. Paying the annual fee instead of monthly installments gave me a generous discount. Thank you! With iOS, there is an option to auto-upload your photos into your library which made it a breeze to back-up my photos. Setting up my galleries was easy and now my photos are organized beautifully. I thoroughly enjoyed setting up my new photo site using one of the offered templates. I tried out a couple until I found one I liked the best. Further customization made it perfect. My new website is contemporary, highly professional looking and showcases my images beautifully. I am extremely pleased and I’ve only been a member for a little over 24 hours.

by Auxgen

Gone are film and prints (sorta). An album to carry around on a phone or pad!!! Show your photos to friends/family but most to those who watch you play with your camera or say you want take a great shot, show your photos to a person tell your idea and get entrance to a place. Better is carry a card with your site name and say you can buy also framed/canvas/mug/print! Also photos are protected, even better. Even a beginner taking shots of kids playing sports with with yours and a little sign with your site could pay for that camera

by Dwayne1943

I like to view my photo albums on my iPad Pro. The Safari browser doesn’t display my photos correctly after recent updates. I have tried other browsers, but none displayed slideshows full screen, with Captions and Titles displayed. SmugMug works good, except I can’t get it to display captions and titles in slideshow mode. Captions and titles display, if manually move from photo to photo. I hope that more options will be provided for slideshows, including ability to display captions and titles. The photos look great on the iPad Pro.

by Westieking

When I retired from business I Had no idea of what I was going to do with my life. One of my gifts was a camera and I started taking pictures Next I joined Flickr and then this app and I then a whole new world opened to me. These sites gave me the opportunity to share my new pastime with not only friends but with people from all over the world Today I have over 3 million hits on Flickr and hits on this app. My pictures are on calendars, in text books, hang in office buildings, appear in travel magazines, and on state maps. Thank you this app and Flickr for giving new meaning and lots of fun to my life.

by Rvbridgeman

That’s why I never really paid much attention to the Snug app or even the computer. I would always instantly edit pics thru the Adobe photo express app. Then upload to Instagram edit again then share to , Twitter, Flicker, then to my FB pages and last to Shopify store but I’m done giving my money away to frikn Shopify also google ads , even the prime oh forgot rip off EBay haha . Maybe I should go for a walk . 🤣🇺🇸
🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 I’m firing every one except Smug Mug & Flicker you’re gonna leave the others in the dust now!
Thanks again,
Gregory Miychel
Aka Rvbridgeman

by Wdinafnn

I love SmugMug and how nicely it accesses my this app galleries on my iPad and iPhone. this app is a powerhouse for our photos. We have public, private, friends, and family galleries all setup for viewing. The privacy and filtering options are fantastic. The display options allow for wide customizations and creativity and control. You can go pure simple or as customized as you want. It’s all there for the beginner to the expert. You can have your whole life on this app if you want with every great moment easy to find and ready to display from your pocket. Kudos to this app for a fantastic service and a great app!!

by Nessman606

I’m a sports photographer and I use Smug Mug as a means to keep my images stored where sports editors can access my galleries privately and download images for publication, it absolutely has to work flawlessly 100% of the time, I have deadlines to meet and often times multiple publications waiting for pictures to go to print. It’s the perfect platform for various unconnected editors to have access to images for their stories.

Then once the editors are done with the pictures I make them public and available to purchase. Smug mug is a tool I seriously have to trust and it has never let me down I’d give it 100 stars if I could.

by Architectural Photographer

Very nice app. It does what you need it to do. A simple and elegant setting to show your photos. I am a professional photographer and use this app to create a gallery of each client's preliminary and final photos. There are very few times however when galleries won't load. Likely related to wifi or signal strength issues. The other drawback is that occasionally the servers are not functioning and galleries are inaccessible for a period of time. However for the vast majority of the time this works extremely well. You can also load videos. However it would be great if support for 3D panoramas could be added as well.

by Motorcycle Tutor

I tried to open SmugMug today, a black screen came up that said bummer we had to reset your app click here to launch this app. I clicked to lunch and nothing happens. Yeah I was completely broken and now I can’t get to my photos. This is an excellent app but now I want to give you zero stars unless you can fix it. SmugMug Store doesn’t have any way to contact the developer so I put my complaint here

Then the developer saw it and contacted me to suggest a fix which simply involved deleting and reinstalling and there it is working again. Thanks!

by Rjremy

I have been trying to upload photos from a recent Central America trip. Three times the upload has stalled at approximately 2/3 completion. I made the suggested changes to my settings and the problem remains. Reading discussions on this topic, I see it’s a continuing problem. What a waste of time!

I tried again another day and the large file (number of photos) froze again about 2/3 of the way. This time I was able to exit, determine the number of the last photo accepted, and continue uploading from that point. Success!

I really like everything about this app but found that exercise frustrating. Finding a work around leads me to updating my review to a more positive one.