# Zenfolio is getting on my nerves with the lack of file uploading options



## Rekd (Dec 27, 2010)

I'm happy with just about everything so far. Except for uploading. They don't offer FTP and don't plan to have it in the future because, and I quote, there is no benefit to it. (I don't use lightroom or aperture etc and the Express Send doesn't work)

I guess recently they added a level above Pro as well, for like $250.00 a year. Ouch! 

I might check out Smugmug. They're a little more than Zenfolio, $150.00 a year, but it may be worth while considering I upload entire events.

What are your thoughts on Smugmug? Anyone used both? Are there other options that have similar functions at similar prices?

TYIA!


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## NateS (Dec 27, 2010)

Really?  My process is

go to sidersphoto.com
Pick the album
Click Back to Edit View
Click Upload
Drag and drop the contents of my folder
Press Upload.

Takes me all of 30 seconds to start uploading my photos and I could knock it down to 10 seconds if I wanted to bookmark my most frequently used albums to take me directly to their edit view.  I do have some issues with Zen, but I don't find their uploading options bad.  Why do you not like going to your website to upload them?

(Sorry I can't help w/ Smugmug, but curious as to why you hate the above method so much).


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## Rekd (Dec 27, 2010)

I've created a shortcut to the uploader where I can select an album then drag files from explorer. That's fine. Cumbersome, but fine. I cover events (racing, competitions etc) and need to be able to upload multiple albums at the same time, usually with hundreds, often with thousands of shots.

More often than not the album I'll be uploading to won't exist and I'll have to create it. Using FTP will allow me to just drag the already named folder to the root. 

Then there's the problem with dropped uploads. It happened a few times already and there seems to be zero retrys. When it fails it has stopped the entire batch, and I don't find out until I come back later to check on it. Using FTP will allow me to specify a number of retries if it fails.

There are other issues, but I won't bore you with them. And I'm not going to invest in editing software that supports it, I do just fine with Gimp and DPP.


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## KmH (Dec 27, 2010)

Rekd said:


> I guess recently they added a level above Pro as well, for like $250.00 a year. Ouch!


Ouch?
That is just $0.68 a day/$21 a month. Drink I less soda or cup of coffee a day. 

Beside, if you are pro, it's a deductable business expense. :thumbup:


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## Rekd (Dec 27, 2010)

KmH said:


> Rekd said:
> 
> 
> > Ouch!
> ...



Yes. Ouch. 

I'm not interested in paying more than twice the price for such insignificant tools. Even that price doesn't provide more stable and usable uploading tools. And sorry, but I'll need the extra caffeine to do the extra work. :twak:

Just because it's a business expense doesn't mean I want to pay too much money for their sub-par service in those areas.


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## vincentrizzo (May 27, 2011)

Zenfolio is so much nicer than Smugmug.


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## Jarrod268 (May 27, 2011)

Have you considered building your own site and going with a hosting provider that offers Ftp?

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk


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## flea77 (May 27, 2011)

First, I went with Zenfolio because it was so much more configurable than Smugmug, and I could have it charge sales tax with every sale, making things much easier on me. That being said let me see if I can offer a little help...

I had problems with their uploader as well (express send). Turns out it was the network card. Now before you start saying "but I FTP just fine and never have a problem!", that is EXACTLY what I said. I use Filezilla daily, designing and updating websites, some of which are gig+ uploads of videos. Turns out FTP programs are much more relaxed when it comes to this kind of thing than express send was and swapping out NICs not only fixed 99% of the problems with it, but helped in other areas as well with things I didn't think had a problem. Now express send isnt perfect, I still would have a few out of every hundred or so that failed (one or two) so I would have to resend them.

Then I went with Lightroom and the zenfolio plugin. OMG! You talk about saving me TONS of time in workflow! I can shoot RAW, I can shoot JPG, I can batch adjust, resize on the fly, upload multiple directories, create new areas on zenfolio, it is just magic. Your workflow may be completely different than mine and it may not work as well for you, but for me, the very first event I used this approach for paid for both Lightroom and the plugin, no question.

Hope something in this helped.

Allan


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## Robin Usagani (May 27, 2011)

Zenfolio fan here.  Why do you need FTP?  The reason FTP doesn't work because zenfolio has to automatically make several different Jpeg sizes from small to full resolution.  Zenfolio is the best.  

Don't compare the membership above pro with smugmug because smugmug doesn't offer that.  With that membership you can male all the shipping goes to your studio first so you can add your personal touch. You can also modify orders etc.


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