How do I download photos from my own account?

What is downloading?

People often confuse uploading and downloading.  Uploading is when you send a photo to dotPhoto; downloading is when you retrieve an original image from dotPhoto.

When you upload a photo to your dotPhoto account, the photo is translated into a thumbnail and a display image, and the original photo is stored for printing. The original photo is not accessible from the dotPhoto site except as a download. 

Downloading is a special feature available only to dotPhoto Club Members.  Click here to become a Club Member.

Buying downloads from a Pro

How to buy downloads from a Professional Photographer

Selling downloads to others

For information about selling and buying downloads (where are the downloads I bought?), please click here.

Club Members: Buying a backup of ALL of your photos on SD cards
Buy a backup of your entire dotPhoto account on SD cards.

Let friends and families download your original files like Dropbox

Share full-size downloads with friends.

How to Download Photos

Club Members do not need to select photos to download because dotPhoto downloads an entire album at a time. An album can hold up to 1000 photos and videos.

1. Sign in to your account.
2. Click on an album. The Download feature is only available from within an album. You will not see the Download option under Organize until you click into an album.
3. Click on the Organize bar on the left. (If you do not see the Organize bar, you are probably signed in as a guest on your account. Make sure you have signed in with the correct password.)
4. Click the Download button on the next screen. A zip file is downloaded to your computer that includes all the files in that album. How to unzip a downloaded file
5. If you want more albums, go into that album, and repeat the download process.

Maximum Number of Files per Download

Downloads are limited to 1000 files at a time. To download an album with more than 1000 pictures, create a new album, and use the Move command under the Organize tab on the left to move files to the new album until the first album has fewer than 1001 pictures. Then download both albums separately.

How to Download a Single Photo

Since the download tool downloads an entire album, you can download a single photo by creating a temporary album and copying the photo to that album. On the Organize menu, select Create Album and Copy the photo to the new album. Then go into that album and choose Download from the Organize menu.

Potential Downloading Problems

• A file that ends in .zip.inc means that the download is incomplete. Please try downloading again. The full file should end in .zip
• The download tool requires the installation of Java, a popular computer language, on your computer, which you can download free here: java.com
• Overly aggressive Anti-Virus software. Downloading files is an attempt to take files from the Internet and put them on your computer. Of course, these are your own files that you want on your computer, but some Anti-Virus software may interfere with that process, so you may want to temporarily reduce or turn off your security. Don't forget to turn it back it on!
• Pop-up blockers may prevent the download window from opening. Turn off your pop-up blockers in your browser. If your browser is "gummed up," you may want to try a different browser for this function. For instance: Chrome or Firefox.
• If you're using Windows Vista, change the settings in your browser noted below.
• Files will not download if they are corrupted. This may happen to one or two files, but, in our experience, not to tens of files. If you are having trouble with one file, but others will download, it is a file problem, not a download problem.
• Some computers have trouble downloading files because of their unique combination of operating system, security, Java version (or lack of java), pop-up blockers or other attributes external to dotPhoto. We are sorry, but, if the suggestions here do not allow you to download, we cannot offer further help. However, dotPhoto does provide an SD Card-purchase option to which you can load hundreds of photos from your site. Click here for information.
• The Chrome browser works best with this process. If IE does not work for you, please try Chrome.

Downloading with Microsoft Vista

In your browser, click on Tools | Internet Options | the Security Tab | Trusted Sites Sites | the Sites button...

... click OFF the check box "Require server verification", and add www.dotphoto.com both as http:// and https://

Guest Downloads

Guests to an account cannot download photos because photos are the property of the account holder. However, guests can often buy a download of an image, but that option is not available if the photographer does not want to sell the download.  Here is a workaround for best friends.

Want to know more?

Email BetterFAQs@dotphoto.com