FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Everything about photographing an album, what happens to your photos, sharing with family, and pricing.
Photographing your album
How do I photograph an album page so it works well?
Place the album flat on a table and light it evenly from both sides at roughly a 45-degree angle, so there's no glare on glossy photos and no shadow falling across the page. Mount your phone directly above the page — a selfie stick with a Bluetooth shutter or a simple stand works well — and keep the same distance for every shot. Photograph the whole spread, not individual photos.
Should I photograph one page or two-page spreads?
Either works. Photographing a full two-page spread in one shot is faster; photographing one page at a time can give slightly higher resolution per photo if your album has many small prints packed closely together.
What order should I photograph the pages in?
In the order they appear in the album, front to back. This matters: a page with a date or a title written on it (for example a section like "Summer 1963") is assumed to explain the pages that come right after it, until a new date appears. Photographing out of order can attach the wrong date to a batch of undated photos.
How many photos can be on one page?
As many as your album actually has — the AI looks for every individual mounted photo. Results are most reliable when photos have a little visible space or a border between them; photos mounted perfectly edge-to-edge with no gap are the hardest case and occasionally get grouped together instead of separated.
Does it work on photos that aren't in an album — like a loose stack?
Yes, though a mounted album page with visible space around each photo currently gives the most reliable individual crops. A loose stack or a single already-cropped photo is detected as one photo per upload.
What Scanalbum does with your photos
What happens to the original page photos?
They're kept untouched and are always available from the album — separate from the individual cropped photos, which are copies made from them, never the only copy.
How does date detection work?
Handwritten or printed dates and captions near the photos are read automatically. If a page has no date of its own, it inherits the most recently seen date from an earlier page — so photographing pages in order matters for this to work correctly.
Will the downloaded photo actually have the right date, not just on the website?
Yes. When a photo is cropped, the date is written into the image file itself (its EXIF metadata), not just shown on screen. That means if you later download the photo or import it into Google Photos, it sorts into the correct year automatically.
Can I fix a caption or a date the AI got wrong?
Yes — every caption and date can be edited after processing. You can also rotate a photo left or right if the automatic orientation isn't quite right. Editing a date re-stamps the file itself, the same as the original automatic date.
Sharing and privacy
Who can see my album?
Only people you share the link with. On paid plans, you can add an extra layer: anyone opening the link for the first time has to enter a one-time code sent to their email, so the link can't be casually forwarded and opened by strangers.
Can family members comment without creating an account?
Yes. They register a first name, last name, and email once and can then comment on any photo in the album. As the album owner, you decide whether family members are also allowed to edit captions and dates, or only comment.
Can other family members upload their own photos to the album?
On the Premium plan, yes — you can invite family members to photograph and upload their own album pages into the same shared family album.
Pricing and storage
Is there a free plan?
Yes — create as many albums as you like and upload up to 20 pages total, at no cost. Every album gets a full working web album, hosted for 30 days.
What's the difference between Pro and Premium?
Pro is a one-time payment of $29 for 200 pages (roughly 8-10 albums, at 20-25 pages each), shared across every album on your account — buy more 200-page packs any time for $29 each, and everyone with access to the account benefits immediately. Premium is an annual subscription for 500 pages (roughly 20-25 albums) and keeping a family archive alive long-term, with more storage, cheaper page packs ($19 instead of $29), and the ability to invite family to contribute their own albums.
I only have 30 pages in each of my albums — is Pro still worth it?
Page capacity is shared across your whole account, not per album, so it's the total across everything you've digitized that counts. About seven small albums of 30 pages each add up to 200+ pages — exactly what Pro includes.
What happens to my album if I don't upgrade?
Free albums are hosted for 30 days. Download everything before then if you want to keep the photos, or upgrade to Pro or Premium to extend hosting.
Can I get all my photos out, not just view them online?
Yes, on Pro and Premium — download everything as a single archive, including the original page photos and every individual cropped photo with correct dates in the file.
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