QR sharing for events — how it works
A PhotoLog share link grants view, or view plus upload — chosen when it’s created. Upload is never granted without view: there is no upload-only share.
A QR share is how someone outside your gallery gets in. An organizer creates a share link — and a QR code that points to it — and chooses what it grants. Anyone who opens the link or scans the code gets exactly that access, with no separate sign-in step required.
What a share grants: view, or view plus upload
There is no upload-only share. Every share link PhotoLog can generate for an event includes view access to the gallery — the only choice an organizer makes is whether to also grant upload:
- View. The holder can see the gallery’s photos and videos. They cannot add anything.
- View plus upload. The holder can see the gallery’s photos and videos, and add their own.
Seeing the gallery is never withheld from an upload-capable share — the two are not independent toggles a link could combine into “upload without view.”
Uploads appear right away — there is no review queue yet
A contributor’s upload becomes part of the gallery as soon as it finishes uploading. Nothing in the product today holds an upload in a pending state, routes it to the organizer for approval before it’s visible, or gives a contributor a pending/approved/rejected status to watch.
Per-QR moderation, with those states, is planned and not yet built. When it ships, an organizer will be able to turn on review for a share, so a contributor’s upload waits for approval before others see it, and a contributor will be able to see and remove their own uploads.
Managing a share
The person who created a share link — typically the event’s organizer — can deactivate it at any time. Deactivating a link stops it from granting new access; it does not remove photos or videos that were already added while the link was active.
| A contributor can… | View | View + upload |
|---|---|---|
| See the gallery's photos and videos | Yes | Yes |
| Add new photos or videos | No | Yes |
| Edit or delete someone else's photos | No | No |
| Have uploads approved before others can see them | Not applicable — a view-only share has nothing to upload | Not available yet — coming soon |
| Remove their own upload after submitting it | Not applicable — a view-only share has nothing to upload | Not available yet — coming soon |
View
- See the gallery's photos and videos
- Yes
- Add new photos or videos
- No
- Edit or delete someone else's photos
- No
- Have uploads approved before others can see them
- Not applicable — a view-only share has nothing to upload
- Remove their own upload after submitting it
- Not applicable — a view-only share has nothing to upload
View + upload
- See the gallery's photos and videos
- Yes
- Add new photos or videos
- Yes
- Edit or delete someone else's photos
- No
- Have uploads approved before others can see them
- Not available yet — coming soon
- Remove their own upload after submitting it
- Not available yet — coming soon
Note
There is no upload-only share. Every share link PhotoLog can generate for an event includes view access — nobody can be given the ability to add photos without also being able to see the gallery they're adding to.
How we verified this
Every statement above was checked against PhotoLog's own source and documentation on the date shown. Where the source did not settle a question, the page says so rather than filling the gap.
- A share link's access level is one of a closed set — no access, view, upload and view, or full edit — defined by the API's own GalleryAccessType schema (verified 2026-08-27)
- Fetching a shared gallery's photos requires only a valid, unexpired share code; the code's access level governs what else the holder may do, not whether the gallery can be seen — so every access level a share can grant includes view (verified 2026-08-27)
- Whoever created a share link can deactivate it at any time, which stops new access through that link without touching photos or videos already added while it was active (verified 2026-08-27)
- The only status values used on a gallery or its photos are 'active' and 'deleting' — there is no pending, approved or rejected status anywhere in this constant set (verified 2026-08-27)
- No per-QR upload-review or moderation workflow exists in the product; the one place the product's own design records discuss moderation at all state plainly that it is deferred and unresolved, not built (verified 2026-08-27)