Automatic galleries (Pro)

If you shoot regularly, the routine is always the same: new folder in the cloud, new gallery in WordPress, same settings as last time. The watch folder does that step for you. When a new subfolder appears in your main folder, the plugin creates a gallery for it — titled after the folder, configured like a gallery you nominate as the template.

This is a Pro feature.

What you’ll learn

• What the watch folder does and, just as importantly, what it doesn’t
• How to switch it on and pick a checking interval
• Why existing folders are deliberately left alone
• How a template gallery passes your settings on
• How to trigger a check by hand
• How to have the gallery page created along with it (1.16)

Prerequisites

• A Pro licence
• A cloud provider connected and a main folder set (Settings → Cloud storage → Main folder) — the watch folder scans that folder’s subfolders. Without one, the section stays switched off.

What it does — and what it doesn’t

It automates the setup — the gallery, and since 1.16 the page too. What it does not do is fetch photos: new photos inside a folder that already has a gallery show up on their own, immediately, with or without this feature. A gallery always reads its folder live.

And it never publishes anything you did not ask it to: galleries and pages follow the draft-or-published setting below, and nothing is added to a menu.

Step-by-step

1. Open the settings

Customer Cloud Gallery → Settings → Cloud storage → Automatic galleries (watch folder).

2. Switch on automatic creation

Tick Create a gallery automatically for every new subfolder.

The moment you save, every subfolder that exists right now is written down as already known — so switching this on does not flood your gallery list with a hundred old jobs. Only folders that appear afterwards get a gallery. For folders you already have, use Choose folder in the gallery editor as usual.

3. Choose how often to check

Every 15 minutes, Hourly, Twice daily or Daily. Fifteen minutes is the shortest interval available.

One honest caveat: these checks run on WordPress cron, which only fires when someone visits your site. On a quiet site the actual gap can be longer than the interval you pick. Opening the gallery list in the admin also triggers a check, so the folders you’re waiting for usually appear the moment you go looking for them.

4. Pick a template gallery

Choose one of your existing galleries as the template. New galleries copy its settings — grid image size, sort order, downloads, favourites, cookies and so on. The cloud folder is of course not copied; each new gallery gets its own.

Pick the gallery you’re happiest with, or leave it on none to get the plugin defaults.

Tip: keep one gallery around purely as a template — configured the way you like, never published.

5. Draft or published?

• Draft (recommended) — the gallery is created and waits for you. You check the photos, add a title image, then publish.
• Published immediately — the gallery is live as soon as it is created. Only sensible if the galleries aren’t confidential, or you password-protect the page anyway.

New galleries are announced with a notice on the gallery list. No emails are sent.

6. Save, and test with “Scan now”

Save the settings, then use Scan now to run a check immediately instead of waiting for cron. The line next to the button tells you how long ago the last scan ran.

To try it end to end: create a new subfolder in your main folder, drop a photo in, click Scan now. The gallery should appear in the list.

A page for every gallery (1.16)

A gallery still needs a page before you can send a link. The watch folder can build that page too — as a copy of one template page you design once.

1. Build the template page

Make a normal WordPress page that looks the way every client page should: your intro text, the gallery, a print CTA, whatever belongs there. Put the gallery on it with the Cloud Gallery block, the Elementor widget or the shortcode — all three work.

Keep it as a draft. It is a template, not a page anyone should find.

2. Point the watch folder at it

Tick Also create a page for every new gallery and choose your template page below it. If the template contains no gallery at all, the settings page says so — copies of it would be pages without photos.

3. What you get

For every new gallery, the plugin copies the template and points its block, widget or shortcode at the new gallery. Title and status follow the gallery: a draft gallery gets a draft page.

Two deliberate exceptions:

• The password is not copied. Every client should get their own — see Password protection.
• The page is not linked anywhere. It does not appear in a menu; you send the link yourself.

Common mistakes

Nothing happens, even though there are new folders. Three things to check, in this order: is a main folder set for that provider; is the new folder a direct subfolder of it; and did the folder already exist when you switched the feature on (in that case it counts as known and is skipped by design).

The galleries appear much later than the interval suggests. WordPress cron needs traffic. On a site with few visitors, use Scan now, or open the gallery list — both trigger a check right away.

A new gallery has the wrong settings. The template gallery is what gets copied. Change the template, and galleries created from then on follow it — galleries that already exist are not touched retroactively.

Galleries appear but no pages. Either Also create a page for every new gallery is off, or no template page is selected — the settings page warns about both. Pages are only created for galleries made after you switched it on.

The new page has no photos. The template page contains no gallery. Add the Cloud Gallery block, the Elementor widget or the shortcode to the template, then let the next folder come in.

The title is the raw folder name. That’s intended: title and internal name come from the folder name. Rename the gallery in WordPress if you want something friendlier; the folder link stays intact.

Next step

Give the new galleries a cover photo: Title image (Pro). Or restrict who can see them: Password protection.