clientgallery.io

Migration

How to Switch From ShootProof: The Manual Move, in Stages

There is no ShootProof importer and there is no plan to build one. This is the manual route, sequenced so no client loses access while you are halfway through it.

Updated September 2026

Start with the sentence most migration pages bury. clientgallery.io has a one-click whole-account import, and it reads Pixieset. It does not read ShootProof. Nothing about leaving ShootProof is automatic here: you download what you no longer hold, you upload it again, and you rebuild the handful of settings that matter. We are telling you that in the first paragraph so you can price the job before you start it.

The good news is that the job is smaller than it looks, because most of it should not involve ShootProof at all. If the photographs are still in your own Lightroom Classic catalog or on your own drives, publishing them fresh is faster than pulling them back out of anybody's platform. The download route matters only for the jobs you no longer hold. This guide sequences the whole thing so that at no point is a client staring at a link that does not work.

Step 1: Audit, and split the list in two

Before you touch anything, open your ShootProof galleries and write two lists. This is the step that decides how long the migration takes, and skipping it is how people end up downloading four hundred galleries they already had on a drive.

  • Live. Galleries a client is still using: a proofing round in progress, a delivery sent in the last few months, anything linked from an email you sent recently. These need to exist in both places for a while.
  • Dormant. Finished work you keep for your own records. Nobody is opening these this month. They can move whenever you like, or never.

Then run the question that shortens the whole job across both lists: do you still hold these frames yourself? Your catalog, your drives, your own backup. If you do, mark the gallery "republish" and never download it from ShootProof. Only the galleries you can no longer produce from your own files need an export, and for most working studios that is a short list of old jobs.

Note the password on each live gallery while you are in there, and note which ones have a client mid-selection. Those two details are the ones people forget and then have to go back for.

Step 2: Pull only what you no longer hold

ShootProof documents one photographer-side route to a whole gallery of files, and it runs through archiving. In ShootProof's own words, from the article on archiving and unarchiving: if you do not have space in your plan, or you simply want to access your files and not return the gallery to its live status, you can download individual photos or videos to your desktop, or you can download the entire gallery as a whole, and those options appear inside each individual archived gallery.

The path ShootProof publishes for getting a gallery into that state is Galleries, then All Galleries, then Actions, then Archive. Archived galleries are not live for client viewing, which is exactly why this step belongs to dormant galleries and not to the ones a client is currently using. Archiving is billed at a minimum of $2.99 a month for up to 25 GB and $0.05 per additional gigabyte, for the previous month's usage, and ShootProof states you still receive one more bill after you remove everything from archiving.

There is a second route for a subset of files. ShootProof documents an album download link: open the gallery, click the actions icon on the album in the left panel, choose Download Link, then Generate Link. The link lands on your clipboard and points at a zip of all the files in that album.

The longer version of all of this, including what ShootProof does not document, is on the page about downloading your photos out of ShootProof. Two warnings that belong here as well. Do everything in this step while your ShootProof plan is still paid, and do not delete anything to free space first: ShootProof states that a deleted file or gallery is completely deleted from the account and cannot be recovered.

Step 3: Republish, starting with the galleries clients are using

Publishing into clientgallery.io works one of two ways, and for a migration the first is almost always faster.

From Lightroom Classic. The two-way plugin publishes proofs straight out of the catalog, so for any job still in your catalog there is no download step at all. It is also the route that pays you back later, because client picks come back into the same catalog as ratings, a flag and a collection rather than as a list of filenames to retype.

From the browser. Create the gallery and drop the files in. Worth knowing exactly what happens to them, because it explains both the speed and the limits: every upload is compressed in your own browser into a proof JPEG before it is sent, and the upload path accepts JPEG images only. That is why a gallery of a thousand frames loads quickly on a client's phone, and it is also why this is a delivery surface rather than a backup. Your masters stay on your own drives. We host JPEG proofs and warehouse no RAW files or master video, and that is what keeps the price flat.

Full-resolution delivery is a separate thing from the proof gallery, so plan it separately. You upload a full-resolution ZIP per gallery and the client pulls it from the same link.

Do the live list first, one wave at a time. A studio moving a season of work generally gets through it in a few evenings, and nothing breaks if you stop halfway, because the ShootProof galleries are still up.

The ceilings you are migrating into

A studio moving a back catalogue deserves the fair-use numbers up front rather than buried in a footnote, because they change how you shape the move.

LimitFigure
Photos per gallery1,000
Proofs per paid account250 GB
Proofs on a free account5 GB, and one gallery
Full-resolution ZIPOne per gallery, live 3 days per handoff, re-uploadable any time
Standing ZIPs per account100 GB
GalleriesNo count, and no per-gallery fee
Price$10 a month or $100 a year

Two practical consequences. A wedding day over a thousand frames is split across two galleries, or organised into sections inside one, and the 1,000-photo ceiling is per gallery rather than per section. And the three-day ZIP window is a handoff window, not a delivery deadline: the gallery itself stays live, and you re-upload the ZIP whenever a client comes back for the full-resolution set.

Step 4: Swap the links in waves

The failure mode in every platform migration is a client opening a dead link. The fix is sequencing, not software, because no platform can redirect a URL it does not own. Your old ShootProof links live on ShootProof and keep working exactly as long as your ShootProof account does.

  1. Republish a wave of galleries, then check each one against its ShootProof original side by side before you send anything.
  2. Email the clients in that wave the new link. Say the gallery has moved, that the old link will stop working, and give a date. Clients handle this well when they are told in advance and badly when they are not.
  3. Update the places the old links are pasted: your delivery email template, your website, your contract, your invoice footer, any scheduled reminder.
  4. Leave anyone mid-selection alone until they finish. Moving a client halfway through a proofing round costs you the round.
  5. Repeat with the next wave.

The longer answer on old client links covers what to send to the client who opens a two-year-old gallery next spring.

Step 5: Close the ShootProof plan last

Cancel only when every gallery on your list is live in its new home, checked, and sent. ShootProof publishes several things about closing that are worth reading before you click anything.

  • The path is Account, then Plan & Billing, then the overflow button in the Photo Plan section, then Close My Account. ShootProof states that only the account owner can close an account.
  • ShootProof states it does not offer refunds on any plan payments, and asks you to cancel before your bill date. Its plans article puts the same thing more bluntly: all plan purchases are non-refundable. So the calendar matters more than the click.
  • Moving to the Free plan is an option only if your account holds less than 3 GB of photos and no videos. ShootProof states the Free plan does not include contracts, invoices, email campaigns or multiple account users, and caps mobile apps at five.
  • Archiving does not stop on its own. ShootProof states that if you have archived galleries when you move to the Free plan, you continue to be charged for them until you remove them from archiving and are billed for that usage. Empty archiving first, after you have downloaded what you need from it.
  • If you also pay for the Booking add-on, ShootProof states it is billed separately but closes with the photo plan.

When not to switch

We would rather lose the signup than have you undo a migration in March. Stay on ShootProof if any of these describe your studio.

  • You sell prints or products through the gallery. ShootProof sells lab prints on every tier and takes no commission on any plan. We ship no store at all, so moving deletes that revenue line and puts nothing in its place.
  • You deliver video. ShootProof hosts video up to 4K on its paid plans. We host JPEG photos. That is not a gap we are closing.
  • You treat the platform as your second copy. ShootProof states its archive holds original-size files you can download or unarchive in one click. Our galleries hold proof JPEGs, so they are a delivery surface and not a backup, and anyone who migrates without their own masters is trading one single point of failure for another.
  • Your contracts, invoices or email campaigns live there. Unbundling the gallery from a stack you actually use costs more time than it saves.
  • You need more than one login. There is no seat model here at all. A two-person studio shares one account, and that is the honest description rather than a workaround.

If none of those fit, the head-to-head comparison sets both products side by side on price, storage, archiving and the Lightroom path, including the argument against ShootProof that its September 2026 plan change removed.

Sources

Every ShootProof step, figure and policy above comes from one of these first-party pages. Help articles carry their own update date, given in the title. The clientgallery.io limits quoted here were checked against the product code on the same day.

Frequently asked

Can clientgallery.io import my ShootProof galleries automatically?

No. The one-click whole-account import reads Pixieset and nothing else, and there is no ShootProof importer. Moving from ShootProof is a manual download and re-upload. If the photographs are still in your Lightroom Classic catalog, publishing them with the plugin is faster than exporting them from ShootProof at all.

How do I get a whole gallery of files out of ShootProof?

ShootProof documents it through archiving. Its archiving article states that inside an archived gallery you can download individual photos or videos, or download the entire gallery as a whole. Archive from Galleries, All Galleries, Actions, Archive. Archiving costs a minimum of $2.99 a month for up to 25 GB and $0.05 per additional gigabyte.

Do my old ShootProof links stop working when I switch?

Not while your ShootProof account is open, and not because of anything we do. Those links live on ShootProof and stop when that account does. No platform can redirect a URL it does not own, so send active clients the new link, update your templates and website, and give a date before you cancel.

Should I cancel ShootProof before or after I migrate?

After, always. ShootProof states it offers no refunds on plan payments and asks you to cancel before your bill date, so pick the date deliberately. Download everything you no longer hold while the plan is paid, get the new galleries live and sent, then close the plan.

Will my clients' favourites and orders come across?

No. Selections, order history and anything sold through the ShootProof store stay on ShootProof. Save what you need as a record before you close the account. If a client is still choosing, let that round finish on ShootProof rather than moving them mid-selection.

How long does the move take?

It depends almost entirely on how much you still hold yourself. Galleries you can republish from your own catalog take minutes each. Galleries that exist only on ShootProof need archiving, downloading and re-uploading, which is the slow path. Audit first, because for most studios the slow path applies to a short list of old jobs.

What are the storage limits I am moving into?

1,000 photos per gallery, 250 GB of proofs per paid account, 5 GB and one gallery on a free account, and no gallery count or per-gallery fee at $10 a month or $100 a year. Full-resolution delivery is separate: one ZIP per gallery, live 3 days per handoff and re-uploadable any time, with 100 GB of standing ZIPs per account.

Your client galleries, under your name

Branded galleries, client selections and a Lightroom Classic workflow. Start with your first gallery, then compare the current plan. Full-resolution delivery is a separate handoff with its own limits and conditions.

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Related guides

How to Switch From ShootProof: The Manual Move, in Stages