How to switch from Pixieset to another client gallery without losing anything

A migration plan for photographers leaving Pixieset: what to export, what does not transfer, how to move live galleries, and how to keep couples from noticing.

Switching gallery platforms is a download and an upload, repeated for every gallery you want to keep online. The work is not technical. It is deciding which galleries move, telling couples in the right order, and not cancelling the old account a day too early. This is the plan, written for a Pixieset exit, and it applies to any platform.

Decide what moves

Not every gallery needs to move. Sort yours into three groups:

Live and recent. Weddings delivered in the last 12 months, where couples and guests are still opening the link. These move first and get a new link sent to the couple.
Delivered and quiet. Older galleries nobody has opened in months. Move them if you promised hosting, or archive them to your own drives and let the old link expire. Your expiration policy decides this for you.
Never move. Proof sets, test galleries, engagement sessions that were replaced by the wedding gallery. Download the files and delete.

A rule of thumb: if you shoot 30 weddings a year and keep galleries online for a year, you are moving about 30 galleries, at roughly 2 GB each. That is an evening of uploads, not a week.

What transfers and what does not

The finished JPEGs transfer. Everything built on top of them does not.

Comes with you	Stays behind
Full-resolution photos, as you exported them	Favorites and favorite lists
Section structure, as folders	Visitor history, download counts
Cover photo choice, as a note to yourself	Passwords, PINs and expiry dates (set again)
Couple names, dates, emails	Store orders and payout history
Videos, if you kept the delivery files	Email templates and branding settings

No platform imports another platform’s favorites. If a couple is mid-album-selection, either finish the album before you move that gallery, or ask them to send you their picks as a list before the old link closes. On FOCL, favorites are exported as a CSV by person or by photo, which is the format to ask for from any platform that offers it.

Export from Pixieset

Download the original files from every collection you are moving, one collection at a time, and keep the folder structure: one folder per collection, one subfolder per set. Check the file count against the collection count as you go. If your own archive already has the delivery exports in the same structure, use that instead. It is faster than downloading, and it is the version you actually delivered.

Do not re-export from Lightroom unless you have to. A fresh export changes file names and can change the edit. The couple’s gallery should look identical on the new platform.

Build the new galleries

Work in the same order as your list, live weddings first.

Create the gallery with the couple’s names and wedding date.
Upload each set as its own section. On most platforms you can drag the folder in and the sections appear from the folder names. On FOCL, the sections become the tabs the couple sees.
Pick the same cover photo. Set the focal point so it crops correctly on a phone.
Set the privacy layers again: password if there was one, expiry date, download settings. Write them down before you leave the old platform so the couple’s experience does not change.
Open the new gallery on your phone and check the first section, the download button and the password. Then publish.

Keep the old gallery live for now.

Tell couples in the right order

Send the new link to couples with live galleries first, in one short email: the gallery has a new home, here is the link, the password is the same (or here is the new one), the old link stops working on a date. Give them 30 days. Parents and guests usually have the old link too, so ask the couple to forward the new one.

For quiet galleries, a single email to the couple is enough. Most will never open it, and that is fine.

Put the new link in your delivery email template now, so nothing else goes out with the old address.

Overlap the accounts

Keep the old account for one billing cycle after the last gallery moves. Two reasons: a couple who missed the email will ask for the link in week five, and a print order can arrive on the old store after you thought it was done. Downgrade to the old platform’s free tier if it has one rather than cancelling outright, then close it once a month passes with no activity.

What to check before you close it:

Every gallery you are keeping is uploaded, published and opened once on a phone.
Every couple with a live gallery has the new link and has had 30 days.
Store payouts have cleared.
Your own archive holds the originals of everything, moved or not.

What changes for you

Your delivery email, your branding, your watermark and your default gallery design all have to be set up again on the new platform. Do that before the first new gallery goes out, not after. Use the gallery delivery email templates and the delivery checklist so the first delivery on the new platform is as tidy as the fiftieth on the old one.

If you are still deciding where to go, the Pixieset alternatives roundup compares seven options with prices dated, and the client gallery checklist is the list of questions to ask before you commit.