Collections
What's a Collection?
A collection is a private space for sharing photos with a specific group of people. Unlike folders, collections are about who you share with, not just what you're organising. Nothing is visible to anyone until you invite them.
Family
Share with parents, kids, siblings, grandparents.
Uni Friends
Keep old memories alive with your university crew.
Just Us
A private space for you and your partner.
Trip Name
Share with everyone who was on the holiday.
How Collections Work
- Posts live inside collections. Each memory you add belongs to one or more collections.
- A post can be in several collections. Add the Christmas photos to both "Family" and "2024".
- Collections are private until you invite people.
- You control access. Choose who can view, add photos, or help organise.
Browse Your Memories
lovd gives you four ways to view a collection's posts. Switch between them from the controls at the top of the collection.
Gallery
All your photos as thumbnails, classic and quick.
Timeline
Your memories in date order. Watch your story unfold.
Map
See where your photos were taken on an interactive map.
Calendar
Browse by month or year. Find that birthday from 2019.
The View Toolbar
Every view carries a small floating toolbar holding the controls for that view: the zoom or thumbnail-size slider, actions such as Fit to view, and a View options button (the sliders icon) for the settings you pick once and forget. It starts at the bottom centre of the view and stays on screen. When you stop moving the pointer it fades back so it doesn't compete with your photos, and it returns to full strength as soon as you hover it or tab into it.
- Move it. Drag the grip handle on the bar to any of eight positions: left, centre, or right along the top or the bottom, or either side. The two side positions stand the bar up vertically, which suits a tall, narrow panel. With the handle focused,
←and→step through the positions instead. Your choice is remembered. - Or right-click the bar (long-press on touch) to pick a position by name (Top left, Bottom centre, Left side, and so on). The same menu holds Hide toolbar and Keyboard shortcuts.
- Hide it for an edge-to-edge view. Hide toolbar collapses the bar to a single ⋯ handle in the same spot; click that (Show toolbar) to bring the controls back. Each view remembers this on its own, so hiding the map's toolbar leaves the gallery's alone.
- On phones and in narrow windows the bar stays at the bottom centre, within thumb reach, and there's no grip to drag.
? anywhere in the app, or choose Keyboard shortcuts in the user menu, to see every shortcut currently available. The sheet has a tab per open view and opens on the view you're pointing at, so in a split layout each panel keeps its own keys.Select Several Photos at Once
Selecting photos is how you do anything in bulk: tag the people in them, add them to another collection, correct a date, or delete them.
- Hover a photo in the gallery and click the checkbox in its corner.
- Ctrl-click (⌘-click on a Mac) any photo to add it to the selection or take it back out.
- Shift-click in the gallery, timeline, or calendar to take everything between your last pick and this one.
- Long-press on touch, in the gallery, calendar, or map.
- On the timeline, map, calendar, and people graph you can also press the Selection button in the toolbar, or the
Skey, and then click to pick.
As soon as something is selected, the toolbar becomes the selection bar. Reading along it: ✕ leaves the selection, then the running count ("3 selected"), then one-click buttons for Add to collections, Tag people, and Edit date, then a ⋮ Selection options menu with everything else (edit location, add to a post, create a post from the photos, remove from this collection, select all, clear selection), and Delete at the end. In a narrow window the three buttons fold into the ⋮ menu.
Esc clears a selection at any point, and Delete opens the delete confirmation for whatever is selected.Managing Collections
Collection settings open on a dedicated Settings page. Only the collection owner can change settings; others see the collection but not these controls.
Edit a collection
Open the collection and go to its Settings (General tab). From there you can change the name, the icon, and the collection's theme colour. Your changes save when you confirm.
Delete a collection
In Settings, scroll to the red Delete collection section and click the Delete collection button, then confirm in the dialog.
Cover Image
Give a collection a personal touch with a cover photo. The cover appears as a header on the collection's card, so everyone recognises it at a glance.
Set a cover
Open the collection, then right-click (or long-press on touch) any photo and choose Set as collection cover. Selecting a single photo offers the same action. Only the owner and editors can set a cover.
Remove a cover
Open the collection card's ⋮ More menu and choose Remove cover image to clear it and return to the plain header. Only the owner sees this option, and only while a cover is set.