# Albums

import { TileAlbumTree } from "../../../src/tiles/TileAlbumTree";

An album is a named collection of files. **Media → Albums.**

<figure className="gai-mock">
	<TileAlbumTree
		albums={[
			{
				label: "All Media",
				icon: "FolderOpen",
				count: 4218,
				children: [
					{
						label: "Spring Campaign 2026",
						icon: "FolderOpen",
						count: 842,
						children: [{ label: "Product Shoot", icon: "Folder", count: 526 }],
					},
					{ label: "Events", icon: "Folder", count: 1105 },
					{ label: "Team Portraits", icon: "Folder", count: 318 },
				],
			},
		]}
	/>
	<figcaption>
		Albums nest, so a campaign can hold the shoots inside it. The counts show the files
		in each album, and a file can sit in as many albums as you like.
	</figcaption>
</figure>

## Create an album

Choose **Create album**, give it a name and an optional description. You can set a
**parent album**, which nests it, useful for a campaign with a shoot under it, or a
year with events under it. Leaving the parent as **None (Root Level)** puts it at the
top.

Add files to an album from the library: select them and add, or drag them in. A file can
be in as many albums as you like. Adding it to one does not remove it from another, and
removing it from an album never deletes the file.

## Smart albums

Some albums fill themselves. Rather than listing files, a **smart album** holds a set of
conditions (a tag, a person, a date range, a quality threshold) and always shows
everything that currently matches.

They appear under **Smart albums** on the Albums screen, separate from the ones you
build by hand. Use them for anything defined by a rule ("all photos of the leadership team",
"everything from last quarter rated four stars or better") and hand-built albums for
anything defined by taste ("the twelve shots for the annual report").

## Albums or tags?

Both group files, and the distinction is worth getting right:

**Tags describe a file. Albums collect files for a purpose.**

A photo *is* outdoor, *is* a product shot, *has* the CEO in it. Those are tags: they
stay true regardless of what you are doing, so they belong on the file permanently. The
same photo might be *in* the spring campaign album because someone chose it for that
campaign: a decision rather than a fact, and one that stops mattering when the campaign
ends.

If you can write down the membership rule for an album, make it a smart album on the
tags instead.

## Covers and sorting

Choose an album's **cover** file in its settings. The Albums screen sorts
by **Name A–Z**, **Name Z–A**, **Most photos**, **Recently added** or **Recently
updated**, and each album shows its photo count and its sub-album count.

## Who can see an album

Albums follow the workspace's access rules. By default anyone who can see media can see
the album; restricting an album restricts it to the people and roles you list. See
[sharing and access](/guide/admin/sharing-and-access).

To give someone **outside** the workspace access to an album's contents, use a [share
link](/guide/media/share-links) rather than an account.

## Delete an album

Deleting an album deletes the collection, not the files. Everything in it stays in the
library and in any other album it belongs to.