FamilySearch "Albums" -  (Digital Folders) for storing FamilySearch Memories
Why nearly everyone can benefit from using "Albums"

As most of you know - Family Search Memories - allow users to upload
photos, scanned items,  pdf documents, audio files and more -
to  the Memories" area of FamilySearch.

Such items can then be grouped into digital folders known as "albums".
Below are various reasons you should seriously consider the use of FS "albums".
[ here are instructions on how to create an album ]

       

• By definition and by function - the list and view of all your uploaded items into FamilySearch Memories is known as your Gallery. Make sure you know how to access it.
  
  
• You can organize items of a like nature into a single folder category - called an "Album" - (such as "Family Bibles"  "Research Notes" "Family Vacation") and share that album with others.
  
  
• Even if you add an item to an album - it will still show in your base gallery - again the gallery displays ALL of your uploads (except those deleted or archived)
  

• You can order the items in the album - and the order is retained and controlled solely by you.
  
  
• You can create a slideshow of the items in the album - and even add Audio descriptions of the items.  A sample slideshow click here.
  
  
• Using the URL of the album - you can access the album directly yourself - or share the album URL with others (this even if the items are not person-tagged or happen to be tagged to living people) - this is one way you can easily share memories for living people with close family etc.  (as long as you leave the items PUBLIC and not PRIVATE - as well as consider leaving off title and descriptions so they can only be found by the people you want to see them.  Without the title and description people will not be able to locate the items using the FIND option. Memories items only marked to living people will also not be accessible via navigating of the family tree.
  
  
• Albums are a great way to ensure people (you determine) have access to your uploaded items - even after you are deceased - this even includes non tagged items and items tagged to living people (if you have left them marked as PUBLIC)
  

• Remember that any item marked as "Private" will forever remain private - even after your death. (unless of course you chnage it back to Public before your death)
  
  
• Remember that people never have access to your direct "gallery"  - but they do have access to your albums (if they can navigate to it or have the URL to it).
  

• Remember that any items you upload and leave as PUBLIC - will technically be available to others after your decease - but putting them into albums makes them so much easier to FIND  - especially if they are not tagged to a deceased person and depending on you sharing the URL of the album/item.
   
• You, and others,  can do a query or FIND from among the millions of submitted Memories items - using the FIND page   If you use compound terms - be sure and separate them with an "AND" (must be in  upper case).  Note that the FIND feature only works using key words of the description or title - and does NOT work - based on the name of who it is attached to.  (you can't do a FIND of "John Glover" and expect to see all the items attached to John Glover - rather only those items that have "John Glover" in the title or description.
  

• You can upload a very large number of items into an album - using a single upload batch - and then person-tag them at a later date - OR even get a team of other people to help you person tag them.  Uploads of one hundred photos in a single batch is easily doable.
   
  
• Certain items in the album you may consciously decide never to person tag especially if you want to control access to such items.
  
  
• At one time the upload SPEED to an album was much greater than the speed of uploading directly to a person in FamilyTree - - Im not sure if this is still the case or not.
  
  
• Remember that any FamilySearch memories item seen by any user - will show what ALBUM it belongs to - and allow the user to see and browse the ALBUM
  
  
• Depending on your need - you can very easily select all the items in a folder - and mark all of them either PUBLIC or PRIVATE - all at once. 
  
  
• Any item can actually be in any multiple number of folders - without the item actually being duplicated in storage. A given item may qualify by criteria to be a member of  any number of albums.
  
  
• You can create hundreds of albums if you really need to - though for each album - there is a non documented limit of 1,000 items at which point you will no longer see items beyond 1,000 (even though you can still add them to the folder) - dont place more than 1000 items in a folder
  
  
• There is no hard limit as to the number of total items uploaded to FamilySearch Memories - though - after about 10,000  it may take a few minutes for your gallery to display - and over 20,000 items you run the risk of things just not working and you potentially losing access to items. Realize however, if you make use of albums - you can immediately access an album without having to wait for your gallery to finish displaying.
  
  
• You can even add other people's uploaded memories items  into YOUR own album!  (but it is nothing more than a LINK to their copy - not a duplicate copy). If they delete the item (or make it private) it will no longer be viewable in your album.
  
  
• You can locate items in your base gallery that are not in an album, or not person tagged  by using the "Arrange' (Filter) option.
  Note that your "Gallery", by definition, is a listing of ALL your uploads - whether or not they are in an album.
  Also note once you get above like 5,000 items in your gallery - it can take a while to load completely and display.
  
  
• Remember that any specific file - can only be uploaded ONCE to your account.  If you attempt to load it a second time - the upload process will fail with an error indicating a duplicate file.  When attempting to locate that duplicate file - be sure to look in your gallery - and then do a filter/search by key word or file name. 
  
  
• Deleting an album will NOT delete the items in that album - they will still be included in the base Gallery. But even so - once you delete an album - there is no easy way to undo your delete (recreate the contents of the album )
   
  
• If you want to delete a batch of memories items - so that they are totally removed from FamilySearch Memories - you will need to locate such items in the base gallery and mark them for deletion from there.  If you select multiple items from within an album - with the intent to delete - the delete option will not be made available 
  
• Albums are displayed in alphabetical order - but only the first 10 charcters or so display and the rest of the album name is truncated from view.  Keep that in mind as you name your albums.   To see the full album name - you can mouse over the truncated name.
  
  

Have a Question about FS Memories?   Ask your question in the FS Community - here.

Some examples of FamilySearch Albums below
(note how each one has  a unique URL (web address)

Bibles
https://www.familysearch.org/photos/gallery/album/610958  

Samplers
https://www.familysearch.org/photos/gallery/album/968264?playSlideshow

Silhouettes
https://www.familysearch.org/photos/gallery/album/654146

Newspaper articles
https://www.familysearch.org/photos/gallery/album/508613

Published Biographies
https://www.familysearch.org/photos/gallery/album/572382

The Sky is the limit . . .