A clear answer.
Then back to your work.

Very little. Local Studio is built to run quietly in the background while you keep working. It is a true Mac app with nothing extra to install.

A simple status screen shows how your Mac is doing, and download limits can be adjusted so Local Studio fits comfortably alongside your other work.

Purchasing and public Mac downloads are not open yet. The announced launch special is $99, with a future price of $149. No end date has been announced.

Account registration and license management are available now. Read the Terms and Conditions to see how purchases, refunds, and licenses work.

An Apple silicon Mac (M1 or later), sufficient free storage, and an internet connection. Local Studio works with macOS 13.5 through macOS 27.

To share online, you will need a paid license, your own web address, and a free Cloudflare account, all set up from the Mac app. Your desktop then serves your galleries whenever clients visit.

Create a free account, open the app, and sign in with your email to start the free 3-day trial. No payment is needed. Explore three sample galleries on your Mac, including gallery design, passwords, and expiration dates.

When you are ready to add your own photos and share online, activate a paid license. You can activate at any time, even after the trial ends.

1. Drag the app from the publisher’s DMG into Applications and open it.
2. Create your studio password.
3. In the dashboard’s License tab, enter your account email and the emailed verification code.
4. Choose the license if asked. The License tab shows the email associated with the activation.

Your studio password protects your dashboard. The emailed code is for your Local Studio license account; they serve different purposes.

1. Create a free Cloudflare account and add your web address to it. Don’t have one yet? You can buy a domain right in your Cloudflare account. How to buy a domain through Cloudflare ↗
2. In Cloudflare, create a tunnel (a secure connection) and choose Mac. Copy the setup command it shows you.
3. In Local Studio, open Server settings, set Network access to Allow Cloudflare Tunnel, and paste the command under Cloudflare Tunnel.
4. Back in Cloudflare, point your web address to the address shown in Server settings.
5. Open a gallery on your phone’s mobile data to make sure everything works.

The Mac app walks you through each step. Keep the connection code private, like a password. Cloudflare Tunnel documentation ↗

Yes. Once your web address is connected, your dashboard is available there too. Open the Public admin address shown in the Mac app’s Server settings, and sign in with your studio password. It works in any modern browser on a laptop, tablet, or phone.

From there you can upload photos and videos, edit galleries and your portfolio, and share links, just like at your desk.

Good to know

• Uploads through Cloudflare’s free plan can be up to 100 MB per file, which fits photos and most short videos. Add longer videos when you’re back at your Mac.
• Your license and Server settings are managed in the Mac app, on the Mac itself.
• For extra peace of mind on the go, set a sign-in email and turn on sign-in codes in Settings → Account security.

1. Create a project and choose the files for Client gallery.
2. Open Design & sharing to set the cover, layout, password, and expiration.
3. Choose whether clients may download individual files or the whole gallery.
4. Share the gallery and send its link to your client.

Your portfolio is published separately. For confidential work, add a gallery password for an extra layer of privacy.

Local Studio is designed for a Mac desktop that is already on, and it keeps your Mac awake while it runs. A few energy settings make sure your galleries come right back after a restart or a power cut. See the energy settings ↗

Keep your library drive connected, and your galleries are ready whenever clients visit. When your internet connection returns, sharing picks up automatically.

Activated paid copies keep working even if the license service is briefly unreachable.

Turn off the power-saving features that put your Mac to sleep, so galleries stay online around the clock. It takes about a minute, and Local Studio checks these for you in Repair Local Studio.

Mac mini, iMac, Mac Studio, or Mac Pro

1. Choose Apple menu → System Settings, then click Energy in the sidebar (on macOS Ventura it’s called Energy Saver). You may need to scroll down.
2. Turn on Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off. On macOS Ventura, this one is in System Settings → Displays → Advanced.
3. Turn on Wake for network access.
4. Turn on Start up automatically after a power failure.
5. If you see Low Power Mode, turn it off. If you see Put hard disks to sleep when possible, turn it off.

MacBook

1. Keep it plugged in. Choose Apple menu → System Settings, then click Battery, then Options.
2. Turn on Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off.
3. Set Wake for network access to Always or Only on Power Adapter.
4. Set Low Power Mode to Never or Only on Battery.

Your display can still turn off to save energy. Only the Mac itself needs to stay awake. Also turn on Start Local Studio when I log in in the Local Studio menu bar icon, so it opens by itself after a restart.

By default, five whole-gallery downloads can run at once, one per visitor. When every slot is busy, the visitor is politely asked to try again in a moment.

A download that runs longer than 30 minutes is stopped so the next visitor can start. The gallery can show a reminder to contact the photographer after a timeout. These limits are adjustable in Server settings → Traffic protection. Large deliveries may need a longer timeout.

No. Visitors see only the galleries and portfolio you choose to share, never your desktop or other files. Your Mac connects securely through Cloudflare, with no router changes needed. How the tunnel works ↗

For the best protection, keep the app updated, use a strong studio password, and turn on sign-in codes for your dashboard.

Open dashboard Settings → Account security. Set your sign-in email, turn on sign-in codes using an authenticator app on your phone, and save the backup codes somewhere safe.

Use a strong password that you don’t use anywhere else. Gallery passwords are separate, so never share your own password with clients.

Your original media library and studio application data stay on your Mac’s storage. The licensing service keeps only account and activation records, never your photo library.

When a visitor opens your site, the pages and media they request travel from your Mac to them over a secure, encrypted connection through Cloudflare.

Back up your photo library and Local Studio’s app data. Quit Local Studio first, then copy both to a second drive or your favorite backup service.

Because everything lives on storage you control, you choose the backup routine that suits your studio.

Use Settings → Media library location for supported library changes. The built-in mover keeps everything linked, so there is no need to move files by hand in Finder.

External drives work great. Keep the drive connected while you are sharing galleries.

The launch special is $99, with a future price of $149 and no announced deadline. A license lets you keep using Local Studio 1 for good on one Mac. Your clients view galleries for free. Updates to version 1 are included, and future big upgrades are optional.

There is no storage allowance to outgrow, because your library lives on your own drives. Taxes and final purchase terms are shown before payment when sales open.

If Local Studio isn’t right for you, contact us within 14 days of your purchase for a full refund. When the refund is issued, the license is turned off. Your photos and galleries stay on your Mac.

See the Terms and Conditions for details.

Sign out of the license on the old Mac, or sign in to your website account and remove that activation. Then activate on the replacement Mac with the same email. A license can move to a different Mac once every 24 hours.

Your galleries and files stay safely on the old Mac. Copy your library to the new Mac, and you are ready to go.

No. Updates replace only the app. Your photos, galleries, and settings are stored separately and stay exactly where they are. Every update is checked to make sure it’s genuine before you install it.

Before a new version opens your studio for the first time, Local Studio saves a safety copy of your galleries, settings, and license (your photos never need copying, because updates don’t change them). If anything ever goes wrong after an update, open Repair Local Studio and choose Restore data from before the update. The newest three safety copies are kept.

Paid copies keep working even if a routine license check can’t reach the service.

Use Repair Local Studio. It opens by itself if Local Studio has trouble starting, and you can open it any time from the Local Studio menu bar icon or the Help menu.

Repair checks the app’s files, its settings, the server, your media folder, free space, your energy settings, and saved sign-in. Each problem comes with a button that fixes it:

• Get a fresh copy downloads the official app, checks that it’s genuine, and opens it so you can replace the old one. Your photos, galleries, and settings stay exactly as they are.
• Fix settings repairs an unreadable settings file and keeps a backup copy.
• Start server or Restart server gets your galleries back online.
• Clear window cache helps when the dashboard looks blank or out of date.

Still stuck? Fill in Send a report to support at the bottom of the Repair window. You’ll see exactly what’s sent before you send it.

Your photos are safe. Local Studio just can’t see the folder where they’re kept.

• On an external drive? Plug the drive in. Local Studio finds it again within a few seconds.
• Moved or renamed the folder, or the drive has a new name? Open Repair Local Studio, click Locate folder, and choose the folder where your photos are now (usually named Local Studio). Nothing is copied or moved; Local Studio just remembers the new place.
• Drive lost for good? In Settings, choose Rebuild library in a new folder, then copy your photos back from a backup.

Local Studio keeps one small key in your Mac’s keychain, called Local Studio Safe Storage. It’s used to keep the dashboard window’s sign-in private. It isn’t your studio password, and it has nothing to do with your photos or clients.

If your Mac asks, type the password you use to log in to your Mac and click Always Allow. You won’t be asked again.

Clicked Deny by accident?

Nothing is lost. The dashboard just can’t stay signed in. To fix it:

1. Open Repair Local Studio from the Local Studio menu bar icon.
2. Next to Saved sign-in, click Ask again. Local Studio reopens and your Mac asks again. Type your Mac login password and click Always Allow.
3. Still not working? Click Reset the key. Local Studio makes a new key and reopens, and you sign in to the dashboard once more.

You can also do it by hand: open Keychain Access, search for “Local Studio Safe Storage,” double-click it, choose Access Control, add Local Studio from your Applications folder, and click Save Changes.

Only someone signed in to your Mac account, who knows your Mac password, can view this key.

Crash reports are off unless you turn them on. Local Studio asks once, and you can change it any time in Repair Local Studio or the menu bar icon.

A crash report says what went wrong, plus your Local Studio and macOS versions, your Mac model, and whether sharing online (Cloudflare Tunnel) is set up and connected. It never includes your web address or tunnel details. Before anything leaves your Mac, folder and file names, email addresses, web addresses, and passwords are removed. Reports never include your photos or client details, and they’re deleted after 180 days. Only the Local Studio team can see them.

Support reports are sent only when you click Send, and you see exactly what’s in them first.

1. Open Repair Local Studio from the menu bar icon. It checks the most common causes for you.
2. Open the gallery locally on the Mac. Check that it is shared and not expired.
3. Confirm the library drive is connected and the original files are available.
4. Open Server settings and check that your web address shows as connected.
5. Check your internet connection and try the link over mobile data.

When asking for help, keep passwords, connection codes, sign-in codes, and private photos to yourself.