Your account and your team

This page covers creating an account, signing in and out, passwords, how a studio admin manages team members on the Team page, what happens to deactivated accounts, the Appearance settings, and fixes for common sign-in problems.

Your account

Your account has a username and a password, and an email address if you signed up yourself. There is no sign-in with Google. Usernames are shared across all studios, so each one must be unique (for example "purple.anna").

You sign in with your email or username and your password.

Creating an account

Studios and freelance album designers can sign up on their own. Team members do not sign up: their studio admin adds them on the Team page. A freelance designer's studio shows the album side only (Albums, Marketplace, a short Settings); see "Account types in plain words" in Getting started.

1. On the sign-in page, press Create an account (or Sign up on the Pixamatch website).
2. Choose Studio (you and your team, one shared credit pool; you become the studio's admin) or Freelance designer (you design albums on your own).
3. Type your name, your studio's name (for a studio), your email and a password of at least 8 characters.
4. If Pixamatch gave you a coupon, press Have a coupon code? and type it.
5. Press Create account. By creating an account you agree to the Terms and the Privacy Policy. We email you a 6-digit code.
6. Type the code and press Confirm and sign in. The code works for 10 minutes and for five tries; after five wrong tries, press Send a new code.
7. You land on "Welcome to Pixamatch" with "Three things to try first". Press Open the studio to start.

Your username is made from your email (for example "anu.photo@gmail.com" becomes "anu-photo"). You can sign in with either.

Temporary or throwaway inboxes (temp-mail and similar) are not accepted: use an email you will keep, because it is how you reset your password. Each email can have one account.

Coupons give a new account its first spread credits. A studio's coupon credits go to the studio pool; a freelancer's to their own balance. A coupon can be used once per account (and once per studio), and some coupons make the credits expire after a set date or number of days. Some coupons work only when signing up, some only on an account you already have — see "Redeeming a code later" in Credits and exports. If the coupon is wrong, used up or expired, the page says why when you press Create account; Continue without it clears the coupon field, then press Create account again.

If you never typed the code, signing in sends you back to the code step. Send a new code works after a minute.

To sign out on a computer, open the menu on your name at the bottom of the sidebar and choose Sign out. On a phone, open You and tap Sign out. Any unsaved album changes are saved before you are signed out.

Appearance (in the same menu, or You, then Appearance on a phone) lets you pick your studio accent colour and the theme your guests and clients see on their pages. Units sets how lengths read in the album designer and the Marketplace — Inches, Centimetres or Pixels, with Resolution for pixels (300 dpi unless you change it); the small unit menu beside a measurement switches it too. It only changes how lengths are shown and typed: albums and exports stay the same. On a computer it also has the Desktop App and Phone App cards for installing Pixamatch; on a phone, use Install Pixamatch on the You tab instead.

Changing a password

Forgot password? on the sign-in page works for accounts that have an email (accounts you signed up for yourself): type the email and press Email me a code, then type the 6-digit code and a new password and press Save and sign in. The email is only sent if the account exists, but the page looks the same either way. If it says "Password reset by email is not available yet. Ask your studio admin.", use the steps below; after many requests it says "Too many requests from here. Try again in an hour."

For accounts without an email, there is no "change my password" screen. Passwords are set by someone above you:

• Team members: ask your studio admin. They can set a new password for you on the Team page.
• Studio admins: on a computer, open Team and press Password on your own row to set a new one. To reset another admin's password, contact Pixamatch.
• Freelance designers: contact Pixamatch.

A password must be at least 6 characters (8 when you sign up or reset it by email). Setting a new password signs that account out of every browser, including your own if it is your password.

The Team page (studio admins)

On a computer, open Team in the sidebar. On a phone, open You, then Team. The page lists everyone in your studio, their status (Active or Disabled), their spread credits and their credit expiry, with a Credit history at the bottom.

Adding a team member

1. Under Add a designer, type a Username and a Password.
2. Optionally type Starting credits; they come out of the studio pool.
3. Press Create account (on a phone, Add designer).

Give the username and password to the new team member so they can sign in. You can add team members only; making someone a studio admin is done by Pixamatch.

Your plan sets how many logins the studio may have (2 on Starter, 5 on Studio, unlimited on Pro; the studio admin counts as one). The heading shows "n of m logins on your plan in use". When every login is in use, Create account is greyed out and switching an account back on is refused with "Your plan includes 2 logins and all are in use. Switch someone off or ask Pixamatch for a bigger plan." Switching an account off frees its login. See "Plans and storage".

Managing a team member

On a computer, each row has these actions (on a phone, tap the person):

• Give or Take back credits, from or to the studio pool (see "Spread credits and exports").
• Expire date plus Set, for when their credits stop working.
• Password, to set a new password.
• Deactivate or Reactivate (on a phone, Disable or Enable).

A team member sees only their own selects and albums. As admin you see and can edit everything made by anyone in your studio. Each album and select card made by a team member shows their username under it; your own cards show no name.

The studio's watermark

Your watermark, below the list of accounts, holds your studio's logo or name: a transparent PNG logo or a line of text, in the bottom left, centre or right corner. It goes on same-day edits and on every photo a client downloads from a client link. Only a studio admin changes it; everyone in the studio gets it on their sets and links and can switch it off for one. Put it on photos clients download decides whether new client links start with it on. See "Setting the watermark" under "Same-day edits" in "Selects and the client link".

Deactivated accounts

Deactivating a team member (after you confirm) signs them out of every browser, and they cannot sign in until you press Reactivate. Their selects, albums and credits stay as they were. You cannot deactivate your own account, and only Pixamatch can deactivate an admin.

A person whose account is deactivated sees "That email or username and password did not match." on the sign-in page, the same message as a wrong password. If a whole studio is deactivated by Pixamatch, every account in it is signed out.

Sign-in problems

• "That email or username and password did not match." — the email or username, or the password, is wrong, or the account is deactivated. Check both carefully, then use Forgot password? (accounts with an email) or ask your studio admin to reset your password or reactivate you.
• "Too many sign-in attempts. Wait a few minutes and try again." — after 10 wrong tries for one username (or 30 from one internet connection) within 15 minutes, sign-in pauses until that window passes.
• No code email — check the spam folder, wait a minute and press Send a new code. Codes work for 10 minutes and allow 5 wrong tries.
• "Please use a permanent email address" — the email is a temporary inbox. Sign up with an email you keep.
• "An account already uses this email" — sign in instead, or use Forgot password?.
• Sent back to the sign-in page — your session ended. Sessions last about two weeks on the same browser, and signing out, a password reset or deactivation also ends them. Other errors never sign you out. Sign in again.
• "Can’t reach Pixamatch" — "You’re still signed in — the app just couldn’t load your session." Press Try again. If it keeps happening, press Reset app data, which clears the browser's saved copy of the app and reloads it. You stay signed in.
• "Can't reach Pixamatch right now. Check your connection." on the sign-in page — your internet connection or our server could not be reached. Check your connection and try again in a minute.
• No account yet — studios and freelance designers press Create an account; team members ask their studio admin. If the sign-up page says "Sign-up is not open yet", contact Pixamatch.

If none of this helps, ask Pixie in the studio (Ask Pixie at the bottom of the sidebar on a computer, the Pixie tab on a phone) or contact Pixamatch on WhatsApp at +91 79944 99974, and tell us your username (never your password).