Leaving PhotoBiz or ProofCast: get your galleries out first
ProofCast is closing. Its own homepage says that February 28, 2027 will be the last day of business for the whole site and for every photography website it hosts (proofcast.com, read 2026-11-14). If your proofing galleries, your website or your email live there, you have a deadline.
PhotoBiz isn’t closing, but many photographers are weighing a move away from it. The two moves have one thing in common: the order you do things in matters more than where you end up. Cancel first, and some things can’t be recovered afterwards.
This is the order we’d suggest, with what each company’s own help pages say. We’ve linked every source and dated every reading, because these pages change.
Step 1: find the copy you already own
Before you download anything, check your own drives. The best copy of a delivered gallery is usually the edited export on your own archive, not whatever the gallery platform kept. A platform’s copy may be resized, re-compressed or watermarked.
If your archive is complete, the platform is only holding delivery and you can skip straight to the domain and email steps. If it isn’t, that’s the gap to close first. It’s also worth fixing for good: see the 3-2-1 backup rule.
Step 2: get the files out
From ProofCast
ProofCast’s shutdown notice says nothing about downloading or exporting galleries. What it does say:
- A photographer website on ProofCast’s servers cannot be transferred to another server.
- Charges continue through 2/28/2027, or until you cancel.
- It asks customers to “begin transitioning to other providers for online proofing and websites.”
So don’t count on an export tool appearing. Work from your own archive (step 1). For anything that exists only on ProofCast, ask ProofCast directly, through the contact link on its homepage, how to download it, and do it well before February.
From PhotoBiz
PhotoBiz’s help center doesn’t describe an account-wide export. What it does document is a per-gallery ZIP download (Original File Download Troubleshooting, dated Nov 11 2026):
- Open the event and use the Download Gallery icon, then choose the galleries and the file size. The ZIP arrives as an emailed link, valid for 7 days, so send it to yourself.
- Full-resolution originals exist only if the Original Files upgrade was active when the photos were uploaded. Turning it on later doesn’t restore originals for earlier uploads. Cancelling the upgrade removes the stored originals from PhotoBiz’s servers. If you hold that upgrade, download before you cancel anything.
Do this one gallery at a time, and check each ZIP opens before you move on.
Step 3: move your domain before you cancel
ProofCast: if ProofCast holds your domain, it says it will help you move it into your own GoDaddy account, new or existing. If ProofCast hosts your email, it tells you to move your DNS and switch to the email service your domain registrar provides.
PhotoBiz: domains bought through PhotoBiz are managed through its registrar, eNom. Moving one out costs a one-time $25.00 fee per domain, and the only route is an eNom account push: you open a free eNom account and email PhotoBiz support the details (How to transfer a domain out of PhotoBiz, dated Jul 6 2026). PhotoBiz’s own advice is to wait until the transfer is complete and confirmed before you cancel.
PhotoBiz also lets you cancel the website package and keep the domain, the mailbox, or both on annual billing (Can I cancel my website package and keep my domain and mailbox?, dated Sep 3 2026). That buys you time if you aren’t ready to move them.
Step 4: back up your email
A PhotoBiz mailbox cancellation is permanent. Once the mailbox is deleted, the address and every message in it “are removed and cannot be recovered by PhotoBiz” (How to cancel a PhotoBiz mailbox, dated Jun 26 2026). Export the mail you want to keep, especially client correspondence and anything that records an agreement, before you cancel.
Step 5: cancel last
PhotoBiz’s cancellation article (How to cancel PhotoBiz, dated May 28 2026) says:
- Requests are reviewed and processing starts within 3 business days.
- You keep access until the end of your current billing cycle. After that, the website goes offline.
- There are no prorated refunds for a mid-cycle cancellation, so time it to the end of a billing period.
- You can reactivate within 180 days.
Client galleries and PhotoBiz file storage need an active website package, so treat the end of your billing cycle as the end of your access to them.
A short checklist
- Confirm your own archive holds every delivered gallery.
- Download anything that only the platform holds. On PhotoBiz, use per-gallery ZIPs and check each one.
- Move your domain, or keep it with PhotoBiz on its own while you decide.
- Export your mailbox.
- Tell current clients where their galleries will be.
- Cancel at the end of a billing cycle.
Where the galleries go next
If you’re choosing a new home for client delivery, put one finished job through it before you move a season of work. In Tobren Deliver, that means uploading the photos and any video directly, letting the watermark go on, and sending the gallery to a client. You can import your client list from a CSV, with a dry run that shows what would be added before anything is. Bulk import from Google Drive is switched off for now while we complete Google’s security review, so uploads are direct. The free plan is sized to run one real job end to end, and step-by-step help is in the Deliver docs.
Sources were read on 2026-11-14 and link to each company’s own pages. Check them again before you act: help pages change. More articles.
See it with your own work.