A photo book is an album someone already edited. The sequence is the point: who appears first, which picture faces which, where the blank page was intentional. If you keep only a folder of loose exports, the sequence evaporates the moment the design app is gone. The pictures may survive and the book will not. Saving a book means saving the order on purpose, in a form that does not require the shop's website to stay open.

Finish the export while the project still opens

Download or export the book the week you finish it, not when you remember two years later and the project has expired. Ask for or create a PDF of the full book, which preserves the spread as a reader sees it, and also gather the individual photos if the tool allows. A PDF alone is a good reading copy. It is a poor way to reprint one page at a higher quality. The individual files are how you repair or reuse a picture. You want both when you can get them. If the service only offers the PDF, take it immediately and write that the separate photos were not provided.

Put the page order in the file names

If you receive a stack of images named by the service's codes, rename copies so the page number comes first, with a leading zero so page 02 sorts before page 10. Do this on a copy of the export, after you have duplicated the folder, so a rename mistake is not the only set. A simple text list works too: page number, filename, and a few words about the picture. The list is the table of contents the loose files do not have. People who later add the book to a year folder will not remember that the third image was the cover. Date prefixes and sort order are the same trick applied to pages instead of calendar days.

Keep the photos the book was made from

Design tools often use copies that were cropped for a frame. Those crops are correct for the book and incomplete as masters. If you still have the uncropped files, store them beside the project and point the note at them. The warning in keeping the original when you edit applies to print layouts as much as to filters. A book that cropped out a person at the edge should not become the only proof of who stood there. Write down the event and the year in the folder name so the book does not float free of the event folder you can browse.

Check the sequence away from the website

Open the PDF or the numbered files from your own drive, without signing in to the service. Confirm the cover, a middle spread, and the last page. Click through enough to see that two photos were not swapped by a hasty rename. If a page is blank on purpose, say so in the list, or a later person will think the export failed. When the check passes, copy the whole book folder to a spare drive. A book that lives only as a reorder link is a rental. The files on your shelf are the album you actually finished.

Leave the project file if you still have it, and label it

Some tools let you download a project you can reopen. Keep it if you want, and label it as the workshop file, not as the only copy of the pages. Also keep the PDF. If the project needs an account you may close, the PDF and the numbered images are what you trust. Write the date the book was ordered or given, and who it was for. A book made as a gift for one branch of the family is a point of view, just like a paper album. The note can say whose point of view it was, so later relatives do not treat the sequence as the only possible story of the year.

Frequently asked questions

Is the printed book enough without the files? The printed book is a wonderful object and a single object. It can be lost, stained, or live in another house. Keep files as well if the pictures matter beyond that one copy.

What if the pages downloaded out of order? Do not guess from memory if you also have the PDF. Use the PDF as the authority, number the loose images to match it, and note that you reconstructed the order on that date.

Should I archive every draft of the book? Keep the version you actually printed or sent. Drafts can go once that version is saved and checked, unless a draft contains pictures the final book dropped and you still want those pictures. Those pictures belong with the originals either way.

Steps

Export before you edit: Save the book's files as soon as the project is finished, before more tinkering.
Capture the sequence: Keep page order in filenames or a simple list, not only in the design app.
Include the originals: Store the photos the book used, not just a flattened preview, when you still have them.
Open the saved order: Check the first page, a middle page, and the last page from the exported folder.