Activating the agencies in Microstock+

M+ is currently supporting 36 microstock agencies and we're doing our best to expand the list even further. This manual is going to help you with activating, deactivating agencies and should solve the most frequent problems with the agencies management.

How to activate the microstock agency

To activate any agency in M+ you have to sign up on the chosen microstock agency first and complete the verification if necessary. Then open the M+ interface and click Manage Agencies section in the left menu.

Follow the instructions:

1. Look through the list of the microstock agencies and find the one you'd like to activate in M+. Left click it with your mouse and fill the appeared form. For your convenience, all mandatory fields are marked with asterisks.
2. Once you fill the form, click Save changes button. It may take some time to validate the data but normally it happens quite fast. The Microstock agency status can be seen in the left list. Data validation is indicated by an orange watches icon next to the microstock agency. The errors are indicated with a red exclamation mark in the triangle. To learn about an issue, select the microstock agency and read the information in the status right under the link.
3. A green tick icon right to the agency indicates that it has been successfully activated and ready to accept your files. Go to My Files to proceed.

Working with FTP

FTP a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. Some microstock agencies use it by default and sometimes it's just a fast, safe and convenient way to upload and submit files. To perform any operation via FTP you need a password and/or a login and normally you can find it directly on the microstock agency site, but there are certain known aspects.

Pond5

Set a password on this page: https://www.pond5.com/index.php?page=my_uploads and specify the FTP Password in the Manage Agencies. Save changes.

DepositPhotos

If the microstock agency granted you a personal access to FTP specify it in the Manage agencies. Otherwise ignore it.

Freepik

Once you reach the level 3 contributor, the microstock agency should send you an e-mail with a FTP password. You may ask a password from Freepik support too.

VideoHive

Set a password in the Upload section on the microstock agency site. Please, follow the instructions very attentively while you create a password otherwise it won't work!

Pixta

You should receive an e-mail with FTP login and password once you successfully pass a footage contributor examination. If you don't submit video to this agency, specify a login and a password for your Pixta account.

Canva

Go to Canva.com/contributer and click «Get started». FTP information should appear in your profile settings.

How to deactivate the microstock agency

Deactivation will completely clear the form and deactivate the chosen microstock agency in M+. To activate it again you'll have to fill the form again and save changes. It may solve certain problems with microstock agencies, it is very useful if you've changed or removed an account on the microstock agency site. To deactivate the microstock agency, go to the Manage Agencies, select the stock you'd like to deactivate and click the Deactivate button. Confirm the action to proceed.

How to deactivate the microstock agency

Deactivation will completely clear the form and deactivate the chosen microstock agency in M+. To activate it again you'll have to fill the form again and save changes. It may solve certain problems with microstock agencies, it is very useful if you've changed or removed an account on the microstock agency site. To deactivate the microstock agency, go to the Manage Agencies, select the stock you'd like to deactivate and click the Deactivate button. Confirm the action to proceed.

=Solving "Invalid login or password" and other errors

The most likely reason for this error is that you’ve entered an invalid login/password combination. Please check symbols case (upper/lower), num/caps lock state, keyboard layout, hyphens, spaces, dots and so on.

If you’re absolutely sure that your data is correct then deactivate the agency and try to do the following :one by one

• Log out from the agency website in the browser and enter the login and password manually. Make sure you can log in with those credentials.
• Update your browser to the latest version
• Try to connect the agency to M+ in another browser. Make sure any auto-completion/password remembering is turned off!
• Try using username instead of email as the login.
• Change the password on the agency website and in M+ settings. Use simple combinations of Latin letters, digits and avoid using special characters like / \ = + ( ) ? % #

The microstock agency seem to stuck on a verifying stage

It usually happens when the microstock agency has requested a code, M+ addressed this request to you but you didn't enter the code in time (usually in 20-60 mins). In this case M+ takes a break for 9-10 hours before the second attempt to not arouse the suspicion. This cycle will continue until you enter the code in the correct time period. To solve the problem, please deactivate the microstock agency in M+ for 10 hours or more. After that, at a convenient time fill in the credentials and activate the stock. Sometimes a verifying process may take 2-3 days due to the overcomplicated microstock agency security system. But if it takes longer, the agency won't connect to M+ and you're sure that you didn't receive the code request (or you entered the code successfully) please, contact the tech support.

No tax form submitted yet error

This error means that the agency asks you to fill out a tax form. Please note that tax form verification takes a while (up to few weeks, depending on the agency). As soon as your tax form is verified please deactivate the agency in the M+ interface and fill out the login credentials again. If you have filled it long time ago then most likely it has expired. If you’ve filled it recently then it’s probably still in review and you need to wait.

Please apply as contributor first error

This error means that your agency account is a buyer account, not a contributor account. It is enough to fill out all the required forms and pass an exam for the most of the agencies. If you’re not sure what are you missing to be able to submit - please try uploading a file manually to the agency (over FTP if the agency allows that).
Once you’ve passed all the verifications and the exam on the agency, if you’re sure you have a contributor account and uploading files manually works fine - please try to deactivate the agency in the M+ interface and then fill the login credentials again.
If you’re experiencing this issue with Dreamstime you would need to submit a file manually and wait for it to be approved before your account will become a contributor account and it will be possible to connect it to M+.

Known issues with specific agencies:

Dreamstime

If you’ve just registered an account there please submit a file manually to get your account switched to the contributor interface before you connect it to M+.

Adobestock

If the agency sends you verification codes by SMS/e-mail it means you have to enter them on M+ for the authentication to succeed. To do so just open the “My files” or “Manage agencies” M+ page and wait a bit - it’ll show a form where you can enter the code. If the code has been sent to you a long time ago the form won’t show up. In that case you will need to wait for the next code to arrive.

123rf

Sometimes the agency sends you an e-mail with a link to confirm the authentication saying that you’re entering from an unusual place. In that case please click the confirmation link and then wait in M+ for the form asking you to do that where you can click the OK button.

Pond5

Use your username instead of email. If you’ve filled out the credentials but M+ still says that you didn’t specify something - you didn’t enter the FTP password probably. Please note that your FTP password differs from your website one.

Freepik

You need to specify the FTP password which is given to you by the agency after uploading first 100 files.

iStock :API key or API secret is not specified in settings

API key or API secret is not specified in settings / You’ve entered wrong API keys. You didn’t specify the API keys in settings or have entered wrong ones. If you believe that this is a mistake please deactivate the agency and activate it back by filling the login and password again.