I fixed the error somehow (can't remember what I did!).
On to a problem though: say I have a client, and they register and validate themselves through their email link. What I want is for them to only see *their* album (i.e., client1album, *not* client2album) and upload only to their newly created album, what do the internal settings need to be?
I created client1 and could see all the albums as soon as I logged in, despite unpublishing them. When they first log in, they should only see their album and be allowed to upload to it. How can I go about making that happen?