Hi is it possible to have a unprotected album (with thumb showing), and to have both protected and unprotected subalbums within that album?

I cant figure out how. I have tried to set password on a subalbum only, but it disappears since i dont have it on the top album?

I have version 1.4.4

All this works. The current version of Zenphoto is 1.4.4.5. If that is not what you are using, you should upgrade. If it is you need to find your server error logs and report any errors shown therein.