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Password and closing

How long a gallery stays up, how to close one sooner, and how to put a password on it.

Updated September 6, 2026

A gallery closes a year after its newest film was uploaded. The clock runs from upload, not from the wedding and not from when you published, because that is when the films start taking up room. Adding a film to a gallery moves the date on by a year from that film, so one you keep adding to keeps running.

The date is shown along the top of the editor: Closes 17 Aug 2027, or Closes in 12 days when it is near. Your couple never sees it. A countdown on their own wedding film is the last thing anyone should be handed.

What happens at the date: the link stops working, and a month after that the films come down. In that month the films are still here, so ask us and a gallery can be put back.

Nobody is closed on without warning. Your couple is emailed a month before and a week before, asking them to download their films while the link works, and you get a Hailo notification 45 days out so you hear first. Both of those emails are yours to reword or switch off, in Lifecycle emails.

Close one sooner

The Access panel (titled Privacy) holds two switches: a password the couple types before the gallery opens, and a date to close this gallery earlier than its year. Switching either off clears it.

Open the panel

Click Access in the rail.

Require a password

The row reads Require a password: "Couple enters this before the gallery opens." Flip it on.

  1. Type in Password (placeholder Type a password…). Once one is saved the label reads Password (currently set. Type a new one to replace).
  2. Optionally style the lock screen under What the couple sees.
  3. Click See the lock screen to open the gate as the couple will see it, even though you are the owner.

What the couple sees

Field What it does
Headline The big line on the lock screen. Up to 120 characters. Empty means the couple's names.
Message The line under it. Up to 400 characters. Empty means "This film gallery is private. Please enter the password shared with you."
Background Their cover photo or Template color. With the cover: "The cover sits behind the card, blurred. It carries the film's color without showing their faces before the passcode." With no cover set yet: "This gallery has no cover photo yet, so the gate falls back to the template color until you set one."
Surface Match the gallery, Light or Dark. On Match: "the gate takes its paper, ink and lettering from your template, so the door looks like the room behind it."

The lock screen shows your studio name, the headline, the message, a Password field and an Unlock button. Under it: "Don't have the password? Email " if your studio has an email address.

Guesses are limited

A wrong password shows "That password didn't match. Try again?" After ten tries in a minute the page shows "Too many tries in a row. Give it a minute, then try again." Once the couple has unlocked, their browser stays unlocked; they do not retype it on every visit.

The row reads Close this gallery early: "Every gallery closes a year after its last film goes up. Pick a date to close this one sooner." Flip it on and pick a date in Closes on.

The link works until the end of that day in your studio's timezone. Pick today and it works until midnight tonight. Clear the date, or switch the row off, and the gallery goes back to its own year.

You can only bring the date forward. Pick one past the gallery's year and Hailo saves the furthest date it can and says so: "Galleries close a year after the last film goes up, so this one is set to 17 Aug 2027. Upload a new film and the date moves on by a year."

After the date, the couple sees one of two pages. While the films are still here: This link has expired, " can send you a fresh one", with an Email button. Once the gallery has been down long enough for the films to come off: This gallery has closed, which asks them to check with you rather than promising a new link, because by then there is nothing to relink.

You, the owner, can still open a closed gallery to check it before changing the date.

Where else this shows

  • On cards, a password with no publish shows the chip Locked; a passed expiry shows Expired.
  • The text-message preview for a password-protected gallery shows your studio name only, never the couple's names or a still. See Share link and preview.

If it didn't work

  • The couple says the password does not work. Passwords are case-sensitive. Set a new one in the panel and send it again; the old one stops working immediately.
  • "Too many tries in a row." Wait a minute. This is a guard against guessing.
  • The gallery expired earlier than you expected. Check your studio's timezone in Settings. If it is still the default, Hailo errs long rather than short.
  • You cannot see the lock screen yourself. Click See the lock screen; your owner session normally skips the gate.
  • Lifecycle emailsThe closing notice, plus anniversary, check-in and download-reminder emails, and how to reword any of them.
  • The gallery editorLearn the editor's top bar, the rail of ten tools and how the panels behave.
  • CoverPick what fills the top of the couple's page: a cut of the film, a photo or a separate banner video.
  • Share link and text-message previewCopy the couple's link and control how it looks when you text it.
  • What the couple seesWalk through the couple's gallery from the splash to the footer, and every page they can land on.
  • The couple can't open their galleryMatch the page the couple is seeing to its cause, from an unpublished draft to a mangled link, and fix it from the editor.
Still stuck? Send a note from the contact page and a real person at Hailo answers. Include the studio name you signed up with and, if it is about a specific screen, what you clicked.
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