Upload films

Films go into a gallery from the new-gallery wizard or from the Films panel in the editor. This article covers what Hailo accepts, what you see while a film is on its way, and what unlocks once it lands.

What you can upload

• Any video file your Mac can play. Export from Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve as H.264 or HEVC at the resolution and frame rate you edited in.
• One film at a time or several at once. Add a big batch and films send a few at a time; the rest show Waiting its turn until a place opens.
• A film that is already uploading, added again to the same gallery or a new one, picks up the upload already running instead of sending a second copy.
• Banner videos (the looping clip behind the couple's names) must also be under 2 minutes.

The size ceiling

A single film has to be 30 GB or under. A file of exactly 30 GB is accepted. Hailo checks the size the moment you pick the file, before a byte moves, so you are told immediately rather than after an hour of transfer.

If a file is over, you see:

" is N.N GB. A film has to be under 30 GB to upload. That size is a master, not a delivery file. Export it from your editor as H.264 or HEVC at the same resolution and frame rate, and upload that instead. A two-hour wedding film exported that way usually lands between 8 and 20 GB."

For a banner video the message adds: "Banner videos also have to be under 2 minutes."

Your plan's storage

The pill

Both Deliver screens carry a pill showing where the cycle stands: on the Galleries list under the heading, and along the top of the gallery editor next to the gallery's close date. It reads 62 GB of 100 GB delivered this cycle, with Resets Sep 26 beside it.

Past 80% the pill's rim lights and an Add 100 GB · $59 button appears on it. That button buys a delivery pack in place, in the same card dialog the billing page uses, so a full cycle is fixed on the screen where it stopped you. See Buy more delivery.

The pill is not shown on an Edit plan, which has no Deliver, or on the owner account, which has no ceiling.

What counts

Films you upload count against the delivery your plan includes each month. The allowance resets a month from the day you signed up, on the same day as your monthly tokens, and the billing page shows the date. Films that are still uploading count too, so several films started together cannot go past the limit. Only the file you upload counts. The playback copies Hailo makes for phones and TVs are not taken out of your allowance.

A film stays on its gallery for a year from the day you uploaded it. The gallery editor shows the exact date at the top, and only you see it, never the couple. Your couples get their one-year anniversary note before the gallery closes, asking them to download a copy.

Plan	Delivery a month
Edit	None (Deliver is not included)
Studio	100 GB
Pro	200 GB

On an early access or a legacy plan your allowance is different. The Delivery uploads meter on your billing page always shows the figure your own account is held to. See Usage meters.

When you are at the limit an upload is refused with "This cycle's delivery room is used up. Add 100 GB for $59 from the storage pill at the top of this screen, or wait for the cycle to reset on ." Wait for the reset day, buy a delivery pack (100 GB for $59, it never expires), or move to a bigger plan. See Buy more delivery.

What the states mean

A film that is not on the page yet shows as a "preparing" card in the Films panel, and as a row in the uploads pill in the top bar.

Line	Meaning
Waiting its turn	Part of a batch. It starts when one of the films ahead of it finishes.
Uploading… / Uploading NN%	Bytes are moving from your Mac.
Finalizing…	The last piece has arrived and Hailo is sealing the file.
Preparing 4K NN%	The film has fully uploaded. Hailo is packaging the quality copies. The percentage is the packaging progress, not the transfer. See 4K and quality.
Encoding…	Same stage, for a film that is not going through the 4K path.
Upload stopped · NN% sent	Nothing has arrived for five minutes and Hailo could not carry on. See If an upload stops.
Could not prepare this film. (or a more specific reason)	Packaging failed. Try the upload again; if it fails twice, contact support with the film's name.

While a film is preparing, its name and kind chip are greyed out with the tooltips Renaming unlocks when the film lands and Set when the film lands.

If an upload stops

Films you add in the Mac app pick up where they stopped after Hailo is quit or restarted, as long as the file is still where it was. Your Mac stays awake while a film uploads, so you can walk away and it keeps going. Closing the lid still pauses it.

Short hiccups sort themselves out: Hailo retries on its own for about five minutes before it gives up.

If a card does show Upload stopped, click the small x on it (tooltip Discard this upload) or Discard in the uploads pill, then upload the film again. Nothing is discarded on its own; that is always your decision.

To cancel an upload, discard it. It stops right away, including a film sent from your Mac, so it stops using your connection.

Uploads keep going while you move around Hailo

Uploads run in the background of the app, so you can leave the editor, open a project in Manage or switch wings and the film keeps moving. A pill appears in the top bar (an up arrow with a count) whenever at least one upload is in flight. Its tooltip is Active uploads.

1. Click the pill to open the Uploads list. The header shows the overall percentage across every file.
2. Each row shows the film name and its state (the same lines as the table above).
3. Open gallery takes you to the gallery the film belongs to.
4. Discard removes a stopped upload.

With nothing in flight the list reads Nothing uploading.

On a slow connection

A slow or spotty connection keeps moving. A hiccup never starts the film over; it picks up from what has already arrived. Expect a multi-gigabyte film over hotel Wi-Fi to take a long time.

When a film lands

A film "lands" when its upload and preparation are both done and it appears on the page. At that moment:

• The card turns into a normal film card. You can rename it (click the name, tooltip Click to rename), change its kind chip and pick its thumbnail.
• If it is the first film, it becomes the main film and the cover takes a live cut from it.
• Publish becomes available if the gallery had no film before. See Publish a gallery.
• You can make it the main film from its thumbnail menu; see Films panel.

Short films can land before you have even left the wizard. A long 4K film can take a while at the Preparing 4K stage; you do not need to keep the editor open for that part.

If it didn't work

• "upload_length (file size in bytes) is required" or a similar technical message: the app could not read the file's size. Pick the file again from the dropzone.
• "Upload could not start" with a storage message: your video storage is full or nearly full. See the storage table above and the wizard's preflight banners in Create a gallery.
• The film sits at "Uploading…" with no percentage after you reopened Hailo. Give it five minutes. If it flips to Upload stopped, discard it and upload again.
• The film is on the page but the Films panel still says "No films yet". Reload the editor; the panel reads the page from the server on open.
• The gallery plays in 1080p although you uploaded 4K. See 4K and quality.