A film won't upload, or the upload stopped

Fix a film Hailo refuses to take, an upload that stalled, and the banners about storage and rate limits, without losing the transfer.

Updated September 5, 2026

A film was refused before it started, or it started and then stopped. These are two different problems with two different fixes.

Refused before anything moved

Hailo checks a file the moment you pick it, before a byte is sent, so you find out at once instead of an hour later.

The file is too big

A single film has to be 30 GB or under. Exactly 30 GB is accepted. Over that 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."

The fix is an export, not a smaller gallery. Go back to Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve and export H.264 or HEVC at the resolution and frame rate you edited in. A 4K H.264 export looks the same to the couple as the ProRes or DNx master it came from, and it is a fraction of the size. Uploading a delivery export does not cost you 4K playback. See 4K and quality.

For a banner video (the looping clip behind the couple's names) the message adds "Banner videos also have to be under 2 minutes." Trim it and pick it again.

Your storage is full

Delivered films count against your plan's storage, and it is a running total that only goes down when you delete something.

Plan Delivered-film storage
Edit None. Deliver is not included
Solo 250 GB
Studio 100 GB
Pro 200 GB

At the limit an upload is refused with "This cycle's delivery room is used up. Add 100 GB for $59 on your billing page, or wait for it to reset on ." Delete films you no longer need from the Films panel, or move to a bigger plan. See Usage meters.

The wizard's three preflight banners

When the new-gallery wizard opens it checks your video storage first and may show one of these across the top of step 2.

Banner What to do
Video storage is nearly full. N of M minutes left. A new film may be refused until space is freed. Delete films you no longer need, or wait for an abandoned upload to be released. Ten minutes or less is what triggers it
A banner saying uploads are being rate-limited right now. Wait a minute and try again. Nothing's broken on your end. Wait a minute, then try again. This one clears by itself
Video storage isn't reachable. Uploads will fail until this is fixed. Storage is down. The reason is printed under the banner. Try later, and write in if it persists

Started, then stopped

"Upload stopped · NN% sent"

Nothing has arrived for five minutes. Either the window sending the file is gone (Hailo was quit, the gallery editor was closed) or the connection dropped for good.

A stopped upload cannot be picked up again. The file was being read by a window that no longer exists, so there is nothing left to continue from.

  1. Click the small x on the card (tooltip Discard this upload), or Discard in the uploads pill.
  2. Upload the film again.

Nothing is ever discarded for you. A stopped card sits there until you decide.

Short hiccups are different. While the window that started the upload is still open, Hailo retries on its own for about five minutes, backing off between attempts, before giving up. A retry never restarts the film; it carries on from what has already arrived.

The other states

Line Meaning
Uploading… / Uploading NN% Bytes are moving from your Mac
Finalizing… The last piece arrived and Hailo is sealing the file
Preparing 4K NN% Fully uploaded. The percentage is packaging progress, not transfer. This carries on without you
Encoding… The same stage for a film not going through the 4K path
Could not prepare this film. Packaging failed. Upload it again. If it fails twice, write in 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.

Moving around Hailo while a film uploads

Uploads run in the background of the app, so you can leave the gallery editor, open a project in Manage or switch wings and the film keeps moving.

  • A pill with an up arrow and a count appears in the top bar whenever something is in flight. Its tooltip is Active uploads.
  • Click it for the Uploads list: the overall percentage, one row per film with its state, Open gallery and Discard.
  • With nothing in flight it reads Nothing uploading.
Heads up

Quitting Hailo stops any upload still transferring. Wait for the pill to disappear before you quit. Packaging (Preparing 4K) is not affected; it carries on and picks itself up.

Two things reload the editor and can kill a transfer

Applying a look or a preset, and promoting a different film to be the main film, both reload the gallery editor. A reload cancels an upload that is still running in that window.

Hailo refuses rather than lose the film: "That film is still uploading. Changing the main film reloads the editor, which would cancel it. Wait for it to finish first."

The same guard covers looks and presets. If a change did go through while another upload was running, you see "Main film changed. The rest of the page catches up once the upload still running finishes and you reload."

Wait for the uploads pill to clear, then change the look, the preset or the main film. See Looks and presets and Films panel.

On a venue or hotel connection

Hailo sizes the pieces it sends to your link. On a fast connection the pieces are large; on a weak uplink they shrink, and if pieces fail Hailo sends fewer at once rather than more. Expect a multi-gigabyte film over hotel Wi-Fi to take a long time, and leave the app open until the transfer finishes.

If it didn't work

  • "upload_length (file size in bytes) is required" or a similar technical line: Hailo 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.
  • 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 when it opens.
  • The gallery plays in 1080p although you uploaded 4K. See Can't see a film in 4K.

Still stuck? See Contact support and include the film's name and the gallery link.

  • Upload filmsWhat Hailo accepts, the size ceiling, what each upload state means and what happens when a film lands.
  • Create a galleryStart a new gallery for a couple in two steps, drop in the films and open the editor.
  • The Films panelRename films, set their kind, pick thumbnails, reorder them, choose the main film and delete a film for good.
  • Looks and presetsSwitch a gallery between the eight looks, and save your own presets to reuse.
  • 4K and qualityHow a 4K film gets to the couple, what the 4K line under each film means and which download qualities they get.
  • Usage metersWhat the four usage meters count, what the colours mean, why some meters are missing on some plans, and when they reset.
  • Can't see a film in 4KRead the 4K line under a film, find out why the gallery is playing in 1080p, and know when waiting is the answer and when re-exporting is.
  • Contact supportReach a person at Hailo from inside the app or by email, and send the few details that get your problem solved in one reply.
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.
Contact support