File durability

Here's a common moment: you copy a file's address from a preview, send it to someone, and after a while the link stops working on their end. Your first thought is "the file is gone". It isn't. This behaviour is intentional, and it protects your private materials. Here's what's really happening.

Why it feels like the file vanished#

You open a file in preview, copy its address from the browser bar, and set it aside for later or pass it on. For a while everything works. After some time that same address shows nothing, or an error — for you or for the person you sent it to. It looks as if the file was deleted, even though it's still sitting in your Asset Library and opens without a hitch.

Two different things: the file and its preview link#

It helps to separate two things that are easy to confuse.

• The file is your material. It lives in the Asset Library, stored durably and securely. The Library shows it to you because you're signed in and have the right to see it.
• A preview link is something else — it's a temporary pass the system creates when a file has to be shown outside the panel: in a preview, in a message, in a share. That pass is time-limited on purpose.

Why on purpose? Because your files are private. If an address, once created, worked forever, then anyone who ever got hold of it would have access to a private file for good. Giving the pass a short lifespan means that even an accidentally exposed address soon stops opening anything.

What this means in practice#

• Don't keep a "copied" old file address around. It's a pass for a moment, not a permanent link. A day or a week later it may no longer work — and that doesn't mean anything broke.
• When a module inserts an image into an email or a blog post for you — in a newsletter, a banner, or a link preview — it publishes a durable, public copy of that image on your behalf. You don't need to worry about it: such an image is prepared to keep working for your recipients permanently. You just pick the picture; the system handles the rest.
• If an old link looks dead, don't hunt for the file blindly. Just go to the Library and pick that image again — you'll get fresh, working access.

Your source of truth#

Remember one thing: the Asset Library is always the source of truth. That's where files are stored durably and where you have reliable, signed-in access to them. Everything outside the panel — previews, shares — is a temporary window onto those files, not the files themselves. Treat it as something that can expire, and go back to the Library for the material every time.

See also#

• Asset Library — where your files live durably and how to grab them from there.
• Security and GDPR — why private materials are protected and what that means for you.