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What happens after 12 months and how to keep your photos?

At Mafelo, we believe that good organisation is the key to peace of mind. Every gallery you create has a natural lifecycle, which lasts for 12 months by default.

Why? To ensure digital hygiene for your account, keep the system running fast, and care for the... environment. Storing millions of forgotten, unused files consumes vast amounts of energy.

The system monitors deadlines for you. You will receive a reminder 21 days and 7 days before a gallery expires. This is your time to decide: extend it for the client or let it expire?

How to check and extend expiring sessions?

We have created one place where you can quickly check which galleries need your attention. You don’t have to search for them manually.

Go to the Settings tab.
Select "Expiring galleries" from the list.
You will see a list of galleries ending within the next 30 days.
Select the ones you want to keep and click "Extend selected galleries".

💡 Want to forget about expiry dates?If you don’t want to watch over gallery deadlines, check out our Unlimited Plan.With this plan, your photos are stored indefinitely – as long as you have an active subscription. Plus, you can create any number of galleries per year without worrying about limits or extra fees.It’s the perfect solution for those who want "peace of mind" and certainty that all galleries are always available to clients.

What happens if you DO NOT extend validity?

If you use standard packages and decide the session is finished, you don’t need to do anything. After the deadline, the gallery will expire. This means we will delete the large photo files to free up space, but we keep your entire business history.

Here is a summary of exactly what changes:

✅ What STAYS (Your safe data):

Even after a session expires, your Mafelo account retains key information:

Order details: You can still see what the client bought, along with a preview of selected photos in the order. You can also export lists of photos, products, and prints.
Consents: You have full insight into which consents (GDPR, image usage) the client accepted.
Communication history: In private galleries, the history of communication with the client is still available.

❌ What DISAPPEARS (Photos):

Delivered photos: Files ready for download will be permanently deleted from the server.
Photos for selection: You will lose access to the photo selection tab. You will no longer see the full list of unedited shots that were not chosen by the client.

👁️ What does your CLIENT see?

If a client clicks on an old link to an expired session:

They will see: Their order history and accepted consents (they can still edit them).
They will not be able to: Download photos or place any new orders.

Updated on: 28/12/2025

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