Answer
Does Switching Gallery Platform Break Old Client Links?
Yes, eventually. An old gallery link lives on the old host, and it dies when you stop paying that host. No new platform can rescue a URL it does not own. What you can control is the order you do things in, and which clients hear about it.
Updated September 2026
The straight answer first, because most pages on this subject dodge it. Yes. Every link you have ever sent a client points at the platform you sent it from. The domain belongs to that platform. The page it serves belongs to that platform. When you stop paying, the page stops being served, and the link a client saved in 2023 goes dead.
There is no redirect. There is no URL forwarding. There is no way to keep an old host's link alive once you leave, on any platform in this category, including this one. A redirect can only be set by whoever controls the domain the link sits on, and that is never you. Any competitor, any migration tool, any support agent who tells you otherwise is wrong, and you should treat the rest of what they say with the same suspicion.
So this page is not about saving the old links. It is about sequencing the move so that nothing breaks while a client still cares, and about what to send the two or three clients who genuinely still open a gallery from two years ago. If the only reason you are thinking about moving is to fix a dead link, stop reading and stay where you are. Moving cannot fix it.
Why the link cannot survive, in one paragraph
A gallery link is a street address on somebody else's street. The host decides what stands at that address, and the host decides when to tear it down. Only the owner of a domain can install a redirect on it, and the owner of the domain in your old links is your old platform. If your galleries lived on a subdomain of the platform, you never controlled the address at all. Even if you pointed your own custom domain at the old platform, the paths under it were shaped by that platform, and nothing on the new side can reconstruct them for you.
This is not a gap in the market waiting for a clever product. It is how domains work. The useful question is therefore not whether old links break, but when, and who is still clicking them at that point.
What actually happens to an old link, by scenario
If you are leaving Pixieset, it is unusually clear in writing about this, so its own published statements are worth reading before you cancel anything. Each row below is what Pixieset states, cited in full at the bottom of this page.
| What you do | What happens to the link | Reversible |
|---|---|---|
| Keep paying, change nothing | Stays online | Pixieset states collections stay online for as long as the subscription is active, or until you delete them yourself, and that they do not expire unless Auto-Expiry is used. |
| Set an Auto-Expiry date | Goes Hidden on that date | Yes. Pixieset states this sets the collection to Hidden status and does not delete it or remove it from the account, and that clearing the date re-publishes it. Expiry happens at 11:59pm local time on the date you set. |
| Delete a collection yourself | Gone | No. This is the one you should never do before the files are down and verified. |
| Cancel the subscription | Access ends, then deletion later | Pixieset states that cancelling "fully ends the subscription and removes access to that product", that collections "will be kept for a period of time before being deleted", and that refunds are not issued for account cancellations. No duration is published, so treat the window as zero. |
| Send a client a download link | Expires after 7 days | Pixieset states all download links are designed to expire after 7 days for security purposes, and that a client can generate a new download from the gallery to get a new link. |
Read the last row twice, because it changes the emotional weight of the whole question. The download link you sent with the gallery already expired, years ago, on the platform you are still paying for. What survives is the gallery page, and what the client does on that page is generate a fresh download. So the thing you are protecting when you delay a cancellation is the page, not the files anyone already has.
One honest caveat about the cancellation row. Pixieset says only "a period of time". It publishes no number, and we are not going to invent one. Plan as though the files vanish at the moment the subscription ends, and you will never be caught out.
The order that keeps everything alive
The whole trick is that you keep paying the old platform for one more billing cycle while the new one fills up. That overlap costs you a single month and removes every sharp edge from the move. Do it in this order.
One. Take an inventory of the live links before you touch anything. Pixieset has an Export button on a folder in Collections, and it produces a CSV whose columns include Collection Name, First Name, Last Name, Email, Download PIN, Collection Password, Client Private Password, Folder Password and Collection URL. Pixieset states the export "includes folder details only" and that "it does not contain any photos or videos". That is exactly what you want at this stage: the full list of addresses that are about to die, with the passwords that open them and the email addresses attached. Note that the button is folder-scoped, so run it for each folder. There is a second, unrelated Export button inside a collection under Activities and then Download, which exports download-activity rows. Neither button exports photos.
Two. Pull your own files down. Pixieset states that as a Pixieset user you can download photos from your collection in the same way your clients would, and recommends checking your collection settings first so photos are available in their original resolution. It states that original resolution can be offered on any upgraded Client Gallery or Suite plan, and that original files provide the photo exactly as uploaded, with no compression or resizing. The download is processed asynchronously and arrives as a ZIP by email, and Pixieset notes that for very large collections downloads may be split into multiple ZIP files. This is documented collection by collection, which is the pace you should budget for.
Three. Bring the galleries over. On this platform that is one click on a bookmark from the Pixieset dashboard, which brings the account across with titles, sets reproduced as sections, photo order and passwords. Re-running it skips what is already imported, so a large account can move in stages across several evenings without creating duplicates. Every call to Pixieset is a read: nothing is written there, and no Pixieset password reaches clientgallery.io. Be clear on one limit before you rely on it. The import brings photos at Pixieset's largest web size, not the original file. Your originals come off your own drives, which is why step two exists and why it is not optional.
Four. Publish the new links and send them to the clients who matter. Galleries here live at yourname.clientgallery.io, with a fallback to a clientgallery.io/g/ token link until the subdomain settles. Send the new link to the short list described in the next section, not to everyone.
Five. Only then stop paying. Cancel after the new galleries are live and verified, never before. If your old platform bills yearly, use the remaining months rather than cancelling early, because Pixieset states refunds are not issued for account cancellations.
If you want a slower version of this with the staging decisions spelled out, the guide to migrating in batches covers which galleries to move first and how to verify a batch before starting the next one.
Who to email, and what to say
Here is the part nobody tells you: almost nobody clicks an old gallery. The client who opened their wedding gallery every day for a fortnight has not opened it since, and has their files on a laptop, a phone and a cloud backup. Emailing every past client to announce an infrastructure change is a bad use of your name in their inbox and makes a non-event look like a problem.
Sort the list from your inventory CSV into three buckets and treat each differently.
| Bucket | Action | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Delivered in the last few months | Email the new link | These are live jobs. Some have not downloaded yet, and some are still choosing. |
| Older, but opened recently | Email the new link | Recent opens are the only reliable signal that a link is still in use. |
| Old and untouched | Say nothing | Re-host them quietly. If one ever writes in, you send the link that day. |
For the two buckets that get an email, keep it to four lines and lead with the new link rather than the explanation. Something close to this:
Subject: your gallery has a new home
Hi Marie, your gallery has moved to a new address and the old one will stop working soon. Here is the new link, same photos, same password: [link]. If you want the full-resolution files again, reply and I will send them across. Nothing else changes.
Two details worth copying. It gives the new link before the reason, because that is the only part the client acts on. And it invites a reply for the originals rather than promising a permanent download, which is a promise no delivery platform should make.
What a new platform can and cannot promise about links
Since the honest answer to the headline is a limitation, the honest follow-up is a list of what is actually within a platform's power. Here is what is true on this one, with the temptation to overclaim removed.
| The promise | True here | The exact shape of it |
|---|---|---|
| Rescue your old platform's links | No | Impossible for anyone. The domain is not ours and not yours. |
| Keep a link stable once it is here | Yes | Republishing a gallery from the Lightroom Classic plugin pushes the changed photos and keeps the same link, so a client who has the link keeps a working one through every revision. |
| Keep the gallery online long term | Yes, while the account exists | Hosted galleries are not expired, hidden or moved to an archived state while you are a customer. Leave here one day and the same rule applies in reverse, which is the point of this page. |
| Full-resolution files always available | No, and deliberately | The full-resolution ZIP is a handoff, live 3 days per handoff, re-uploadable any time. It is the one time-boxed part of the product and it is described that way everywhere. |
| Your link, under your name | Yes | Galleries sit at yourname.clientgallery.io, with a clientgallery.io/g/ token link as a fallback until the subdomain settles. |
One structural point that outlives this migration. The reason a link is fragile is that a hosted page is a rental, and every platform in this category is a landlord, including this one. The durable copy of a client's photos is the copy on their own machine and the copy on your drives. A gallery is how the photos get there, and a gallery that is still up seven years later is a courtesy, not a guarantee. Price your archival promises accordingly, and stop paying a subscription purely to keep a decade-old page alive when a hard drive does that job better.
If you are earlier in this decision than the mechanics, the switching guide covers moving without re-uploading everything, and the photo delivery guide covers the workflow the links are supposed to serve.
Sources
Every Pixieset statement above was read from Pixieset's own help centre on 12 September 2026, and each is cited with that article's own update date, because that is the date Pixieset last stood behind the wording. Where Pixieset does not publish a figure, none is given here and none is inferred. The clientgallery.io facts were checked against the running product on 12 September 2026.
- Pixieset, "Do my Collections expire?" (collections stay online while the subscription is active or until you delete them, do not expire unless Auto-Expiry is used, and after cancellation are kept for a period of time before being deleted), article updated 14 July 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002975012-Do-my-Collections-expire
- Pixieset, "How do I set an Expiry Date to the Gallery?" (expiry sets the collection to Hidden rather than deleting it, at 11:59pm local time on the set date, and clearing the date re-publishes it), article updated 10 August 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003479211-How-do-I-set-an-Expiry-Date-to-the-Gallery
- Pixieset, "Managing your Pixieset subscription" (cancelling fully ends the subscription and removes access to that product; refunds are not issued for account cancellations; yearly plans can be cancelled at the end of the cycle), article updated 11 September 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003816812-Managing-your-Pixieset-subscription
- Pixieset, "Reviewing Collection Download Activity" (all download links are designed to expire after 7 days for security purposes, and a new download can be generated from the gallery), article updated 25 July 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000930212-Reviewing-Collection-Download-Activity
- Pixieset, "Your client's download experience" (a Pixieset user can download photos from a collection the same way a client would, after checking the collection settings for original resolution; downloads are processed asynchronously and arrive as a ZIP by email; very large collections may be split into multiple ZIP files; a 4-digit PIN is required by default), article updated 12 September 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003594212-Your-client-s-download-experience
- Pixieset, "Download Sizes - Available Resolutions" (original resolution can be offered on any upgraded Client Gallery or Suite plan, and original files provide the photo exactly as uploaded, with no compression or resizing), article updated 11 September 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003793252-Download-Sizes-Available-Resolutions
- Pixieset, "Using folders to share and organize galleries" (the folder Export button produces a CSV of folder details only, containing no photos or videos, with columns including Collection URL and four password fields), article updated 23 July 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/31178129650957-Using-folders-to-share-and-organize-galleries
- clientgallery.io product facts (galleries at yourname.clientgallery.io with a clientgallery.io/g/ token fallback; hosted galleries stay live for as long as the account exists; republishing from the Lightroom Classic plugin keeps the same link; the full-resolution ZIP is live 3 days per handoff and re-uploadable; the Pixieset import carries titles, sections, order and passwords at Pixieset's largest web size and skips what is already imported), checked in the product 12 September 2026, https://clientgallery.io/
Frequently asked
Can I set up a redirect from my old gallery URLs to the new ones?
Not unless you own the domain the old links sit on, and with a hosted platform you do not. A redirect is installed by whoever controls the domain, so only the old platform could do it. No new platform can install one on a domain it does not own, so anyone who tells you a migration preserves old links is describing something that cannot exist.
What if I used my own custom domain on the old platform?
You keep the domain, which is worth something, but not the paths. The old platform decided the shape of the URLs under it, and those pages stop being served when you leave. You could in principle point the domain elsewhere and rebuild individual addresses by hand, which is a project and rarely worth it for galleries nobody opens.
How long do my old galleries survive after I cancel?
Pixieset states that cancelling fully ends the subscription and removes access to that product, and that collections will be kept for a period of time before being deleted. It does not publish how long that period is, so plan as though it is zero: download everything you want before the subscription ends. Refunds are not issued for account cancellations.
Should I cancel my old plan the day I finish importing?
No. Keep the old plan running for one more billing cycle while the new galleries go live and get verified, then cancel. The overlap costs a single month and removes every way the move can go wrong. If you are on a yearly plan, run out the remaining months rather than cancelling early.
Does the import bring my original files across?
No. The import brings photos at Pixieset's largest web size, not the original file, and that is stated plainly rather than glossed. Your originals come from your own drives or from a download of each collection. This is also why a download pass on the old platform belongs in the sequence before you cancel anything.
Will links break again if I ever leave clientgallery.io?
Yes, and pretending otherwise would contradict this whole page. Hosted galleries stay live for as long as the account exists, and that promise ends when the account does, exactly as it does everywhere else. The durable copy of a client's photos is the one on their machine and the one on your drives.
Do I need to tell every past client that their link is changing?
Almost certainly not. Email the clients with live jobs and the ones who have opened a gallery recently. Re-host the rest quietly and send a link the day somebody asks. A mass announcement about an infrastructure change makes a non-event look like a problem and spends your name in every past client's inbox for nothing.
Your client galleries, under your name
Unlimited galleries, your branding, one-click Pixieset import, and a Lightroom plugin, all on a flat 10 $/month with everything included. Your first gallery is free.
Import your galleries first, cancel later