Understanding asset availability
Whether an end user can see and download an asset depends on two separate settings: the asset’s Phase and its availability window. This page explains what each one controls, how they combine, and why an asset might not appear even though it exists.
Phase and availability are separate
An asset’s Phase is its status in Administration. New assets are created with a Phase of Quarantined, which keeps them hidden from end users until an administrator makes them live by setting the Phase to Active.
An asset’s availability window is a scheduled period, defined by a start date and an end date, during which the asset is intended to be live.
The two settings are independent, and changing one does not change the other. An asset can be Active with no availability window set, or fall outside its availability window while its Phase is still Active.
What an end user sees
By default, an end user sees an asset only when both conditions are met: its Phase is Active, and it is currently within an open availability window. If either condition is not met, the asset does not appear on the front-end portal, and the end user can neither view nor download it.
| Permissions can extend what a user sees. Some users can be granted visibility of assets in other phases, outside their availability window, or both, where their role requires it. |
Availability windows
An availability window is defined by a start date and an end date. Within that window the asset is available; before the start date or after the end date it is unavailable.
When the end date passes, the asset becomes unavailable and drops off the front-end portal automatically. This is a visibility change only: the asset is not deleted, its metadata is unchanged, and its Phase stays as it was. An administrator can make the asset available again by updating its availability dates so that it falls within a current window.
Why schedule availability
Scheduling availability suits content that should only be live for a defined period. Campaign assets can be set to appear and disappear on fixed dates, and licensed content, such as imagery featuring talent or licensed music, can be limited to its permitted usage period.
It helps to separate two things that sound similar. Availability dates enforce visibility automatically: when the window closes, the asset becomes unavailable without anyone intervening. The usage-rights field, by contrast, only describes permitted use in free text; it records guidance for people to read but does not restrict access or change behaviour on its own.
Why an asset might not appear
Because visibility depends on both settings, an asset that exists in the library can still be missing from the front end. The usual reasons are that its Phase is not yet Active, often because a newly uploaded asset remains Quarantined until an administrator makes it live, or that it falls outside its availability window. In both cases the asset itself is intact; only its Phase or its availability dates need correcting. See Manage asset availability for the availability side.