Set an embargo date on a media item
Media items often need to become available - or stop being available - at a specific time. Whether you are publishing financial reports, launching a marketing campaign, or preparing regional content releases, controlling when items become publicly accessible is essential.
Media embargo dates allow you to define when a media items becomes available to visitors. Availability settings are configured directly on the media item and apply wherever that item is used. Once the item has been published, it becomes available or unavailable automatically at the configured time without requiring additional publishing actions. Any page that references the media item automatically reflects the updated availability state.
For example, a company can publish its monthly financial results as PDFs several days before a financial announcement. The page that references these assets can already be live, while embargo dates control when the media becomes available to visitors without requiring manual intervention.
To ensure the content is displayed only during the intended period, use Page builder personalization with a Date and time condition to show the component only when the media is available.
You can also use a media embargo date and Date and time personalization to automatically make content unavailable after a specified date.
Page builder provides visibility into the availability of media items through status indicators and contextual information. Depending on the item configuration, you may see statuses such as:
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Scheduled - The item has a future availability date and will become available automatically after publishing.
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Live - The item is currently available.
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Expired - The item is no longer available because its availability period has ended.
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Pending publish - The availability settings have been configured, but the media item must be published.
The status is displayed wherever media items are referenced, so you can understand when an item is live, scheduled, expired, or awaiting publication, as well as review the date and time when an item will become available or expire.
Media embargo dates help teams:
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Prepare content and items well in advance of release.
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Ensure that time-sensitive items are not accessible before their intended publication date.
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Automate items availability without requiring manual publishing at the release time.
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Maintain consistent availability across all pages and content that reference the item.
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Increase confidence when publishing regulated or business-critical content.
Add an embargo date to a media item
Media availability settings are defined on the media item itself and apply globally wherever the item is used.
To schedule the availability of a media item:
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In Page builder, click on the media item you want to set embargo dates for, then in the right-hand configuration panel, click Change to open the item in the Media Library picker.
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In the Add media dialog, on the right-hand side, scroll down to find the Availability section, then configure the Available from date and time, and / or the Available until date and time.
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Click Add selected to save your changes.
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If the media file status is set to Pending publish, you must publish the item.
After the media item has been published, the item remains unavailable until the configured availability date and time. When that time is reached, the item automatically becomes available without additional publishing actions.
If release plans change, you can modify the availability settings of a media item using the same procedure.
Similarly, to remove an embargo date from a media item, you must clear the configured availability date values.
You must republish the item for any update or removal of embargo dates to be effective. The item is then governed by the standard publishing process and the changes apply wherever the item is referenced.