Preview link I sent my client stopped working after a day
I shared a preview link for a new homepage experience with a client on Monday for approval. They opened it on Wednesday and got nothing, just the regular site with default content. The same link worked fine when I tested it right after generating it.
Is there an expiry on these links? And if so, what is the recommended workflow for client approvals that take a few days, generate a new link each time or is there something more durable I should be using.
1 answer
Preview links are valid for 24 hours, which is exactly the window you described. Nothing is broken, the token just expired between Monday and Wednesday.
The workflow that works for us with slow-approving clients:
- Generate a fresh link from the experience or experiment editor right before you expect the client to look. They are shareable, so regenerate and resend, it takes seconds.
- Tell the client to check the preview widget in the bottom-right corner of the page. It shows exactly which experience, experiment, audience, variant, and locale they are previewing, which doubles as proof they are looking at the right thing (clients love a screenshot of that widget in the approval email).
Two gotchas that produce the same "just the default site" symptom, worth ruling out: the domain being previewed has to be in your trusted origins, and the slot version integrated in your code has to match the version being previewed. If a fresh link still shows defaults, check those two.
Regenerated the link and the client approved this morning. The widget screenshot tip is going straight into our process, thanks.