HoldFast Guides

Everything you can do, and exactly how.

Send work for review, publish branded reels and presentations, and see which companies and people actually watched, one guide at a time.

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Getting Started

What HoldFast does and how to get your first video online.

Projects & Uploads

Folders, tags, watch folders, big files, and what Optimizing means.

Upload a multi-gigabyte master without babysitting it

Drop a multi-gigabyte master on the project and go do something else. A network blip costs you a piece, never the whole upload.

Organize a project with folders

Nested folders, drag-and-drop moves, and the difference between deleting a folder and deleting what is in it.

Sort, filter, and switch view modes

Grid for browsing thumbnails, list for scanning a hundred filenames, and sort plus type filters for everything in between.

Tag your library

Tags cut across folders: label a clip by client, status, or location once, then pull every match across every project in two clicks.

Asset View: every clip across projects

One flat view of everything you have, filtered by tags that stack: every "Approved" clip for one client across two years of projects, in three clicks.

Upload large files

The honest numbers: per-plan file caps, what happens during a huge upload, what recovers on its own, and the one thing that does not survive a closed browser.

Auto-ingest with a Local Watch Folder

Point HoldFast at your export folder once. Every render that lands there uploads itself, structure intact, while you keep cutting.

What "Optimizing" means

The badge decoded in one line: your video already plays, the sharpest quality is finishing behind the scenes, and there is nothing for you to do.

Playback quality: 1080p free, up to 4K on paid plans

No formats to choose and nothing to babysit: each viewer gets the best picture their connection carries, up to your plan ceiling.

Pro

Find anything with search

Two search surfaces: one global box that finds assets, projects, and contacts as you type, and a Review Links page that filters and sorts itself.

Player & Review

The frame-accurate player, J K L shortcuts, trims, and thumbnails.

Versions

Fix a file in place or show two cuts on purpose. Filenames, never V1/V2.

Reels

Turn your best clips into one cinematic, branded, trackable page.

Presentations

Share a PDF, PowerPoint, or web deck and see which slides got read.

How to share a presentation online

Turn a PDF, PowerPoint, or web deck into one branded, full-bleed link, and see which slides they actually read.

Roll back a presentation to an earlier version

Every upload is kept, nothing overwrites anything, and the live link repoints to any earlier version in one click.

Per-recipient links for a presentation

One URL per person and the guesswork ends: every open, slide, and return visit belongs to a name, with nothing asked of the reader.

Covers and social previews

One rule with no settings: the cover is your deck as it opens, and that same image is what Slack, iMessage, and email previews show.

Upload a PDF, PowerPoint, or web deck

Every format renders full-bleed and tracks per slide. PowerPoint keeps its animations.

Embed Google Slides, Figma, or Canva

Paste a share link; HoldFast wraps your live deck in your gate + branding and tracks engagement.

Gate a deck with a password or an email

Lock a presentation behind a password, or trade access for an email address. Both gates live in Settings and are enforced before the first slide loads.

Pro

Watermark a deck

Lay identifying text over a presentation so a forwarded copy names its reader. One checkbox and one text field in Settings.

Pro

Add a personal intro video to a proposal

Record or attach a short video that greets the reader above your first slide, as a scroll-away card or a corner bubble.

Read deck analytics slide by slide

Open Stats on any presentation to see reading time per slide, where people stop, and who finished. Measured honestly, so modest numbers are real numbers.

Get pinged when someone opens your deck

Turn on Live view alerts and get a notification the moment a verified contact opens the presentation. By design, a guess never pages you.

Insights

See which companies and people watched, with an engagement score.

How to see who watched your video

HoldFast resolves the anonymous views on your shared links into named companies and people, each carrying an engagement score.

Pro

Engagement scoring explained

Every viewer gets a 0 to 100 score and a Cold/Warm/Hot/On-Fire label you can actually act on. Here’s exactly how it’s computed.

Pro

The intelligence feed & morning brief

Instead of a dashboard you have to interpret, HoldFast writes you the story: who came back, what’s circulating inside an account, what’s going cold.

Pro

Get alerted when someone is watching

The moment a named prospect opens your deck, or keeps coming back to your reel, get pinged (in-app, Slack, or Mattermost).

Pro

Explore viewers & events

When you want the raw truth behind the stories: every viewer, every event, how identity was resolved.

Pro

Consent, Global Privacy Control, and what your viewers see

Which viewers see the banner, what declining changes about your analytics, and what HoldFast handles for you without a line of configuration.

Set up Slack or Mattermost alerts

Paste one webhook URL and the channel your team already watches starts telling you who is watching your work.

For admins

Fix a wrong company attribution

You know your clients better than any lookup. Two clicks teach the system: confirm the real company, or flag the scanner that is not a person at all.

For admins

Why it says "Possible X visitor": how attribution is graded

The honest-analytics page: what "Possible X visitor" actually means, which claims are verified versus inferred, and why we would rather hedge than guess.

Exclude your own team from analytics

One click on your domain and the analytics stop congratulating you for watching your own work. Covers every teammate, past and future.

For admins

Export or erase a viewer (GDPR / CCPA)

A data subject request should take minutes: one button exports everything held on a viewer, one erases them with a typed confirmation.

For admins

Audience Testing

Put two versions in front of real viewers and get an honest read on which one landed.

How audience testing works

Show two versions to two fresh groups of people, one version per viewer, and get back a plain-language read on which one landed.

Understanding your verdict: what 'no clear winner' means

What the report tells you, in the order it tells you, and why an inconclusive result is a finding you can use rather than a failed test.

Who should watch this: choosing an audience

Pick who watches before you spend a credit: the general-population default that fills fastest, and when a narrower age or gender group is worth the higher cost.

Credits and packs

How audience testing is metered: one credit is one dollar, a test quotes by sample size and targeting, and sending it to your own viewers is free.

What does a test cost?

The shape of the number before you open the wizard: what drives the price of a test, what common sizes run, and why the quote you approve is the price you pay.

Audience testing isn't behaving

The three snags that stall an audience test: a launch that will not go, a fill that is crawling, a report with no winner, and the fix for each.

Choosing a test type

The first decision in the wizard, organized by the question you are actually asking rather than by the name of a template.

Preparing a fair test

A test can only answer the question you built it to answer. What to hold steady, what to vary, and how to choose a length you can defend.

Reading your report

What each section of the report is for, what every verdict word means, and which people the scores are counted over.

Brand lift: measuring recall against a baseline

A holdout that sees nothing gives you a baseline. Lift is the distance your creative puts between them, read for exactly what it is worth.

How long a test takes

What actually governs the clock: results land when the committed sample is reached, not on a deadline, and the test closes itself when it gets there.

Transcripts

Transcribe in your browser, comment from the transcript, export captions.

Integrations

Push engagement into HubSpot, Zapier, Airtable, Notion, and your own tools.

For Reviewers

Got a HoldFast link from someone? How to review, comment, and approve, no account needed.

Contacts & Outreach

Import contacts, send from your own domain, and read opens honestly.

Workspace & Plans

Plans, limits, roles, and what each person on your team can do.

Invite unlimited client reviewers without buying seats

The people who watch and comment never need an account or a seat. Seats count only the teammates who sign in and work inside your workspace.

Plans & limits reference

Every plan limit on one page: storage, file size, seats, and playback, plus exactly what unlocks at Pro and Team. No per-seat billing anywhere.

Roles & permissions

What each of the four roles can see and do, why the sales role is deliberately walled off, and why reviewers need no role at all.

For admins

Set up your brand kit

Build the kit once (colors, two typefaces, three logo forms) and every public page and email your workspace sends wears it.

Invite and manage your team

Everyone in with the right role: invites, access requests, password resets, and clean offboarding, all in one Settings tab.

For admins

See what's using your storage

A treemap that answers "where did the space go" at a glance, and a top-ten table that makes the cleanup pass surgical.

Add storage to your plan

One button on the Billing page, billed to the card already on file, live immediately. No sales call for a hard drive.

For admins

Cancel or archive: what happens to your links

The pre-cancel anxiety page: what stays up (your links), what stops (future charges), what waits (archived data, 90 days), and the one-click way back.

For admins

Create a second workspace

The policy in one line: one free workspace per account, and any number of paid ones, each fully separate with its own plan, team, and branding.

For admins

Switching to HoldFast

Coming from Wiredrive, Frame.io, Vimeo, or Simian? What maps to what over here.

Backups

Pull your Vimeo library into an archive that answers to you.

Vimeo Importer

Move your Vimeo library into HoldFast with your own sign-in, on your own machine.

Troubleshooting & FAQ

When something is not working, and the questions everyone asks.

My client says the video won't play

How to read the one playback error that is never your video, and the one-line note to their IT that fixes it permanently.

My upload failed or stalled

One click recovers a failed file, finished files never re-send, and the tab rule that prevents most failures in the first place.

It still says "Optimizing"

What the badge actually means, how long it should run, and the one situation where you should do something about it.

There's a lock icon on a feature

What the gold chip means, which plan unlocks what, and why the control stays visible instead of vanishing.

Do my reviewers need an account?

The most-asked question before anyone sends a link, answered with exactly what a reviewer sees on their first comment.

Is my video public once I share a link?

Unlisted by default, honestly explained: what actually protects your link, what does not, and when to add a real lock.

Reel builder says 'No projects yet' (but you have projects)

Why the reel builder lists only Portfolio projects, and the two ways to get your finished work into a reel.

That custom link is already taken

Why a link name you are sure is free comes back as taken, and the three places it can be hiding.

Signup says you need an invite

Why signup asks for an invite, the two ways in that work today, and what to do if you already have an account.

Transcription is unavailable on this device

Why generating needs a capable browser, why reading never does, and the one-device workaround that unblocks the whole team.

My PowerPoint renders wrong

What PPTX rendering keeps, what commonly breaks, and the one-step escape hatch that preserves your exact design.

My embedded deck shows a permission error

The error is never in HoldFast: it is one sharing setting at the source. Here is the exact switch for each provider.

A reviewer can't open the link

Four causes cover nearly every "it will not open" email. Check them in order and you are done in a minute.

Notification emails aren't arriving

Spam folder, suppression list, SMTP config: the three causes checked in the order they actually occur.

For admins

Why am I my own hottest viewer?

You checked the cut thirty times before sending. One click marks your whole domain internal, for every teammate, past and future.

What file types can I upload?

Four asset types, no format anxiety: upload the export you have, including the heavy masters, and it plays for everyone.

What happens to my links if I cancel?

The three-sentence answer to the question that blocks both purchases and cancellations: your links stay up.