Already have a card?
The questions that come up after you own one.
Not how NFC works, and not what came in the box — those live at how it works and the card guide. This is everything that comes up once you are actually using it: adding your video, letting guests post their own photos, handing a card to someone else, and what happens to it over time.
The answers
Video, guests, passwords, handing it on.
How do I put a video on my card?
Open the link from your receipt email — it takes you to your card's page, where you sign in and pick “A video” from the list of what the card can do. Upload one straight from your phone (MP4 plays everywhere; we also take QuickTime and WebM, up to 90 MB) or paste a YouTube or Vimeo link instead, which is the better option for anything longer. Choosing a file puts it on the card immediately — there is no separate save button to look for.
Can I change what it plays later?
Yes, any time, as many times as you like, and the card itself never changes — only what it points to. Nothing already there gets deleted when you switch to something else: every destination you have used stays saved and one tap away, so going back to an old video does not mean re-uploading it.
How do I password-protect my card?
Under “Who can watch” on your card’s page. Set a password and the card shows nothing without it — not the title, not the photo, nothing. Leave it blank and it is open to anyone who taps the card or opens its link. You can add or remove this at any time, including after the cards are already in people’s hands.
How do I let guests add their own photos?
This belongs to the occasion page, one of the two free layouts a card can open instead of a bare video (the other is a contact page). Pick “An occasion page” on your card’s page, save it, then switch on “Let guests add photos” in the box underneath. Anybody who taps the card can then post a photo or a short video (up to 8 MB for a photo, 40 MB for a video) with no account of their own. Turn collection off at any point and the photos come down with it.
What is the difference between letting guest photos appear straight away and approving them first?
By default nothing a guest sends is visible until you press Approve — everything sits in a waiting list on your card’s page for you to look at first. A second switch, “Show them as they arrive,” turns that off: everyone looking at the page then sees each photo or video appear the moment it is posted, with nobody checking it first. Be honest with yourself about what that switch actually does before you turn it on for a live event: photos are still checked automatically the instant they land, but a video cannot be — nothing can look inside one before it is shown, so a video from a stranger goes straight onto your page. You can still take anything down afterwards, and turning the switch back off returns everything to the waiting list.
I bought this for someone else — how do they get it?
From your card’s page, under “Hand it over,” send an invitation to their email address. They get a link and have to accept it themselves — nothing moves until they do, and you can take the invitation back at any point before that. Once they accept, the card is theirs: they decide what it plays from then on, the same as if they had bought it. An invitation that is never accepted or taken back simply expires after two weeks; nothing about the card changes when that happens, and you can always send another.
I signed in with the wrong email — where did my card go?
Nothing is lost. A card is attached to whichever address actually paid for it, so signing in with a Google or Apple account on a different address than you checked out with lands you on a real account that genuinely has nothing on it yet — not a mistake, just the wrong door. Fix it from your account: open “Add a card bought with another email, or without an account” and paste the link from your receipt or handover email. That attaches the card by checking the token inside the link rather than by matching an email address, which is also why a typo at checkout can never hand your card to somebody else by accident.
What happens to my card if I stop paying?
There is nothing to stop paying. A Dote card is a one-time purchase — the page it opens, changing what it plays, guest photos, all of it, is free for as long as the card exists, with no subscription and nothing recurring to lapse.
How long does my card stay up?
Indefinitely. Nothing about a card expires on its own, and nothing is taken down for being old or unvisited.
What if the card stops working?
Two different things can go wrong, and they need different fixes. If the chip itself has failed — almost always because the card was bent, which breaks the fine wire aerial running around its inside edge — email [email protected], and if it was not bent, we replace it. If the chip is fine but something on the page looks wrong — a video that will not play, a setting that will not save — the same address reaches a real person, not a form.