A Backup Receipt for Your Event Photos
Most photo apps stop at 'upload complete'. Galeira keeps going — for every approved upload, the backup-receipt page shows exactly what reached your connected cloud account, including counts, destinations, and timestamps you can verify.
- ✓Per-event receipt page with counts, destinations, and timestamps
- ✓Mirrors approved uploads to a cloud account you own
- ✓Marker file written into your destination folder for independent verification
- ✓Retry queue with exponential backoff and alert emails on persistent failure
- ✓Receipt history kept for five years with continued verification cycles
- ✓Export the receipt itself as a JSON or PDF artifact
What a backup receipt is
A backup receipt is a per-event record that proves which photos were saved, where they were saved, and when the save was confirmed. The metaphor is borrowed from banking. When money moves between accounts, the bank does not just say 'sent' — it issues a receipt with a transaction ID, an amount, a destination, and a timestamp. You can hand that receipt to anyone and they can independently confirm the transfer happened. Galeira applies the same idea to event photos. Every approved upload that flows from a guest's phone to your connected cloud account produces a verifiable line item on the receipt. Each line records the file, the provider it landed on, the folder path inside that provider, and the moment the mirror was confirmed. The receipt is built and updated automatically as uploads, approvals, and mirror jobs complete, so by the end of the event you have a single page that documents the entire backup state of your memories.
Why 'uploaded' is not the same as 'backed up'
Most photo-sharing apps stop the story at 'upload complete'. That phrase only proves one thing — the file reached the app's own server. It does not prove the file reached your personal cloud account, it does not prove a redundant copy exists, and it does not prove the mirror job succeeded without truncation or corruption. If the app shuts down, if your trial expires, or if a folder gets purged on the server side, an 'uploaded' confirmation gives you nothing to point to. Galeira closes this gap by treating the upload as step one of a two-step process. Step one writes the file into Galeira's staging storage for moderation and viewing. Step two mirrors every approved file out to the cloud account you connected at event setup. The receipt only marks a file as backed up after the mirror job succeeds, the destination provider returns a confirmation, and a small marker file in the destination folder agrees. Until all three line up, the file stays in a pending state — visible, honest, and waiting.
What the receipt shows
The receipt is organised per event and refreshes as the event proceeds. The header summarises totals for the whole night. Total uploads counts every file submitted by every guest, including those still in review. Approved files counts the subset that passed moderation. Mirrored files counts the subset that has been confirmed in your destination, broken down per destination if you connected more than one. Pending files lists items still moving through moderation or waiting on the mirror queue. Failed files lists items the mirror job could not write, along with the current retry status and reason. The destination block names the provider — Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud Drive, an S3-compatible bucket, or a personal Nextcloud instance — and shows the exact folder path the files are landing in. A last-verified timestamp records the most recent successful round-trip check, and a small .galeira-verify marker file inside your destination folder lets you independently confirm Galeira's claim. While the event archive is active, an export ZIP link lets you pull every approved file in one download.
- ✓Total uploads, including files still in review
- ✓Approved files after moderation
- ✓Mirrored files per destination
- ✓Pending files (in moderation or in the mirror queue)
- ✓Failed files with retry status and reason
- ✓Provider name and destination folder path
- ✓Last-verified timestamp from the most recent round-trip check
- ✓Export ZIP link while the event archive is active
What to do if files fail
Failures happen — a cloud token expires, a destination folder gets renamed, a provider returns a transient error, or a guest uploads a file type the destination rejects. The receipt names each failed file and shows you the reason in plain language rather than a stack trace. Every failure carries a retry button you can press immediately. Behind the scenes a retry cron job also picks the file up automatically with exponential backoff, doubling the wait between attempts so we do not hammer a provider that is having a bad day. If retries continue to fail because the underlying connection is broken — for example, your refresh token expired or you revoked access — the receipt switches the destination into a reconnect-required state and links straight to the cloud-connection page. We also send an alert email to the account owner so the failure does not sit unnoticed. Files that fail repeatedly stay safe in Galeira's staging storage while you fix the destination, so nothing is lost during the recovery window.
How receipts help after the event
The receipt is most useful after the event, not during it. A year later — when the album is no longer top of mind and the original guests have moved on — you can still open the receipt page and see exactly what is supposed to be in your cloud account, where it is supposed to be, and when it was last verified. Galeira keeps the receipt for five years and runs continued verification cycles against the destination on a regular cadence. If a file you mirrored two years ago has since been deleted from your cloud account, the next verification cycle notices the mismatch and surfaces it on the receipt so you can decide what to do. If the destination folder is renamed or moved, the receipt records the new path and links to the most recent successful check. This is what we mean when we say Galeira is built so memories cannot quietly vanish. The receipt is the audit trail that makes the claim checkable rather than rhetorical.
- ✓Five-year receipt retention with continued verification cycles
- ✓Drift detection if files are removed from the destination after the fact
- ✓Folder rename and path-change tracking on the destination
- ✓Permanent record of which destinations held which files at event close
A worked example: one event's receipt
Imagine a 120-guest event that ran for six hours. The host connected a personal Dropbox account at setup and pointed Galeira at the folder /Apps/Galeira/Anna-and-Mark-2026. During the night, guests submitted 842 photos and 38 short videos through the QR code. Moderation auto-approved 798 photos and 36 videos, flagged 12 items for host review (10 approved, 2 declined), and the remaining items were held as duplicates of files already accepted. The mirror queue picked up each approved item as it cleared moderation and wrote it to Dropbox. By 02:14 the morning after the event, the receipt showed 844 mirrored files, zero pending, three failed (all three retried successfully on the next cron pass), one destination, last-verified 02:14, and a green confirmation that the .galeira-verify marker file existed inside the destination folder. The host downloaded the export ZIP for offline keeping and bookmarked the receipt page. Eight months later, opening that same URL still shows the same totals and a fresh verification timestamp from the most recent cycle.
Back up originals to a cloud you already own.
Galeira stores the event gallery so guests can view and download it, but the important part is ownership. When you connect a cloud destination, approved originals mirror to a place you control: Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, S3, or WebDAV. The backup-status page shows what copied, what is pending, and what needs attention.
External cloud-provider outages and account deletions are outside Galeira's control — which is exactly why the receipt matters. You can verify, retry, and export while your archive is active.
Questions hosts ask before they create the QR
What is a backup receipt?
A backup receipt is a per-event page that records which photos and videos from your event were saved, where they were saved, and when the save was confirmed. It is modelled on the banking idea of a transaction receipt: counts, destinations, and timestamps you can point to as proof. Galeira generates one automatically for every event you run on the platform.
How is this different from 'your photos are uploaded'?
'Uploaded' usually only proves a file reached the app's own server. The backup receipt goes further by confirming the file also reached the cloud account you connected, that the mirror job succeeded, and that a marker file inside the destination folder agrees. A file only counts as backed up on the receipt when all three checks line up.
When does the receipt update?
The receipt updates continuously as the event runs. New uploads appear in the totals within seconds, moderation decisions move items from pending to approved, and the mirror queue writes confirmations as each destination acknowledges the file. After the event, scheduled verification cycles refresh the last-verified timestamp on a regular cadence.
What if a file shows as 'pending' for a long time?
Pending means the file is either still in moderation or sitting in the mirror queue waiting on the destination. If the same file stays pending for an unusually long stretch, the receipt surfaces the reason — often a destination token expiry or a transient provider error. You can press retry directly from the receipt, or wait for the automatic retry cron to pick it up on its next pass.
Can I share the receipt with someone?
Yes. The receipt has a private URL only the event owner can open by default, and a shareable read-only link the owner can generate for a co-host, partner, or wedding planner. The shareable link shows counts, destinations, and timestamps but does not expose the underlying photos or any guest contact information.
Can my photographer see the receipt?
Only if you choose to share it with them. Many couples send the read-only link to their photographer so the photographer can confirm guest-uploaded coverage is safely mirrored before delivering the professional gallery. The photographer sees the same numbers and destination names you do, with no access to your cloud credentials.
How long is the receipt kept?
Galeira retains the receipt for five years from the event date and continues to run periodic verification cycles against the connected destinations during that window. Counts, destinations, and the most recent verification timestamp remain visible across the full retention period. Receipts older than five years can be exported and kept locally before they roll out of active retention.
What happens to the receipt if Galeira shuts down?
Because the files themselves live in a cloud account you own, the photos remain in your destination folder regardless of Galeira's status. The receipt is also exportable as a JSON and PDF artifact at any time, so you can keep an offline copy that documents what was mirrored and where. The marker file inside your destination folder remains as an independent breadcrumb.
Can I export the receipt itself?
Yes. From the receipt page you can export the whole record as a JSON file for archival or as a PDF for sharing with non-technical readers. Both exports include the totals, the per-destination breakdown, the failed-file list with reasons, and the verification timestamp at the moment of export. The export is timestamped and identified by event.
Is the receipt cryptographically signed?
The current receipt is server-signed rather than cryptographically notarised against an external chain, and each export includes a signature you can verify against Galeira's public key. We are evaluating stronger third-party attestation for larger event tiers. For most hosts, the combination of destination confirmation plus the marker file inside the cloud folder provides sufficient independent proof.
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Create your event QR in about 60 seconds
Guests scan, upload, and view the gallery. You keep full-resolution originals backed up to your own cloud.