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3.3 What Happens When You Downgrade
3.0 Subscriptions & Payments 3.3 What Happens When You Downgrade

Please read this section before you downgrade, not after. Chronica does not delete your data when your tier drops. However, some things become unavailable, and one of them needs a decision from you.

The rule underneath all of it
Your data stays. Your access to it changes. When a campaign drops below the tier a feature needs, that feature switches off. Everything you made with it is still stored. If you upgrade again, you get it all back exactly as you left it. Records, characters, maps, notes and wealth are never deleted by a tier change.

There is one exception: images, when your campaign is over its storage limit. This is important, so please read the storage warning below before you edit anything.

Players over the new seat limit

This is the part that needs your decision. If your campaign has more players than the new tier allows, Chronica asks you to choose which players keep a place.

Until you do, the campaign's feature pages send everyone to a lockout page. This affects characters, maps, quests, players and the other feature pages. The lockout page shows your total players, your unlocked players, the number your tier allows, and how many more players you need to lock.

  1. Go through the player table and lock enough players to reach your allowed number.
  2. Click Save Locked Status.
  3. The campaign unlocks and everyone else carries on as normal.
Only the Game Owner can do this. Game Masters can open the lockout page, but they do not see the player table. If your campaign has several Game Masters, the choice still belongs to the person who owns the campaign. You cannot lock yourself out, because the Game Owner's own row always stays unlocked.

Locking is not the same as removing. A locked player keeps everything: their characters, inventory, wealth and notes. They simply cannot open the campaign. On their dashboard, the campaign is shown with a padlock and a note asking them to contact their Game Owner. If they try to open it, they are refused. When you have space again, unlock them from the same page, and they continue exactly where they stopped.

Once you have space, an orange unlock shortcut appears next to your player list. It is shown to the Game Owner when there is at least one locked player and room to unlock someone.

Do not use "Remove Player" to solve a shortage of places if that player may be returning. Removing a player is permanent and deletes that player's data. Locking can be reversed, and it is what the lockout page is designed for. Upgrading your tier again is the other solution.
Storage over the new limit

Your uploaded files are not deleted. You lose the ability to add more files until you are back under the limit, either by removing files or by upgrading.

⚠️ While you are over your storage limit, avoid editing records that already have images. Two things happen once a campaign is over the limit:
  • A new image you attach is not saved. The record saves without it.
  • Saving an edit to a record that already has an image can remove that image.
If a downgrade has put you over your limit, get back under the limit first. Remove some files, or upgrade again, before you continue editing. If you must make an urgent edit before then, save your own copy of any image on that record first.

Moving below Knight also hides the File Hub file list. The files are not deleted. You cannot browse them until you are on a tier that includes the File Hub.

Features that switch off

Any feature above your new tier becomes unavailable. Depending on how far you downgrade, this can include Places, Encounters, Entities, Shops, the Image Library and the File Hub. Ads return on the free tier. Images you already selected from the Image Library stay attached where you placed them, but you cannot open the library to choose more.

Extra Game Masters

Having more than one Game Master is a paid-tier feature. On the free tier you cannot assign new ones, and the option disappears from your players' settings. Game Masters you appointed earlier will usually keep working, but do not depend on this. If running your campaign requires a second Game Master, stay on a paid tier.

3.0 Subscriptions & Payments