In short
Opening a Mark for editing presents a lot of settings at once. They are not a flat list — they are six groups, and each group answers a different question about the item.
Learn the six groups and the page stops being intimidating. You will also stop looking for a setting in the wrong place, which is where most of the time goes.
On this page
- Six groups, six questions
- What this mark does
- Quick Settings
- Content and destinations
- Expiration and limits
- Routing and webhooks
- Protection, and the frame check
- Appearance and meta tags
- The four actions people confuse
- When settings are locked
- Symptoms, causes and fixes
- Things people commonly get wrong
Six groups, six questions
Every setting on the page belongs to one of six groups, and each group exists to answer one question. When you cannot find something, work out which question it answers first — the setting will be in that group.
What this mark does
Above the six groups sits one decision that comes first: the Mark’s role, under What this mark does. A Mark does one thing when someone reads it, and everything below follows from it. Changing the role changes the behavior for everyone who reads the Mark after you save.
| Role | What it does | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Content | Opens what you have published — a video, a page, a document | No connection prompt, no event admission, no sign-in |
| Connection | Introduces you to whoever reads it. They ask, you confirm | This mark will not open content of its own |
| Event | Opens the event first, with this mark’s content inside it | Content still comes from this mark’s destination and every routing rule |
| LinxyPass | Signs people in to a partner site with no password | Locks the mark while a partner is bound |
The Event role needs an event attached to the Mark first; without one, saving tells you to “Set up an event on this mark before giving it the Event role.” Once an event is attached, the Event & Networking card on the editor page carries a Scans open the event switch. It is the same setting as the role: on means Event, off means Content. Which content people see inside the event is still decided by the Mark’s destination and routing rules, and NFC tags keep their own destinations. While the event is still a draft, scans open the content until you make the event active. The switch is saved when you choose Update Linxy Mark.
Quick Settings
The toggles you will use most. All of them take effect immediately and all of them are reversible.
| Setting | What it does | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Active / Inactive | Switches the item on or off | The fastest way to pull something that is wrong. Switched-off items fall through to the fallback destination rather than erroring, if you set one |
| Secure | Opens only for the accounts whose email you add. They open it signed in to the Linxy App, after Face ID or fingerprint. There is nothing for them to accept | Everyone else sees a lock. Signed-out visitors are asked to sign in; signed-in accounts that aren’t on the list see “This is private. It wasn’t shared with this account.” |
| URL Shielding | The Shield destination URL switch, under Content. Delivers content through a short-lived view token instead of handing over the real address | Independent of Secure. See the frame check below — this is where it can surprise you |
| Scan / Scan+Link | Whether the short address works as well as the Mark, or only the Mark does | Scan-only is the setting for content that should be reachable only by scanning the physical object. Underused and quietly powerful |
| Community | Attaches a community space to the item | Turns a one-way touchpoint into a place people can post and see each other |
| Content display | Auto, Portrait or Landscape. The chip shows the current choice and cycles when tapped; the same choice is also under Content as Content display | How videos and images open in the Linxy App. Auto follows the content, and an uploaded video sets it from its own shape; Portrait or Landscape holds the screen in that orientation. Set it explicitly for fixed installations |
| Reset Stats | Zeroes the interaction counts and deletes the recorded history for this item | Irreversible. There is no undo and no export prompt. Export first if the history has any value |
Content and destinations
The destination field accepts more than one address, one per line, and that is what makes the rotation setting meaningful.
| Rotation | Behavior | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Off | The first address is always used | Almost everything. The other entries sit there unused |
| Random | A different entry each interaction, chosen at random | A/B comparison, spreading load, varying content for repeat visitors |
| Sequence | Entries in order, advancing with each interaction | Ordered reveals, numbered prizes, a series meant to be seen in sequence |
Uploading media adds it to that same list rather than replacing the list — unless you tick Replace. This trips people up: upload three images across three sessions without ticking Replace and you have a rotation list of four entries including your original destination, with rotation switched off so nobody ever sees three of them.
Also here: the item's description, its short address components (alias, custom name, and domain if you have more than one), and the content page for older items that present a page rather than redirecting somewhere. Content pages can still be edited, but new ones can no longer be created.
Saving refuses two destinations: the Mark’s own short link, and a short address that no link answers yet. Either would open nothing useful, so the message asks you to choose content that lives somewhere else — a video, a page or a file.
Expiration and limits
| Setting | Effect | Trap |
|---|---|---|
| Expiration | Retires the item on a date | Set it when you create seasonal work, not when you remember. An expired item with no fallback is a dead end |
| Scan limit | Retires after a number of interactions | Counts interactions, not people. One person scanning five times consumes five |
| Start / Stop | A window during which the item works | Check the time zone you are thinking in against the one the platform is recording in before you rely on a midnight boundary |
Routing and webhooks
Full treatment of how these are evaluated is in Redirection controls — including the order, which matters more than any individual setting. In brief, this group holds:
- Geo, device and language targeting — send different people to different places based on where they are, what they are holding, and what language their device is set to.
- When They Scan — timing rules: after a number of scans, before a date, or from a date onward, each with its own address. Checked after geo, device and language targeting.
- Pin Routing — a map of codes to destinations. Someone entering one code lands in one place, someone entering another lands somewhere else, from the same Mark. This is how one object serves several distinct groups without any of them needing a different object.
- Parameter Builder — appends your own parameters, typically campaign tracking, to the outgoing address.
- Tracking pixels — fires the pixels you have configured on your account.
- Dynamic webhooks — posts each interaction to your own system, which is how this feeds a CRM or a fulfillment process.
Protection, and the frame check
Three independent controls: Password, Secure (the invite list), and URL Shielding. They stack in any combination, and Redirection controls covers the difference between deciding who gets in and deciding how content is delivered.
What is worth explaining here, because it catches people out, is the frame check next to Shield.
Shielding works by presenting your destination without handing over its address. For a file — a PDF, an image, a video — that is always possible. For a website it depends on the website: many sites send headers that explicitly forbid being displayed inside another page, and a site that refuses cannot be concealed.
So the console checks. When you switch URL Shielding on, it fetches your destination, inspects the relevant response headers, and tells you straight away whether the address can be concealed. If the destination blocks inline viewing, visitors are sent straight to it and the address stays visible.
Appearance and meta tags
Meta title, meta description and a custom banner image control how the item looks when its address is pasted into a message, a social post, or a chat — the preview card. If you have ever shared a link and seen the wrong image, this is the panel that fixes it.
Alongside these, the Elements panel and the appearance controls govern how a hosted page or a branded viewer presents itself. Brand-level settings live in the brand console rather than here, so if a change needs to apply to every item, look for it there instead of editing items one at a time.
The four actions people confuse
| Action | What survives | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Change the destination | Everything — artwork, identity, address, history | Only where people land. The everyday action |
| Replace | Identity, address, settings, history | The artwork. New image, same item |
| Regenerate | Identity and address | A fresh Mark with different embedding settings. Covered fully in Regenerating a Linxy Mark |
| Delete | Nothing | Every printed copy in existence stops working. Switch off instead, and give it a fallback |
The other actions in this area are safer than they sound. Download and Export take copies out. Save as Template stores this item's configuration for reuse — with the important caveat covered in Projects, clients and templates: a template points at this item rather than taking a snapshot of it.
When settings are locked
Some Marks are managed by something else and cannot be edited here. The most common case is a Mark that powers a LinxyPass website login — attempt to change it and you are told it is administered elsewhere.
This is deliberate rather than a fault. Those Marks are load-bearing for somebody's ability to sign in to a website, and an accidental edit would lock real users out. If you need a change to one, it goes through whoever administers that integration.
Symptoms, causes and fixes
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Changed the destination, people still land on the old page | A routing rule is matching before the destination is consulted, or the visitor's browser cached the page | Check the routing group before assuming the change did not save |
| Uploaded media never appears | It was appended to the destination list while rotation is off, so only the first entry is ever used | Tick Replace when uploading, or switch rotation on deliberately Or switch on the Playlist, so viewers can choose any item. |
| URL Shielding is on but the address is still visible | The destination refuses to be concealed | Read the frame check note under the switch; host the content yourself or accept that the address will be exposed |
| “That’s this mark’s own link, so it would open itself” on save | The destination is the Mark’s own short link | Point it at the content itself — a video, a page or a file |
| “That address isn’t a live link yet, so it would open nothing” on save | The destination is a short address no link answers | Use the real address of the content |
| Preview card shows the wrong image | No custom banner set, so the destination's own metadata is used | Set a custom banner in the meta panel |
| Interaction counts went to zero | Reset Stats was used | Not recoverable. Export before resetting in future |
| "Managed by the administrator" on save | The Mark backs a LinxyPass website login | Route the change through whoever administers that integration |
| The short address works but you wanted scan-only | The item is in Scan+Link mode | Switch it to scan-only in Quick Settings |
Things people commonly get wrong
Related reading: Redirection controls, Regenerating a Linxy Mark, Reading your interaction data, Geofencing, and Projects, clients and templates.