Whether you need a couple of weeks off, a longer hiatus, or want to wind your storefront down for good, this guide covers the three options, what each one does to your subscribers / sales / payouts, and the path to action it.
1) The three options at a glance
- Soft pause (a few hours to a few days). Don’t pause anything. Just stop publishing new clips and turn off your scheduled streams. Your storefront stays up, your subscribers keep their access, and your existing content keeps selling. Best for: vacation, illness, brief breaks.
- Storefront pause (weeks to months). We hide your storefront from search and from the public browse listings. Existing subscribers still see what they paid for, but new buyers can’t find or sign up to your store. Best for: extended breaks where you don’t want new customers landing on a store you can’t service.
- Close (permanent). Your storefront comes down, your active subscriptions are stopped (we don’t bill subscribers for content they can’t access), pending orders are settled or refunded, your final payout cycle runs, and your account is closed. Best for: leaving the platform.
Both storefront pause and close are actioned by support — there isn’t a self-serve toggle on your storefront for either one. Soft pause you do yourself by simply not publishing.
2) Soft pause — the no-action option
If you’re going to be unavailable for a few days and you want existing customers to keep using what they bought, the simplest thing is to do nothing. Specifically:
- Don’t go live for the duration. Cancel any scheduled streams (Pre-flight checklist → cancel the planned slot). See How to go live — pre-flight checklist.
- Don’t reply to DMs you can’t service. Buyers don’t expect 24/7 replies; if you reply within 24–48h of returning, that’s normal. If you want to set expectations, post a feed update saying “Back on the 15th”.
- Leave your subscriptions on. Subscribers will renew on their existing schedule and continue to have access to your back catalogue, feed, and any subscriber-only content you’ve already published.
- Leave your clips for sale. Buyers can buy a clip while you’re away — the platform delivers it instantly without any action from you. The sale lands in your Open balance and rolls into the next monthly payout normally.
This is the right option for anything under ~2 weeks. Your storefront stays discoverable, your reputation isn’t disrupted, and there’s no admin overhead.
3) Storefront pause — for longer breaks
If you need a longer break and don’t want new customers landing on a store you’re not actively running, you can ask us to hide your storefront from search and from the browse listings. While paused:
- Your public storefront URL doesn’t show in our category pages, search results, or the homepage rails. A customer who has the direct URL bookmarked will still see your store, but they won’t find you organically.
- Existing subscribers keep their access. Renewals continue on schedule (you can opt-in to pause renewals for the duration — see “What to ask for” below).
- New subscriptions are paused by default — the storefront’s Subscribe button is hidden along with the rest of the page from new visitors.
- Existing clip purchases keep working. Buyers who already own a clip can re-watch or re-download from their My Library.
- Your Payouts page keeps working. Anything you’d already earned still flows through the monthly payout schedule.
To start a storefront pause, open a ticket under Account admin at Contacting support and tell us:
- Start date (today / a future date — we can schedule it).
- Expected return date (or “indefinite” — we can also pause without an end date and you tell us when to lift it).
- Whether you want existing subscribers’ renewals to continue or pause (default: continue, since they’re still getting access to your back catalogue).
- Whether to keep accepting clip purchases from buyers who somehow land on your store (default: yes — instant delivery means no extra workload).
To lift the pause, send a quick reply to the same ticket asking us to unhide the storefront. Most actions land within one working day.
4) Close — leaving the platform
Closing is a multi-step wind-down. The order matters because we want every buyer to be made whole and every euro you’ve earned to land in your bank.
For a step-by-step walkthrough of the close flow itself — what triggers the wind-down, what data is removed, and what is retained for compliance — see Deleting your creator account.
- Open a ticket under Contacting support → Account admin with the subject “Close my storefront and account”. Tell us your reason in one line if you want — it helps us improve the platform and isn’t shared anywhere.
- We confirm the close-out plan with you, including the timeline below.
- We hide the storefront immediately so no new customers can sign up.
- Active subscriptions are cancelled at the next scheduled renewal date — they’re not charged again. Existing subscribers retain access until the period they’ve already paid for ends.
- Pending custom orders you’ve already accepted are either delivered (if you’re wrapping them up) or refunded to the buyer with a short courtesy note. Tell us which on the ticket.
- Pending physical orders are either fulfilled or refunded — same call.
- Your final monthly payout runs at the next 1st-of-the-month export. We don’t shortcut that — letting it run on schedule keeps your bank statement clean.
- After the final payout clears (the SEPA transfer is sent right after the export is pulled on the 1st, and the money reaches your bank between the 4th and the 7th of the month), we close the account and remove your storefront content.
Total time from “I want to close” to “account closed” is typically 4–6 weeks, mostly spent waiting for the final payout cycle and the bank confirmation. If you can’t wait that long, we can close immediately and pay out by separate one-off transfer — just say so on the ticket.
What gets retained after a close
- Sales / financial records — kept for tax and AML compliance (typically 7+ years per EU rules). This is a legal requirement, not a choice.
- Identity-verification record — the platform-side fields (status, your first / last name, decision timestamp) are kept on the closed application for audit. The document images sit with the verification provider per their own retention policy.
- Order history visible to your buyers — buyers can still see their old order records in their /my-account/orders/ page (they paid for those, they have a right to see them) but the storefront page itself is gone.
What gets removed
- Your public storefront page and the avatar, banner, bio, social links you set there.
- Your clips — both the storefront-visible listings and the underlying media.
- Your live VOD library.
- Your feed posts.
- Your messages — the message bodies and any attachments you sent. (Buyers’ purchased PPV messages remain accessible to the buyer in their /my-account/purchased-messages/ for record-keeping; you’ve already been paid for those, and they were the buyer’s purchase.)
- Your account sign-in — your username and email are released; the same address can be used to register a new account in the future.
5) Things you may want to do BEFORE asking for a close
- Download anything you want to keep. Once we close, the source files come down with the storefront. If you want copies of your own clips, download them from the storefront before sending the close request.
- Save your sales totals. The Sales report on your storefront sidebar exports to CSV — handy for your own bookkeeping after the storefront is gone.
- Tell your subscribers via a final feed post if that’s appropriate. They’ll appreciate the heads-up rather than just a “subscription ended” notification.
- Check your Partner-ID is still active on the partner-registration side — your final payout has to land somewhere. See Changing your IBAN or bank account if your bank has changed.
6) FAQ
Q: Can I pause and then change my mind?
Yes. Storefront pauses are reversible — reply to the ticket and we’ll unhide the store within a working day. A close, once it’s actioned past the “remove storefront content” step, is not reversible.
Q: Will my subscribers be refunded?
For a soft pause: no refunds — they still have access to what they paid for. For a storefront pause: same, unless you specifically asked us to pause renewals (refund the unused fraction). For a close: active subs are cancelled at next renewal, not mid-cycle, so no refund is needed for the current period.
Q: How is a close different from “deleting my data”?
Close removes your public-facing content and signs the account out. Some financial / verification records are retained for compliance. If you want a full GDPR data-deletion request, mention it on the ticket — see also Your data on Lewdden.
Q: I want to come back later. Should I close or pause?
Pause. Your storefront, subscribers, history, and reputation all sit ready to resume. A close is permanent and you’d need to start fresh.
Q: I can’t reach my email anymore — how do I close?
Open a ticket from a different account (e.g. your buyer account) explaining the situation, with proof of identity (the verification flow can re-confirm you). Don’t share your password with anyone, ever — support never asks for it.
Q: Can someone else take over my storefront?
No — accounts aren’t transferrable. The new owner would have to sign up fresh and verify themselves.
Q: What if I have unpaid earnings when I close?
We pay them out, full stop. The final monthly payout runs as part of the close sequence.
Need more help
For pauses or closes, open a ticket under Account admin at Contacting support. Include the option you want (storefront pause / close), the start date, and the answers to the four questions in §3 (for pauses) or §4 (for closes). We typically respond within one working day. If you also need to update your IBAN before the final payout, see Changing your IBAN or bank account.
