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FAQ

Everything you're wondering, answered.

Photos, privacy, pricing, printing and shipping.

01
What is Afterglow?
Afterglow rebuilds trips you already took, using the photos you already have. Drop in the photos from a trip and it builds an interactive globe of your route, a written story, a shareable Instagram reel, and a printable book — no planning or live tracking required.
02
Do I need to have tracked my trip live?
No — that's the whole point of Afterglow. You upload photos after the trip is over, and the location and time data already saved in each photo (its EXIF data) rebuilds your route automatically.
03
Can I make a travel book from old photos?
Yes — old trips are exactly what Afterglow is for. As long as the photos still carry the location and time data your camera saved (most phone photos do), a trip from years ago rebuilds the same way as last week's. Nothing needs to be tracked, remembered, or typed in.
04
What photos work?
GPS-tagged photos are the smoothest — most phone cameras save location automatically when location services are on. Photos without location still work: that includes shots from proper cameras and anything saved from Facebook or WhatsApp, and Afterglow simply groups them by day and asks you to name the place once per day. HEIC photos are fine too; Afterglow converts them right in your browser before anything else happens.
05
Is my data uploaded anywhere?
It depends on whether you're signed in. Signed out, your photo files stay on your device — only their coordinates, timestamps and file names are sent to build your route, and nothing else is uploaded unless you choose to share a trip, which uploads screen-quality copies to power the link. Signed in, your trips back up privately to your cloud diary, and original-quality copies are kept only for trips you choose to archive.
06
Where is my data stored?
In the EU. If you sign in, your trips, photos, original-quality archives, and the images that power sharing are stored in Frankfurt, Germany. Signed out, your photo files stay on your device — only shared trips upload screen-quality copies to power the link. The privacy page lists every service we use.
07
Do you sell my data or show ads?
No. Afterglow sells books and subscriptions, not data — no ads, no tracking pixels, and your data is never sold.
08
Is Afterglow free?
Yes, to start: unlimited trips, sharing, the book editor, the Instagram reel, and 10 AI credits are all free. Plus is €29.99/yr (or €8.99/mo) and adds 25 GB of original-quality archives, 10 AI credits a month, PDFs of your books at a quarter of the book price instead of half, and 20% off printed books on the yearly plan. A PDF is free with any printed book.
09
What are AI credits?
AI credits pay for premium AI actions inside Afterglow — photo enhancement, for example, costs 1 credit. You start with 10 credits at signup, and Plus tops you up with 10 more every month. You're only charged a credit once a result is actually delivered, not for trying.
10
What does photo enhancement do?
Photo enhancement faithfully upscales a photo to print resolution — it's the same photo, just sharper, with faces, text, and composition preserved exactly as they were. You keep both the original and the enhanced version, so nothing is ever overwritten.
11
Can I share a trip?
Yes — generate a private link for any trip whenever you want and share it however you like. Anyone with the link can view the trip, and it never expires on its own. It sends your trip’s title, your photos, journals and captions, each stop’s name, coordinates, dates and weather, and the route between stops, to a web address anyone with the link can open; on the page it makes, no photo carries its own file name or the minute it was taken. A share link can be turned off from the device that made it, which deletes the shared page and its photos from our servers, though a copy someone already has open can linger a little while. If you no longer have that device, write to hello@afterglow.travel with the link and we will take it down.
12
Can I print a real book?
Yes — the book editor lays out a full print-ready A4 landscape hardcover from your trip, and printed books start from €39. The price is by page count, so a longer book costs more; the exact price for your book appears before you order, never after. See pricing for the Plus discount.
13
What does shipping cost, and where do you ship?
We ship worldwide. Shipping is added at checkout and depends on where the book is going and how heavy it is — a longer book weighs more, so every figure below is a starting price, not a flat rate. For a roughly 80-page book:

Netherlands from €4.41 ·
Germany from €5.45 ·
Poland, UK, Sweden, USA and Australia from €6.60–€7.20 ·
Ireland, Italy, Belgium, Spain and France from €8.00–€9.00 ·
Canada and New Zealand from €10.40–€10.80 ·
Japan and Singapore from €14.62 ·
Brazil from €20.00 ·
South Africa from €24.13.

Your exact shipping cost is shown at checkout before you pay.

Prices on this page are in euros. At checkout you can pay in euros, US dollars, pounds or Australian dollars, and the price you see there is the price you pay.
14
How long does a printed book take to arrive?
Every book is made to order. Printing takes 4–6 working days, then delivery is another 2–7 working days within Western Europe and up to two weeks further afield — so plan on 2–3 weeks door-to-door in Europe, and a little longer elsewhere. You order through our print partner's checkout and they email you the tracking.
15
My book arrived damaged or misprinted — what now?
You get a free reprint. Send us a photo of the problem at hello@afterglow.traveland we'll have it printed again — you do not need to send the damaged one back, and there is no deadline to beat: a faulty product is faulty whenever you notice. This covers printing and delivery faults: smudges, misaligned pages, a bent cover, a torn spine.

The one thing it does not cover is a photo that was always going to look soft. The editor flags low-resolution photos with a badge before you order, and a photo kept despite that warning is not a printing fault — which is why the badge is there.
16
Can I cancel or return a printed book?
Before it goes to print, yes — contact us straight away at hello@afterglow.traveland we'll ask our print partner to stop it. If it has not reached the presses you get a full refund. They take the payment, so the refund comes from them; we chase it for you.

Once printing has started, no. The usual 14 days to change your mind about an online purchase does not apply to goods made to your own specification, and a book of your photographs is about as personalised as an object gets — nobody else could ever be sold it. That is the law across the EU, not a policy we invented, and it is why we show you the price and the exact page count before you commit.

This is separate from a faulty book: a printing or delivery defect always gets a free reprint, whatever stage it is at.
17
Why is the tax on my order different from someone else’s?
Because sales tax is charged at the rate where the book is delivered, not where we are. The Netherlands applies the reduced 9% book rate, Germany 19%, Canada 13%, and the UK, USA, Australia and Japan charge 0% on printed books. It is the destination's rule, not a surcharge from us, and the final amount is always shown at checkout before you pay.
18
What is the Instagram reel?
It's a free vertical video recap of your trip, rendered right on your device and ready to post to Instagram or anywhere else.
19
Can I use Afterglow on my phone?
Yes — Afterglow runs in your phone's browser, no app store needed, and you can install it to your home screen so it opens like an app. Photos come straight from your camera roll, and HEIC photos convert automatically.
20
How is this different from Polarsteps?
The core difference is timing. Polarsteps records a trip while you're traveling, logging your route live as you go. Afterglow works the opposite way — it rebuilds a trip afterward, from photos you already have, once you're home. See the full comparison for more detail.
21
Can I delete my data?
Yes. You can export any trip as a zip file whenever you like, and delete your account in one click. If you're signed out, your data already lives only in your own browser, so it's yours to clear any time.
22
How do I ask for a feature?
Post it on our public board at afterglow.fider.io or vote for an idea that is already there. The most-wanted ideas get built first. You confirm your email once, and no name is shown to other visitors.