Draft, live, paused and closed

Every study has a status: Draft, Live, Paused or Closed. The status decides who can join and send answers. This article explains each one and how to move between them.

Change the status

1. Open the study's Overview tab.
2. Look at the Study status card at the top.
3. Click the button you need: Go live, Pause, Resume, Close the study or Reopen.

Only the buttons that fit the current status are shown. Owners and researchers can change the status.

Draft

Every new study starts as a draft. Real participants cannot join or answer yet, and only test participants can be invited. Use this time to set up the study and try every task on a phone. See Test participants.

Tasks and participant groups can only be deleted while a study is a draft.

Checks before going live

While a study is a draft, the status card lists anything that needs attention. Each item has a Fix or Check link.

These stop the study going live:

• The consent form is not published.
• There is no task with at least one question.
• The fieldwork end date has passed.

While any of these remain, Go live cannot be clicked. When there is nothing to list, the card says "Everything is ready."

These are worth a look, but do not stop you:

• A task has no questions yet. Participants do not see tasks without questions.
• Translations are not complete. Missing texts show in the main language.
• The published consent form has no title or information text in one of the study's languages.

Live

Click Go live when you are ready. Participants can now be invited, join and send answers. The study gets a red recording dot in the menu, and the status card shows when it went live.

Paused

Click Pause to stop answers for a while, for example to fix a task. Participants see a short note and cannot send answers. Test participants still can. Click Resume to make the study live again.

Closed

Click Close the study, then Yes, close it. Participants can no longer sign in or send answers. Everything already sent stays in Zolensa for now, and you can still review and export it.

Videos, photos and answers are deleted the number of days after closing that you set in the study details. The status card shows this number and the date, for example "participant data will be deleted on 12 Mar 2027. Export what you need before then." Seven days before that date, owners and the study's researchers get a warning email, and another one when the data has been deleted. The study is then archived and no longer shown in your list. See Data privacy and retention.

To keep the data longer, change the number of days in Edit study details before that date, if your consent wording allows it.

Closed studies do not use up places on a paid plan. See Plans and billing.

Click Reopen to make a closed study live again. The same checks as for going live apply.

Test participants

Test participants are people from your team. They can be invited and answer while a study is a draft or paused, as well as when it is live. Their answers are marked Test. On a free trial they do not count towards your participant limit.

When a plan has ended

If your free trial has ended, or your workspace's plan has ended or is paused, you cannot go live, resume or reopen a study. You see a message that explains why. Everything stays visible and exportable.