Subscribers can open a preference center from any email, change which lists they hear from, update the profile fields you choose to show, download their data or delete it. The link is signed and expires after 180 days. Unsubscribe still works without an expiry, because a person must always be able to opt out.
Where subscribers find it
Every sent email includes a manage preferences link. If your template already contains {{preferences}}, that is the link. If it does not, the platform adds a small "Manage preferences" link next to unsubscribe. The link uses your tracking domain, is signed for that recipient and that send, and cannot be reused as an unsubscribe link or a view-in-browser link.
On the unsubscribe confirmation page there is also a manage preferences link, so someone who clicked unsubscribe by mistake can turn individual lists back on. One-click unsubscribe itself is unchanged: the first click still opts them out.
A double opt-in confirmation email does not include a working preference link. That person is not subscribed yet.
Test sends leave the tag as #. It is only replaced on a real send.
What they can change
The page has four parts:
- Subscriptions. The lists that address is already on, except platform lists. They can pause one list, turn it back on, or leave all of them. The page never signs anyone up to a list they were not on, and it does not show the names of your other lists. An address that bounced, was blacklisted or complained cannot be switched back to active from this page.
- Profile. Email is always shown and cannot be edited. First name and last name are shown unless you turn them off. Custom fields appear only when you enable them for that list.
- My data. A JSON download of the data you store about that address: profile and custom fields per list, consent history, emails sent, opens and clicks, form submissions, website activity, automation enrollments, carts and orders from a connected shop, and earlier data requests. The file opens with who the data controller is (your company name, address, email and privacy policy from Settings, GDPR), why the data is processed, how long it is kept, and the person's rights. Fill in the GDPR settings, or those lines are empty.
- Delete. A permanent deletion. This cannot be hidden. It is the data-subject right, not a profile field.
The page is always shown in English, whatever the subscriber's language field says. If you need a preference page in another language, link to your own page in the footer instead of {{preferences}}.
First name and last name are saved on every list that holds that email address on your account. Other customers' lists are never touched. {{firstName}} is read from the list a message is sent to, so a name stored on only one list would be missing everywhere else.
Choose which fields appear
Open Lists, then the list menu, then Preference center.
- First name and Last name apply to the whole account. Turning one off on any list turns it off on every list.
- Each custom field has its own switch, and it starts off. A field such as Language stays hidden until you enable it on that list. The same field can be on for one list and off for another.
- Fields are created under Edit list. The preference page only decides whether subscribers can see them.
- Company name, logo and color come from your GDPR and brand settings. They are not edited on this page.
When a subscriber saves a custom field, the server checks that the list belongs to your account, that the field exists on that list, that you enabled it, and that the value matches the field type. A hidden field is not returned to the page and cannot be written by calling the endpoint directly.
Links in templates
Place {{preferences}} on a button or text link, the same way you place {{unsubscribe}}. Both are signed per recipient. See the merge tag reference for the full list.