# :material-heart-pulse: Check Alive

**Check Alive** is the plugin's "are you still around?" mechanism. It is available in **advanced mode**.

![Advanced mode toggle](../img/settings-advanced-mode.png){ .screenshot }
*Advanced mode exposes Check Alive and the other fine-grained parameters.*

## What it does

Check Alive is a **warning threshold placed before your delivery date**. While the threshold is still in the future, nothing special happens: ordinary changes just refresh the will, anticipated by one day. Once the threshold has passed, the plugin tells you that the Check Alive threshold has passed and that you have to **invalidate your old will**, so that the delivery date can be pushed out — because you are evidently still alive.

The check runs when you **close** the wallet, not when you open it.

![Check Alive parameter](../img/settings-check-alive.png){ .screenshot }
*The threshold can be expressed as a relative period or an absolute date.*

## Example

You set a delivery date **2 years** out, with Check Alive at **6 months**. The threshold is therefore the delivery date minus 6 months: month 18.

| What you do | What happens |
|---|---|
| You close Electrum at month 3, 9 or 15 | Nothing special — the threshold is still ahead. If something changed, the will is refreshed and anticipated by one day |
| You close Electrum at month 19 | The threshold has passed: the plugin asks you to **invalidate your old will** and sign a new one with a later date |
| You stop using Electrum altogether | Nothing postpones the will. On the delivery date, the Will-Executors broadcast it |

If you accept the prompt when it comes, the will is pushed out and never executed. If you stop, the last date stands.

## Calendar reminders

In advanced mode the plugin can export **`.ics` calendar reminders** spread across the Check Alive window (3 by default). The last one falls the day before the delivery date, so you are reminded before it is too late.

!!! warning "A date in the past does not switch it off"
    In advanced mode, a Check Alive **date in the past** counts as a threshold that has already passed: the plugin asks you to invalidate your will straight away. To test the plugin with a delivery time only a few hours away, use **basic mode** instead: there Check Alive is hidden and inactive, and never forces a postponement.

!!! warning "Postponing is not free"
    Invalidating the previously committed transaction is an on-chain transaction and costs a miner fee. See [Postponing vs anticipating](updating.md#postponing-vs-anticipating).