Storage limits and how long media stays

How much an album holds

Storage is per event, not per account: 5 GB free, then 50, 100 and 250. When it is used up the event refuses further files even though nothing is wrong with them, and the guest reads that the album has run out of space.

On the free tier a second cap applies at 60 contributions, and it is checked on arrival rather than later.

1. Estimate the video. Video is what fills storage. Photos rarely trouble even 5 GB.
2. Note the expiry date. It is anchored on the event date, so you can work it out the day you create the event.
3. Download in the first week. Do not use the warning emails as your plan.

Hidden contributions still count against storage. Only deleting frees space.

What actually fills it

Video, at a scale photos never reach. Measured across 138 production videos the median is 1.84 MB per second of footage, and a 4K phone writes around 6.7 MB per second — so 20 guests sending a minute each is a different order of magnitude from 200 photos.

A voice note is small: 50 MB is its ceiling and spoken audio never approaches it.

The window runs from the party

Retention is measured from the event date rather than from the day you created or paid for the event. Creating an album 4 months ahead therefore costs you no collecting time, and there is no reason to wait before printing the codes.

A date already in the past starts the clock at creation instead, so an album made the morning after still gets its full window.

The warnings before removal

Email goes out 14 days, 3 days and 1 day before an album is removed. If a run is missed you get 1 message covering the stages you passed rather than 3 at once, and nothing is removed without a warning having been sent.

They are a safety net rather than a plan. Download in the week after the party, while everyone still cares.

What happens at the end

The media is removed, and that includes our side. There is no archive to ask for and no copy sitting somewhere to be restored — the point of a retention window is that it actually ends.

So the download is not tidying up afterwards. It is the thing the whole event was for.

Extending the window

Moving to a longer tier lengthens it, measured from the same anchor, so an upgrade shortly before expiry genuinely buys the difference between the 2 tiers. Moving the event date moves the window with it.

Neither brings back an album that has already passed its grace period.