File types and upload limits

The formats we read

We accept what phones actually produce. HEIC is the iPhone default and needs no conversion; MOV likewise for video. Every file is checked at its header rather than its extension, which is why a renamed format does not get through and a corrupted one is caught in the same place.

Anything outside the list is refused on arrival. For guests that is a non-issue, since their phones make nothing else; it matters when exporting from an editing app.

1. Check the format. Whatever a phone records goes through. Renaming a file achieves nothing.
2. Check the size. Photos 25 MB, voice notes 50 MB. For video look at the length first; it pulls the size along.
3. Hold it against the plan. Video length, storage and item count come from the event plan, not from the guest s device.

MP3 is not on the list. To upload a finished audio file, export it as M4A or WAV.

The file sizes

Each kind has a ceiling, and for photos and voice notes it is the same on every plan. For video it is derived from the permitted recording length: sized so a clip of that length fits at a normal data rate. The 2 numbers therefore cannot drift apart.

What is checked is the actual file on the server, not the figure the phone declares. A device that misreports does not get through on that basis.

Only video reaches a ceiling in practice. Photos and voice notes stay well below theirs.

What comes from the plan

3 limits follow the event plan rather than the guest s device: the recording length of a video, the album s storage, and — on the free tier only — the number of contributions. Changing plan before the party lifts them together; changing it afterwards comes too late for the uploads already refused.

The length of a voice note belongs here too: 30 seconds free, no time limit on the paid tiers.

The contribution cap exists on the free tier only. From Essential upwards storage is the single ceiling.

Setting your own limits

You can set the video length and the voice-note length lower for your event, whatever the plan allows. That helps when you want many short contributions rather than a few long ones, or when the venue network cannot carry anything large.

Upwards is not possible. What the plan does not give cannot be set on the event.

The same file twice

If a guest sends the same picture a second time, no second entry appears. Every file gets a checksum on arrival, and within one event an identical file counts exactly once — against the count and against storage alike.

That saves you tidying up after somebody who was unsure the first attempt had worked and simply tapped again.

When storage runs out

Once storage is exhausted the event refuses further files even though nothing is wrong with them. The guest reads that the album has run out of space and to ask the host. For you that is the point where a plan change helps faster than any explanation.

On the free tier the 60-contribution cap applies as well, and it is checked on arrival rather than later.