What are the photo and file limits?

Photo limits

• Maximum 20 MB and 8,000 pixels on the longest side per image.
• Accepted formats: JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, TIFF, and AVIF.
• Free accounts: 3 photos per event and 500 MB of total storage.
• Premium accounts: 10 photos per event and 10 GB of total storage.
• There is also an hourly upload rate limit, so a very large bulk upload may ask you to pause and continue later.

What happens to your photos on upload

Photos are converted to WebP for storage, which is why an uploaded file usually takes less of your quota than the original did.

Embedded metadata is stripped in the process. That protects the GPS coordinates and camera details buried in your originals, but it also means LifeCharted does not read a photo's date to place it for you — you attach photos to the event you choose. Keep your originals if that metadata matters to you.

Automated content screening

Uploads pass through automated screening. Images containing explicit content are rejected outright with a message explaining why.

A small number of borderline images are held for review rather than rejected; you will see an "under review" response and the photo will not appear on the event yet. This is rare and applies to the image only — nothing else about your account is affected.

Attaching documents

Events can also hold documents, not just photos. Open an event and use "Attach a document" to add a PDF or Word file — a diploma, a discharge paper, a letter, a certificate.

Documents are capped at 25 MB each, with 3 per event on Free and 10 on Premium. They draw on the same storage pool as your photos.

Rules of Thumb

• Attach the few photos that carry the memory rather than the whole roll — per-event caps are low by design.
• Keep your originals somewhere else; LifeCharted stores a converted copy with metadata removed.
• If an upload fails, check the file size first — 20 MB for images and 25 MB for documents are the hard stops.

Common Mistakes

• Expecting a photo's date to place it on the timeline automatically — metadata is stripped, so you choose the event.
• Treating LifeCharted as a photo backup. It is a place for the handful of images that belong to a chapter, not your whole library.