Is there a limit in the number of attachments in the files folder?

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cactux
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Is there a limit in the number of attachments in the files folder?

Post by cactux »

Hello,

It seems that all attachments are directly stored as files in the /files/ folder, without subfolders.
Is there a limit?
I plan to migrate a forum with more than 173.000 files, and I am wondering if this could be an issue. If so, is there any precautions I should take?

Thanks
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Mick
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Re: Is there a limit in the number of attachments in the files folder?

Post by Mick »

Physically no (it's in the billions anyway) but hosts may put a limit on it, it's best to check with them.
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Re: Is there a limit in the number of attachments in the files folder?

Post by [Dimetrodon] »

Hello.

Many hosts I have encountered heavily restrict it to something in the 10s of MB.
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Re: Is there a limit in the number of attachments in the files folder?

Post by KevC »

Realistically, is anyone actually going to ever look at any of the oldest 100,000 or 150,000 of those again?

I've trashed attachments from more than 2 years old on boards before to save space and no one has ever said a file is missing.
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Re: Is there a limit in the number of attachments in the files folder?

Post by [Dimetrodon] »

KevC wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2023 2:47 pm I've trashed attachments from more than 2 years old on boards before to save space and no one has ever said a file is missing.
Not going to lie though, in an era of multi-tb hard drives, storage of only a few mb does strike me as pretty small.
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Re: Is there a limit in the number of attachments in the files folder?

Post by KevC »

Depends what they are. If people upload photos taken straight from an SLR they can easily be huge. A lot of PDFs with images are not small either.
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Re: Is there a limit in the number of attachments in the files folder?

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

some hosts have limits on the number of "nodes" you can have in your account (whatever a node is)
somtimes either the host or the ftp software limits the number of files to 9999 plus 1 for the folder for a total of 10000 files.

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Re: Is there a limit in the number of attachments in the files folder?

Post by Mick »

[Dimetrodon] wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2023 3:07 pmstorage of only a few mb does strike me as pretty small
Physical available size is only part of the story, another factor is the load placed on a server when it's having to search through hundreds of thousands of file names. That’s why hosts place limits.
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Re: Is there a limit in the number of attachments in the files folder?

Post by cactux »

Thanks a lot for the answer, and the discussion. Interesting ;-)

In my case, the forum hosts many photos of plants, covering of trips, visits in fields or collections, etc: I think I must keep them.
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Re: Is there a limit in the number of attachments in the files folder?

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

until you get to 10000 don't worry about it.

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Re: Is there a limit in the number of attachments in the files folder?

Post by cactux »

Lumpy Burgertushie wrote: Wed Mar 15, 2023 2:42 am until you get to 10000 don't worry about it
I am already at almost 200 000 on a forum I plan to migrate to phpBB...
Should I expect to run into some problems?
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Re: Is there a limit in the number of attachments in the files folder?

Post by warmweer »

cactux wrote: Wed Mar 15, 2023 5:36 am I am already at almost 200 000 on a forum I plan to migrate to phpBB...
Should I expect to run into some problems?
That probably depends on the host settings.
IIRC last year I upgraded a board with more than 100.000 attachments (not sure how many exactly but I remember cursing at the time needed to transfer everything by FTP ..twice) and the board upgraded just fine.
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Re: Is there a limit in the number of attachments in the files folder?

Post by Mick »

Mick wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2023 8:35 amhosts may put a limit on it, it's best to check with them
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Re: Is there a limit in the number of attachments in the files folder?

Post by JLA »

I'm thinking the current version should be able to support unlimited attachements. With attachment mod on phpbb2 we have over 217 million attachments and it works fine. The only limits you should encounter on either version would be host limited or storage limits. One thing to keep in mind in a WAMP environment, you can run into limits on how many attachments are stored in a single folder in the Windows file system if the attachments are too large. The fix is to just have multiple attachment folders or if possible compress the attachments to a smaller size so you do not hit the limit.
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