FAQ & troubleshooting

It is written to Arweave, a network built to keep data permanently, funded up front by the one-time storage cost. It also gets an IPFS backup (for files up to 1 GB). Neither depends on Aeterna continuing to exist.

No. Permanent storage cannot be undone by anyone. If a file might need to disappear, don't store it — or encrypt it, so what stays forever is unreadable.

No. Sign in with Google, Apple or email, and pay for storage by card. If you have a wallet, you can sign in with it instead. A wallet is only required to mint a pass for anonymous access.

As large as your storage balance allows. Encryption and the IPFS backup are available up to 1 GB per file. See Uploading files.

If you uploaded it from this browser and haven't cleared its data, open the file from your vault — the browser may still have the key. Otherwise it cannot be recovered, by us or anyone. That is what makes the encryption trustworthy.

Every file has its own key. Make sure you're using the key for this exact transaction, and that nothing was cut off when copying it.

We never learn an encrypted file's name. Only the browser that uploaded it knows it, from the key it kept. Open the file with its key to see its name.

Return to the Aeterna tab — the balance refreshes when you come back — or click the refresh button next to it. Payments usually clear within seconds.

Space is reserved when an upload starts. Upload the same file again: a retry of the same file is never charged twice.

Arweave settles uploads over a few minutes, sometimes longer when the network is busy. The file already has a transaction ID and can be shared in the meantime.

That message means the service's own storage funding needs topping up, not your balance. Please let us know through Support.