Replit
storage
File Uploads Disappearing on Replit
Users upload files through your app — profile pictures, documents, images — and everything appears to work. But after some time, a restart, or a redeployment, all uploaded files are gone. Users see broken image icons and download links that return 404 errors.
The root cause is that your app saves uploaded files to the container's local filesystem, which is ephemeral on Replit. The AI-generated file upload code typically uses multer, formidable, or similar libraries configured to write files to a local /uploads directory.
Even if your app is on Replit's development mode and files seem to persist for a while, they will eventually be lost when the container cycles or you deploy changes.
Error Messages You Might See
ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/home/runner/uploads/photo.jpg'
404 Not Found: /uploads/document.pdf
Error: Cannot find uploaded file
Broken image icon in browser
Common Causes
- Local disk storage — uploads saved to /uploads or /public/uploads on the ephemeral filesystem
- Multer default config — file upload middleware configured with diskStorage pointing to local directory
- No CDN or cloud storage — the app was not set up with an external file hosting service
- Broken file URLs — files are referenced by local paths that become invalid after restart
- Large files filling disk — uploads consume limited container disk space and trigger cleanup
How to Fix It
- Integrate cloud storage — use AWS S3, Cloudinary, or Supabase Storage to store uploads permanently
- Switch upload middleware — replace multer diskStorage with multer-s3 or a Cloudinary upload stream
- Store URLs in database — save the cloud storage URL in your database instead of a local file path
- Add file size limits — configure maximum upload sizes to prevent disk exhaustion
- Serve files from CDN — use the cloud storage URL directly in your HTML instead of serving from your app
- Migrate existing files — write a one-time script to upload existing local files to cloud storage and update database references
Real developers can help you.
Basel Issmail
’m a Senior Full-Stack Developer and Tech Lead with experience designing and building scalable web platforms. I work across the full development lifecycle, from translating business requirements into technical architecture to delivering reliable production systems.
My work focuses on modern web technologies, including TypeScript, Angular, Node.js, and cloud-based architectures. I enjoy solving complex technical problems and helping teams turn product ideas and prototypes into working platforms that can grow and scale.
In addition to development, I often collaborate closely with product managers, business analysts, designers, and QA teams to ensure that solutions align with both technical and business goals.
I enjoy working with startups and product teams where I can contribute both as a hands-on engineer and as a technical partner in designing and delivering impactful software.
Omar Faruk
As a Product Engineer at Klasio, I contributed to end-to-end product development, focusing on scalability, performance, and user experience.
My work spanned building and refining core features, developing dynamic website templates, integrating secure and reliable payment gateways, and optimizing the overall system architecture.
I played a key role in creating a scalable and maintainable platform to support educators and learners globally.
I'm enthusiastic about embracing new challenges and making meaningful contributions.
Jen Jacobsen
I’m a Full-Stack Developer with over 10 years of experience building modern web and mobile applications. I enjoy working across the full product lifecycle — turning ideas into real, well-built products that are intuitive for users and scalable for businesses.
I particularly enjoy building mobile apps, modern web platforms, and solving complex technical problems in a way that keeps systems clean, reliable, and easy to maintain.
Matthew Jordan
I've been working at a large software company named Kainos for 2 years, and mainly specialise in Platform Engineering. I regularly enjoy working on software products outside of work, and I'm a huge fan of game development using Unity. I personally enjoy Python & C# in my spare time, but I also specialise in multiple different platform-related technologies from my day job.
Anthony Akpan
Developer with 8 years of experience building softwares fro startups
Vlad Temian
15+ years shipping production infrastructure for startups. Former CTO at qed.builders (acquired by The Sandbox).
Cursor ambassador and agentic tooling builder.
I've scaled systems, automated deployments, and built observability tools for AI coding workflows. I specialize in taking vibe-coded apps from broken prototype to production-ready: fixing Supabase auth/RLS, Stripe integrations, deployment pipelines, and cleaning up AI-generated spaghetti.
I build tools in this space (agentprobe, claudebin, micode) and understand both sides: how AI generates code and why it breaks.
https://blog.vtemian.com/
Luca Liberati
I work on monoliths and microservices, backends and frontends, manage K8s clusters and love to design apps architecture
Stanislav Prigodich
15+ years building iOS and web apps at startups and enterprise companies. I want to use that experience to help builders ship real products - when something breaks, I'm here to fix it.
BurnHavoc
Been around fixing other peoples code for 20 years.
Jared Hasson
Full time lead founding dev at a cyber security saas startup, with 10 yoe and a bachelor's in CS. Building & debugging software products is what I've spent my time on for forever
You don't need to be technical. Just describe what's wrong and a verified developer will handle the rest.
Get HelpFrequently Asked Questions
Why do uploaded files disappear on Replit?
Replit containers are ephemeral — the filesystem is rebuilt on each deployment. Files saved to disk at runtime are not part of your source code and get deleted.
What is the easiest cloud storage to set up?
Cloudinary is the easiest for images — it has a free tier and a simple upload API. For general files, Supabase Storage is straightforward and also has a free tier.
Can I store small images in the database instead?
Yes, for small files like avatars (under 1MB), you can store them as base64-encoded strings in your database. This is not recommended for larger files.