Storage Quota and Media Uploads

Every easyCMS account has a cloud storage quota for its media library.

Good to know Running out is common, and almost always caused by a handful of uncompressed videos rather than by the number of files.

What each plan includes

Your library, showing how much of the quota is in use.

There is no limit on the number of files. Besides the total quota there are two other ceilings worth knowing about: a maximum size for any single upload, and a maximum pixel dimension for an image. Neither is something you can change from your account, so if a legitimate file is refused for size, tell us what it is rather than assuming the file is broken. Check the current figures on the pricing page, which is the authoritative source.

“You have exceeded your library quota”

The upload is rejected and nothing is lost. You have three options:

1. Clear out what you are not using. Sort the media library by size, largest first, the top five items usually account for most of the quota. A file still used by a layout will not simply delete, and the row menu’s usage report tells you what is holding it. From there you have two choices: retire it, which is the safe one, since existing layouts carry on working while nobody can add it to anything new; or delete it outright and accept that the layouts using it will need fixing.
2. Compress the video. See below. A typical marketing video shrinks by 80–90% with no visible difference on a screen.
3. Upgrade the plan if you genuinely need a larger library.

Deleted media frees the quota immediately, but players keep their local copy until their next check-in. Where the player is out of space rather than the library, the delete form can push the removal straight out to the screens instead of waiting. Use that when a screen has stopped downloading.

Compress video before uploading: always

This is the single highest-value habit in digital signage. Exported video from an editor or a phone is enormously oversized for a screen. Re-encode with HandBrake (free):

• Format: MP4, H.264
• Resolution: 1920 × 1080 maximum, and no larger than the area it plays in
• Bitrate: 2–6 Mbps
• Audio: AAC 128 kbps, or drop it entirely for silent content
• Web optimised: on

A 30-second clip should land around 10–20 MB. If yours is 300 MB, it was never encoded for signage.

Smaller files also download faster to every player, start faster, and are far less likely to stutter on low-cost hardware, see Videos Will Not Play or Stutter.

Images

Images are rarely the problem, but the same principle applies: a 6000-pixel-wide photo from a camera is scaled down to an area a fraction of that size, wasting quota and player memory. Resize to the pixel dimensions it will actually occupy and export as JPEG at around 80% quality, or PNG only where you need transparency.

An upload fails or stalls

• Very large files can time out on a slow connection. Compress first, that fixes it and is worth doing anyway.
• Unsupported formats are rejected. Stick to H.264 MP4 for video and JPEG, PNG or WebP for images. Avoid animated GIFs: they upload happily and then sit still on every player, because none of them play the animation. Export the animation as a short MP4 instead.
• An image that appears to upload but then vanishes is usually over the maximum pixel dimension. Resize it before uploading, which also means you choose the quality rather than letting it be chosen for you.
• A video that does the same is usually a container or codec problem. Re-encode to H.264 MP4 with AAC audio and try again.
• Permissions: a user without library upload rights gets an error that reads like a technical fault. Two different limits can cause it, and they are worth telling apart: the account’s total storage, and an individual user’s own library quota, which can be set lower than the account’s. See users and permissions.

Housekeeping that keeps you under quota

• Delete campaign media when the campaign ends.
• Keep one master copy in your own storage; easyCMS holds the compressed playback copy, not your archive.
• Re-use one video across layouts rather than uploading near-identical variants.
• Review the library once a quarter, sorted by size.

Related articles: Playlists and the Media Library, Videos Will Not Play or Stutter, Users and Permissions