If you would like to do so now, click on this link: free account to be redirected.

What files can I upload?

By having a free account, you will be able to upload files such as music and audio recordings; videos, software and images, and much more.

Please refer to our Terms of Use and our Rights section for more information about the content that users may upload.

What file formats should I use to upload?

There are generally three categories of files that you can use and each has their own format.

They are Data Files, Metadata Files, and Research Files.

If you would like to get the exact details, as well as the tips to managing these files, click on this link, file formats page to go there now.

Is there a video tutorial I can watch to see how to upload?

Yes, there is. The video below will walk you through the basic process for uploading files.

In order to upload files to the internet archive, you need to first be logged or signed in (it means the same thing) to your free account. So let’s go ahead and do just that.

1. Login by clicking on the SIGN IN option. If you do not have a free Internet Archive account, you will be prompted to sign up for one.

2. Enter your account email address and password to the fields provided and click the blue login button.

3. You will be redirected to your home page. You will know you are logged in when the SIGN IN button is replaced by your Username.

4. Select the upload icon between the signed in name and the Search box.

5. You will be directed to a screen where you can select how you would like to upload your files.

Please note: The type of browser you are using will determine which option you select. For most non-internet Explorer users, select the green Upload Files button.

6. You will be asked to either Drag & Drop files from your computer onto the gray box or to select the Choose files to upload button. Both ways will enable you to upload your files.

7. You will be asked to complete the metadata form. This is so that we can archive it and so that others can find your files.

Upload form metadata

Page Title (required) – This will be the title of the item page

Page URL (required) – you need to add an identifier – this is the tail end of the URL of your item pages. It should be 5-80 characters.

We suggest using meaningful words related to the content of the item you are creating.

It needs to be unique on the site.

If it is already in use, the year and month will be appended to your identifier.

We recommend only letters, numbers, dashes or underscores. We strongly prefer using lower case letters.

No special characters. 

Description (required) – Please describe the materials you are uploading. You may add links and text styling. 

Subject Tags (required) – Please add relevant tags. Please do not exceed 10 tags. 

Creator – The person or entity that created the content you are uploading. 

Date – The date the content was created.

Collection – This will automatically be chosen based on the file format you are uploading. There are choices if the auto-selected collection is not what you want. 

Test Item – For uploading test materials. Items uploaded to the test collection will be removed in approximately 30 days. 

Language – This is especially important for text items as it will be used to determine what language should be specified for OCR. Not all languages are OCRable. Handwritten text is not OCRable regardless of language. 

License – From the Creative Commons website: “Creative Commons licenses help you share your work while keeping your copyright. Other people can copy and distribute your work, but only on certain conditions.” You can choose a license to associate with your contribution and this license will be linked to when users see the details page. 

More options – You can add custom metadata pairs. 

8. Click the Upload and Create Your Item button. You will see a status bar which will indicate your page is being created. Please note that this does take some time, depending on the activity of the site.

9. When the item creation tasks are complete, you will automatically be redirected to your new item page. 

10. Several other tasks need to run before the item is complete. This can take seconds, hours or days depending on the amount and type of data uploaded.

Can I batch or bulk upload files?

Yes, you can. But, due to the time it takes to bulk upload files, we recommend using the Internet Archive Command-Line Tool to script your upload.

If you would like to go and find more information about the tool, click this link: Internet Archive Command-line Tool. It does, however, require you to be quite comfortable with Unix.

How do I name my files?

There are certain restrictions around file names.

Support for file names is limited to basic ASCII characters.

Please use only unaccented letters, numbers, dashes, underscores or periods.

Do not use special characters.

Below is an example of good metadata:

The Great Gatsby
https://archive.org/details/the-great-gatsby-fitz

There are several reasons you may not be able to locate the items you created:

• It is possible that the items are not properly indexed. Wait for 24 hours and recheck. If they are still missing, please contact us.
• Items that may violate our terms of use may result in items being removed from the site.
• Claims by rights holders may result in items being removed from the site.

How do I know if my upload failed?

There are generally two ways you will be notified if your upload failed.

1. You will see a Resume button as shown below. This is when the upload failed due to some network interruption.

Click Resume Uploading to continue uploading. If your device has regained network connectivity, you will see the status bar below.

Sometimes you may need to try several times before being successful. If it continually fails the only option is to refresh the page and start the upload again. 

2. You may receive a 503-slowdown-spam message. When this occurs, please click the Details link and send the error message to info@archive.org.

Uploading limit

A single file in an item should not be larger than ~500 to ~700 GB (capacity depends on activity levels and other circumstances, so we recommend using the lower limit of 500GB).

We recommend creating items that have less than 10,000 files, and where the files do not exceed 1TB. While 10,000 files is not a hard limit (the API will allow up to 250,000 files), exceeding that number is likely to disrupt your experience of the item. You may have trouble viewing the files, trouble editing the item, etc.

1. Click on your screen name and select My Library option from the drop-down menu.

2. You will be directed to your profile where you can view all your uploads.

Can I view an item or files history?

Yes, you can. You can view your item or files history by clicking on the item.

You will then see the item and the URL will change to https://archive.org/details/[itemname]

Replace the word details with history in the URL and you will be directed to a page showing you the history.

How long does it take before I or others can view my item?

The time it takes before your item is derived and ready for viewing can vary from a few seconds, hours or sometimes days. Why the large variation? There are a number of factors that have an impact such as the type and size of the files you are uploading.

Is there a limit to the number of files or the size of the file that I can upload?

Currently, there is a 1TB size limit for item pages. However, from a systems perspective, we recommend a maximum of 1000 files or 500GB of data per item page. Keep in mind that most data files that are upload are used to derive multiple files that are used for the site and to allow use if downloaded. So uploading some mediatyprs such as audio can result in a total of 5 or more files created for every uploaded audio file.

This is because items can “break” as well as take a very long time to derive and can often timeout and fail. Some users have managed to upload files larger than 500GB but there is always a risk that these files will cause problems.

What kind of formats do you want me to use or are there any specific ones I shouldn’t upload?

Most typical formats are acceptable but do not upload encrypted or executable files as these may be removed.

We also encourage you to please use high-quality formats as this will affect other users’ experience.

Any tips that will make bulk uploads quicker?

Absolutely, we recommend using our Internet Archive Command-Line Tool. It does, however, require that you are quite comfortable or familiar with Unix.

You can download the tool from GitHub located by clicking on this link: Internet Archive Command-Line Tool.

Can I use accented or special characters in my title or description?

You can use accented and other special characters in your item text and file titles, but you need to make sure you use the XML-safe code for those characters instead of typing them directly into the forms.

Typing accented characters directly into forms can break the xml for your item, making your files unavailable through the site. Instead, you’ll want to use a special code to represent those letters.

You can find a complete listing of these codes by clicking on this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_XML_and_HTML_character_entity_references

Can I add a file or files to an already existing item?

Yes, you can. There are two ways to do this. 

1. Make sure you have located the file you want to edit. You should have selected the file and be on its details page.

2. Scroll down the page and select the Edit option.

3. Select the change the files in my item link.

4. Select the Classic Uploader button

5. The appearance of the button will change once it has been selected.

6. Select the file in the tree root structure below and then click on the Classic Uploader button.

7. You will be then be prompted to ask which file or files you want to upload. Select the file and click open.

8. You will see a notice indicating your files have been uploaded or changed.

9. Select the update item at the bottom of the page to start the new derive task.

10. You will see an indicator telling you the items are being updated.

11. On completion, there will be a window notifying you that the derive task will run on your updated items or you can cancel it. Click the start button.

12. Your items have now been updated.

Which license should I choose?

If you are uncertain which license you should choose, you can go to the Creative Commons free website. Their tool on the site will run you through certain questions that will help you choose the license that will suit your needs.

Their licenses will “help you share your work while keeping your copyright. Other people can copy and distribute your work, but only on certain conditions.” (from the Creative Commons Website)

You can associate the license to your work and it will be displayed on the details page.

You can go to the Creative Commons Website by clicking on this link: Creative Commons Website

What is the “Test Collection” or “Test Item” for?

This functionality allows you to test an item for uploading and viewing. The item will automatically be removed from the site after approximately 30 days.

Why do I encounter an error when uploading a meta.xml file?

This is because the architecture does not support the uploading of meta.xml files.

We would not discourage bulk upload so long as the materials meet the above criteria as well as these:
• Items should be thematically cohesive

• Items are organized efficiently: 

• Serial (magazines), volume (multi-volume works), or chapter/track (albums, cds, etc.) are uploaded to a single item rather than many items
• Uploaded files to items do not exceed either 500 files or 500GB of data
• Large numbers of files that deserve to be together are zipped and you upload the zip file(s)
• Uploads do not exceed 5,000 files per day (regardless of the number of items that are created.) In this context, a zip file is considered one file
• Uploads do not exceed TK of data per day.

I want to preserve materials I’m afraid might be permanently lost

While we strive to preserve materials that are at risk of being lost we do not want to mirror items that are online without actual evidence that their removal is imminent.

To that end we ask that if you believe online materials are at risk and you wish to preserve them if they are removed please keep a copy locally on your own drives. If the items are removed or deleted from the site you are then welcome to upload them. Please include evidence that they were online but have been removed.

Additionally, if you are concerned about materials status we’d suggest discussing mirroring it with the owner of the materials and request that the owner talk with us.

Uploading them prior to that may result in their removal from archive.org and your account being locked.