# Collect files

Add a file question to your form, choose what it takes, and open the files people send.

Add a **File Upload** question from the **Media & Attachments** group in the builder. People can drop a file on it or choose one, and watch it upload before they send the form.

## Choose what it takes

- **Accepted file types:** switch on a whole group (Images, PDF, Documents...) by its name, or pick single extensions inside it, such as only `.docx`. A file of another kind is refused. So is a file whose name says one kind but whose content is another. Files that can run as a page or a program (like `.html` or `.exe`) are not offered.
- **Allow several files:** lets a person add more than one file to the question. It is on the Business plan. Without it the question takes one file.
- **Minimum and maximum number of files:** with several files on, the fewest and the most files one answer may hold (2 to 50). Find them in the question's **Validation** tab. The minimum counts once someone adds a file; to make the question itself required, use **Required**.
- **Open the camera on phones:** on a phone, it asks the browser to open the camera straight away. What happens is up to the phone: on many phones a person cannot pick a photo they already have, so turn it on only when you want a new photo. On a computer it does nothing.

## How big a file can be

Your plan sets the most one file can weigh: 10 MB on Free, 25 MB on Pro and 40 MB on Business. In the question's **Validation** tab, **Maximum file size** lets you ask for less, for example 2 MB for a photo. It can never be more than your plan takes. A smaller limit is better: people compress their files before they add them, uploads are faster, and your storage lasts longer. If you leave it empty, the question takes what your plan takes.

## What people see

- The line under the drop zone says which kinds of file the question takes and how big a file can be, so nobody has to guess. The file picker only shows those kinds.
- A row for each file, with its progress, a check when it is done, and a button to remove it.
- A file that was cut off by a lost connection shows a button to send it again.
- The form cannot be sent while a file is still on its way.

## Open the files you receive

Open your form's **Responses**. The file question shows the name and size of each file. Click a name: an image or a PDF opens in a new tab, any other file downloads.

## Good to know

- A file that someone adds but never sends with the form is removed after a day.
- On a page of your own, the form with a file question needs the Invoy script (the HTML form from the Share page already includes it): it sends the files first, then the answer. Without the script, a plain HTML form cannot send files.
- If your plan ends, a question that took several files takes one again. Its setting comes back when you upgrade.
- When a workspace stays locked for 45 days, its forms, answers and files are deleted. Open the files you need before then. See [When your plan ends or goes down](https://form.invoy.in/docs/guides/plan-ends/).