Uploading your own files

MotherFluxer is not just for what you generate from chat. You can bring your own files in too, edit them with the same tools, and organize them right alongside your AI-generated work.

Can I upload my own files?

Yes. Bring in your own files to use as a starting point or reference, then generate and edit from there — they become artifacts just like the ones you make from chat.

How to upload

You can add your own files in two places:

• Into the Artifacts gallery. Open Artifacts, select + Artifact at the top right, then choose Upload and pick your file. It lands in your gallery as a new artifact and opens straight in its editor.
• Into a project. Open the project and select the + beside its Artifacts heading, then choose Upload a new artifact. It joins that project immediately. The same window also lets you add an artifact you already have instead.

Once a file is uploaded, it behaves like any other artifact: open it, edit it with Smart Edit or Direct Edit, save a version, or Publish it when it's ready to share.

If you open a file before it has finished being prepared — a document still being read, for example — the editor shows a ring in the middle of the screen and opens the file by itself the moment it's ready. There's nothing to refresh. If something went wrong while the file was being made, the editor says so — This couldn't be finished — instead of waiting, because there's nothing it could open.

What you can bring

Upload the file types MotherFluxer already works with:

• Images — photos, artwork, screenshots, and other still images.
• Video — clips you want to trim, restyle, or build on.
• Audio — tracks and recordings.
• Documents — text-based files you want to read, edit, or reference.
• 3D models — GLB files you want to view, restyle, or animate. A glTF model has to arrive as a single GLB file: a .gltf file, which points at separate texture and geometry files, can't be uploaded.

After uploading, your file is a first-class artifact. You can run the full editing toolset on it exactly as you would on something generated in chat.

When the preview picture appears

Every artifact shows a small preview picture in your gallery and in chat. For images, videos and 3D models you upload, that preview is now made on your own device as the file uploads — so it is usually there the moment the upload finishes, rather than appearing a little later.

A few things worth knowing:

• Occasionally it still takes a moment. Some file types can't be read by your browser, and a few older or unusual formats can't be read on your device at all. When that happens the preview is made for you in the background instead, and it fills in shortly after.
• A video your browser can't play arrives without a preview. Some phones record in a format only some browsers can play. That video still uploads, and opens with its length and size known, but its preview picture appears the first time a device that can play it shows it.
• A video's preview comes from a moment about one second in, the same frame it always used. Your device also works out the video's length, size and frame rate while it uploads, so opening it in the editor no longer waits for that to be measured elsewhere.
• A 3D model shows "Preparing…" while its picture is being drawn. Drawing a model takes a little longer than an image. If a model can't be drawn on your device, it falls back to a plain file icon rather than waiting forever.
• A 3D model also gets a lighter copy made for viewing. Models often arrive very large, so the first place that shows one — its preview, the editor, a picture it is placed in — builds a smaller version alongside the original, once, and every view afterwards loads that instead. It is quicker to appear and looks the same, even full screen in the editor. Your original file is never replaced: it is what Smart Edit works from and what you download. If the lighter copy can't be made, or won't load, the model simply opens from its original.
• Nothing is lost either way. The preview is only a picture of your file — if it takes a moment or never appears, your file itself is uploaded and completely intact.

What format your pictures are kept in

MotherFluxer keeps every picture you upload in an everyday format. A JPEG, PNG or WebP picture is kept exactly as it is.

Any other kind of picture — HEIC (an iPhone's own photos), AVIF, TIFF, BMP, GIF or SVG — is converted on your own device as you upload it, before the file leaves it, into a JPEG, or a PNG when the picture has transparent areas, and only the converted picture is kept. The same happens wherever you bring a picture in: the gallery, a project, a chat, or a comment or message attachment. An App's Assets are the one exception: a picture every browser already shows — JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF (an animated one stays animated) or AVIF — is kept exactly as given, and only HEIC, TIFF, BMP and SVG are converted there. An editor's Browse lists JPEG, PNG and WebP pictures when you choose a file, and converts any other picture your device lets you pick the same way, apart from an SVG on an Image or a Video, which comes in as items you can edit. What converting keeps, and what it doesn't:

• A GIF keeps its first frame, as a still picture.
• An SVG becomes a picture 2048 pixels on its longer side, in its own shape.
• A photo that holds HDR — brighter-than-white highlights — keeps them: an iPhone's own photos and HDR AVIF files become a JPEG that carries their HDR, so they still show their full brightness on a screen that can. An HDR picture with transparent areas becomes a PNG that keeps both its HDR and its transparency.
• Wide colour is kept. A photo in a wider colour range than standard (the Display P3 colour every recent phone camera shoots) stays in that range.
• Photo details are not carried over. A converted picture is the picture alone, already the right way up: the date it was taken, the camera and the place stay with your original file.
• Downloading the picture gives you the kept copy — the JPEG or PNG, not the file you started from.

A picture a look or a brush draws with is kept small. A Weather look's Sprite, a Displace look's Map picture (once its Field is Map), the Paper picture in a look's Film section, the Screen picture in its Print section, a stamp brush's Picture and the Picture an animated item throws off from its Emit section all offer the same choice — besides the ready-made pictures, one you upload, one of your images, or an emoji, icon or shape — and keep your picture no larger than 256 pixels on its longer side. A JPEG, PNG or WebP already that small is kept exactly as it is; any other picture, or a larger one, is converted on your device to fit within that size as a standard-colour picture, so a photo's HDR and wide colour aren't carried into it.

An SVG or a Lottie file brought into an editor stays editable. On an Image or a Video, Upload under Browse takes an SVG as things you can edit rather than a picture of it: shapes, drawings, pictures and text, grouped where the file groups them, selected, in one step Undo takes back. On a Video it takes a Lottie file the same way, at the playhead, and what moves in the file lands as curves on each item's Automate. Whatever a file holds that these can't, the editor names once, Brought in. Left behind: and the list. A file it can't read says That file isn't one this editor can read., and one that holds too much says That file is too large to bring in. A Document's Browse offers neither kind.

A picture your browser can't convert

Because the converting happens in your browser, a few pictures can't be uploaded from some browsers. When that happens the upload stops before it starts — nothing is stored or counted against your space — and the message says what to do instead:

• HEIC photos (an iPhone's own format) convert in Safari, and in Chrome or Edge on a Mac or a Windows PC. Other browsers, such as Firefox, can't read them.
• TIFF pictures convert in Safari only.
• Some HDR pictures can't be converted without losing their HDR — a HEIF photo a camera saved in HLG or PQ, or an HDR AVIF in a browser that can't read its HDR, such as Safari — so they're refused rather than flattened.
• A picture too large for your device to convert is refused — a phone or tablet holds less of a picture at once than a computer. Photos straight from a phone camera are never too large.
• A converted picture past its format's limit is refused too: a very large photo can outgrow it once converted. A picture converted to a JPEG can be up to 25 MB; one converted to a PNG — a picture with transparent areas — can be up to 128 MB.

In every case you can save the picture as a JPEG first — your phone's or computer's photo app can export one — and upload that.

A conversion that stops partway for some other reason — the browser runs out of time or memory — is not a refusal: the upload says it failed rather than sending you to another browser, and trying again in the same browser can work.

Finding your uploads later

Your uploads sit in the same Artifacts gallery and projects as everything you generate — there's no separate list for them, so you can mix, match, and edit freely. To find one again:

• Search by name. Type part of the file's name into the search box at the top of Artifacts.
• Filter by type. Narrow the gallery to Images, Videos, Documents, or any other type.
• Sort by date. Newest first puts the files you just brought in at the top.

Uploads and your storage limit

Uploaded files count toward your storage limit, just like the artifacts you generate. The more — and the larger — the files you keep, the more of your storage they use.

A few things to know:

• Uploads use storage immediately. As soon as a file is in your gallery or a project, it counts.
• When you hit your limit, uploads are blocked. If your storage is full, MotherFluxer won't accept new uploads until you free up space.
• Free up space to keep uploading. Delete artifacts you no longer need to make room, then try your upload again.

If you regularly bump into the limit, check your storage usage from your account to see what's taking up space and decide what to clear.

How big a file can be

Each file has its own ceiling, set by its kind:

• Images — up to 25 MB each, apart from PNG. That covers a photo straight from a current phone camera, including the 48-megapixel frames an iPhone or a Pixel takes, in JPEG or in the phone's own HEIC format — upload them as they are, without converting first. MotherFluxer converts them for you, in any browser that can read them.
• PNG pictures — up to 128 MB each. A PNG is how a picture with transparent areas is kept, and a large photo with transparency needs the room.
• Audio, PDFs and office documents — up to 25 MB each.
• Plain-text documents (text, Markdown, CSV, JSON and the like) — up to 5 MB each.
• 3D models — up to 100 MB each.
• Video — up to 5 GB each.

A file past its ceiling is refused before it starts, with a message naming the limit for that kind of file. Shrink it — a shorter clip, a smaller export — and upload again.

A JPEG, PNG or WebP you bring into an editor through Browse becomes part of what you are editing rather than a file of its own, so it can be up to 128 MB.

What an App's Assets accept

An App keeps its own pictures, video, sound and other files in its Assets, and a file you put there — with Upload or From my artifacts in the App editor, or with Add to an App… from another editor's Export — becomes a file of that App, not an artifact: it doesn't appear in your Artifacts gallery, and a copy of the App carries it. An App's Assets take:

• Pictures — the same kinds and limits as any upload: up to 25 MB each, or 128 MB for a PNG. A JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF or AVIF is kept exactly as given — an animated GIF stays animated — and any other picture is converted on your device first, so an SVG or a HEIC arrives as a still JPEG or PNG.
• Video — MP4, WebM, QuickTime or Matroska files, up to 150 MB each. That is far less than a Video artifact's 5 GB, because your App's page sends the whole file to every visitor who plays it.
• Audio — up to 25 MB each.
• Documents — PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint files up to 25 MB each, and plain-text files (text, Markdown, CSV, JSON and the like) up to 5 MB each.
• 3D models — GLB files, up to 100 MB each.
• Caption files — SRT and WebVTT, up to 5 MB each, for a video on your App's pages. Only an App takes these; they can't be uploaded as an artifact.

Anything else — a font, a zip, a MIDI file — is refused before anything is uploaded ("That type of file isn’t supported here."), and a file past its limit is refused naming the limit for its kind.

An App's files don't count toward your storage limit. A new one is still refused when your storage is full, or when the file would take it past the limit — free up space first.

An upload was rejected

If an upload won't go through, you've most likely hit your storage limit. Each plan includes a set amount of space, and new uploads stop once you're full.

To get unblocked:

• Free up space. Delete artifacts you no longer need from Artifacts or Projects.
• Add more storage if you need the room permanently.
• Add fewer or smaller files in a single upload.

Once you're back under your limit, the upload will succeed.

A single file can also be refused on its own size, whatever your storage says — see How big a file can be for each kind's ceiling.

A brief drop in your internet connection won't stop an upload on its own — MotherFluxer quietly tries again a few times first. If your connection stays down, the upload stops with an error; reconnect and try it again.