> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://hatchbox.gitbook.io/hatchbox/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://hatchbox.gitbook.io/hatchbox/apps/file-uploads.md).

# File Uploads

## Does Hatchbox support file uploads?

Of course! If you handle file uploads using direct uploads, you're already good to go.

You can also upload files directly to your server. This works only if you have a single web server though. Depending on your file upload utility, make sure that your public upload folder is **not** tracked in git. Every release symlinks your uploads folder to a shared directory so that your files continue to be accessible after every deploy. Common folders that are automatically symlinked:

* public/system
* public/uploads
* /storage

If you do have these folders tracked in git, make sure to remove them and redeploy your application after pushing the changes up to git.

If you have multiple web servers in your cluste&#x72;**,** make sure to use a shared storage location like Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, or some other location. This way your files will always be accessible when they are requested. If you stored them on disk, your file might be saved to one web server, but the load balancer might send the request for the file to another web server, resulting in a 404. That's why you'll need a shared storage location as you scale up.


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