Your tracks are on a 14-day clock (and most people don't notice until it's too late)
Here’s something that catches a lot of people off guard.
You upload a rough mix to PasteWaves, paste the link into Discord, your bandmate gives you feedback, and you forget about it. Three weeks later you go back to find the track — and it’s gone.
Not because anything went wrong. Because that’s exactly how free accounts work, and the expiry counter started the moment you hit upload.
Why files expire
PasteWaves is built on a shared 1TB community storage pool. Every file that lives on the platform holds a piece of that pool. The way we keep it free for everyone is by recycling space — temporary files expire on a rolling basis, freeing up room for the next upload.
The retention clock depends on how you’re using the service:
| How you upload | Files kept for |
|---|---|
| Anonymous (no account) | 7 days |
| Signed in — free account | 14 days |
| Pro account | Forever (up to 25GB) |
The 14-day window is generous compared to most temporary file hosts. But it’s still a clock. And it’s counting down right now on anything you’ve uploaded in the last two weeks.
The thing that surprises people most
The countdown doesn’t reset if someone listens to the file. It doesn’t extend if the link gets shared around. It’s anchored to when the file was uploaded — full stop.
So if you uploaded a podcast draft on May 5th, it expired on May 19th. Whether or not you or anyone else was still using that link.
How to see what’s about to expire
If you’re signed in, go to /my-files. Sort by “Expiring Soon.” The files with the least time left sit at the top.
We also show a warning banner when something’s within 24 hours of disappearing. It’s hard to miss when it fires — amber, prominent, right at the top of the page. But by 24 hours before, the window to act is already pretty narrow.
The smarter move: check your files every week or two, not every day. Anything you want to keep long-term, mark it permanent (Pro only) or download a local copy before the clock runs out.
When the free tier is the right call
The 14-day window is honestly fine for most use cases:
- Sharing a rough mix with your bandmate before a session
- Sending a voice memo to someone who needs to hear it once
- Passing a podcast episode draft to your editor for review
- Getting quick feedback on an idea that might not go anywhere
If the file is ephemeral by nature — meant for a specific person at a specific moment — 14 days is plenty.
When you’ll want to stop the clock
If you’re building up a body of work — tracks you want to be able to come back to, share with new people three months from now, or reference later — the 14-day window becomes a liability.
That’s where Pro comes in. $5/month (or $48/year) moves you to 25GB of permanent storage. Files you mark permanent don’t expire. Ever. The countdown stops.
It’s also worth upgrading if:
- You work in bursts (upload a bunch of tracks, then not touch the account for a month — by the time you’re back, the free-tier files are gone)
- You’re sharing with people who listen on their own schedule and might come back to a link weeks later
- You care about 320kbps quality (free tier encodes at 128kbps)
The short version
Free accounts get 14 days. Anonymous uploads get 7. The clock starts at upload and doesn’t stop.
If you’ve got tracks sitting in /my-files you want to keep, check them now. If anything important is getting close to expiry, either download it or upgrade before it’s gone.
And if you’re the type who uploads consistently and wants to stop managing the clock altogether — Pro is $5/month and the first file you save permanently will justify it.