BH Terms of Service on the File Count

[farcaster]

I originally posted this in a reply to another thread here. I realized later that it may not be seen by many since the subject line doesn't reference a file count or TOS's. So here it is in its own thread.
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Okay - In order to get the facts about this subject I made a visit to the Live Chat button and posed the question to the TOS Department. I had quite a pleasant chat with a rep there who's name I will omit, but I have permission from him to quote what was given to me. So here is the current situation - edited to present the facts, not the chit-chat we had.

Me: There seems to be on going discussions on what the TOS provides, and doesn't provide, when it comes to the number of files that are allowed on an account. A while back this seemed to change to 50,000. Then is was said it was up to 200,000. Now a discussion is going on that is saying that there isn't a limit of 50K, but if that is exceeded then your account/site won't be backed up by BH. The statement in the TOS itself is vague. I'm here to try to find out the true story. [snip]

TOS Department: 50,000 is our "target performance goal" 200,000 is our file limit.

TOS Department: At 50,001 files our system will no longer backup the account automatically and will show the file count in red in the control panel.

TOS Department: At 200,001 the account will be sent a warning and then 2 weeks later if it is not resolved the account will be suspended. So the file limit is 200,000.

Me: That's what we need! Can I quote the TOS department on the forums?

TOS Department: You can use this info in the forum, that is fine.

As I said, I have left a lot out of this post as it was just chat back and forth that isn't pertinent here.

The process sounds automated. I can't expect that someone does count checks every day and takes any manual actions here. So, there are warnings, although the first one at 50,001 does required that you see it in the cPanel. It's not unfair to expect an account holder to visit there once in a while.

So - there we have it.

[DavisSmith]

Good to know. Seems like this could be a problem if you are hosting user submitted content like an image host or something similar to that.

[farcaster]

Well, even if you maintain three copies of the image - thumbnail, intermediate size, and original size, that upper limit would still allow in the neighborhood of 16,000 images. Any more than that (or even close to that) you would want a different type of service. Many packages will allow removal of the original once the other two are generated, so that increases your capacity by a third.

Just be prepared to do your own backups periodically.

[DavisSmith]

Well, even if you maintain three copies of the image - thumbnail, intermediate size, and original size, that upper limit would still allow in the neighborhood of 16,000 images. Any more than that (or even close to that) you would want a different type of service. Many packages will allow removal of the original once the other two are generated, so that increases your capacity by a third.

Just be prepared to do your own backups periodically.

Yea for sure. I always keep a personal backup just in case!

[CFA1973]

Thank you for sharing this information.
I opened a new account for other domains I plan to build due to the file count limit of 50'000. Good to know that the "real" limit is 200'000.

BTW, I am at 30'000 files and the system stopped making automated backups (file size of backup file: 280 MB). Odd.

[zaroba]

thanks for the post about file limits. its actually what i was coming here to ask about.
with the overall 200k file limit in place, is there a per folder limit as well?



TOS Department: At 50,001 files our system will no longer backup the account automatically and will show the file count in red in the control panel.

i'm just over 55,000 files and the cpanel isn't showing my file count in red.
i know i've been over 50k for a while too, so i can't see it just being a minor delay.

[felgall]

If you go over 2000 files in one folder then some of the tools will not show the complete list.

[zaroba]

i really don't use the cpanel tools that much. anything file related i do via ftp, including occasional manual site backups.

so far i know that the folders can hold 3999 files, just wondering if their is an actual limit.
used to have a webhost with a 1000 file per folder limit.

[farcaster]

At the bottom right of this page is a link to the Bluehost Terms of Service. You can read them for the relevant part.

But to better answer your question, no. Bluehost says that the account is only to be used for your web site, and not for backup of files from your computer. I think you would be in violation here.

[charlesgan]

Can I use my ftp server for backing up my working files as an online storage server?
Also I've got large ~30GB - 60GB virtualbox images, can I split them into let's say 700MB files and upload them?
Is it allowed at BH?

that might effect the server performance. refer from bluehost TOS...

BlueHost.Com does NOT provide unlimited space for online storage, backups, or archiving of electronic files, documents, log files, etc., and any such prohibited use of the Services will result in the termination of Subscriber's account, with or without notice. Accounts with excessive number of files negatively affect the performance of the server and BlueHost.Com may request that the number of files be reduced to ensure proper performance.