Files on pixeldrain have to expire eventually. If we didn't do this the website would keep growing forever and we would run out of money pretty quickly.
Unlike most other sharing sites pixeldrain uses a postponing system for expiring files. When a file is freshly uploaded it gets 60 days by default (240 days if you have the pro plan). After these 60 days we will check when the file was last viewed. Files which are regularly viewed could still bring new users to the platform, it would be rude to show these people a File Not Found page. So if the file was viewed in the last 60 days we will simply postpone the next check a month. If the file was not viewed however it will immediately be removed.
Views are only counted when someone visits the download page in a web browser. This makes sure that users can see that the file comes from pixeldrain.
This way we can minimize dead links, and you won't have to tell your friends to 'hurry and download this before it expires'.
Paying for bandwidth is the most expensive part of running pixeldrain. Because of this we have to limit what can be downloaded and by who.
Normally when you view a file it's on pixeldrain's file viewer. The file viewer is the page with the download button, the name of the file and a frame where you can view the file if it's an image, video, audio, PDF or text file.
It's also possible to link directly to a file instead of the download page. This circumvents our advertisers and branding and thus we lose money when people do this. That's why I added 'hotlink protection mode' to files. This mode is enabled when a file has been downloaded five times more than it has been viewed through the file viewer. When hotlink protection mode is activated a file cannot be downloaded through the API, the request needs to come from the file viewer page. On the file viewer you will see a CAPTCHA to fill in when you click the download button.
More information about Hotlinking on Wikipedia.
When you have a Pro subscription you will get a monthly data transfer limit for all the files on your account combined. Files you download from pixeldrain are subtracted from the data cap. If you have Bandwidth sharing enabled your data cap is also used when other people download your files.
In principle there is always someone who pays for the bandwidth usage when a file is being downloaded:
The bandwidth cap on your account is a 30 day rolling window. This means that bandwidth usage will expire 30 days after it was used. Your counter will not reset at the start of the next month.
When a list of files is downloaded with the 'DL all files' button each file in the resulting zip file will be counted separately.