Graphql media upload clarifications

Shopify Apps

Topic summary

A developer is seeking clarification on several technical aspects of Shopify’s GraphQL media upload system that aren’t clearly documented:

Key Questions:

  • Staging limits: Whether there’s a maximum number of uploads that can be staged in a single stagedUploadsCreate call
  • Validity period: How long staged uploads remain valid and ready to accept file uploads
  • File linking behavior: What happens when an image is removed from one product/collection but is still linked to others
  • Garbage collection: Whether Shopify automatically deletes files that are no longer associated with any products/collections, or if developers must manually track and delete orphaned files to prevent storage clutter

The discussion remains open with no responses yet. These questions are important for developers building apps that manage product media to understand resource limits and file lifecycle management.

Summarized with AI on October 27. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hi everyone,

I have a few questions about the file upload and file system in Shopify that couldn’t find the answers to in the documentation.

  1. When staging Uploads with stagedUploadsCreate are there any litmits to how many uploads can be staged with one call?
  2. For how long are these staged uploads valid and ready to accept uploads?
  3. As far as I know, one File can be linked to multiple products/collections. What happens if I remove an image from one product or collection? Will it still be linked to others?
  4. What happens to Files that are not linked to any product anymore? Are they deleted automatically as soon as there are no references to the file anymore or do I have to keep track myselfe and delete them after they are no longer associated with any product to avoid cluttering the upload space? Or in short is there a garbage collection in place for images and files that are no longer linked to products or collections and so on?

If anyone knows about some of these questions, please let me know :slightly_smiling_face:

Kind regards