Video backup best practices

SmartVideo is built to deliver and optimize your videos at scale, not to serve as a master archive of your source files. This article explains what we store on your behalf, what we don’t, and the simple backup habits that will keep your video library safe no matter what.

What SmartVideo stores for you

When you upload a video or import one from a source URL, our platform does the following:

1. Fetches or receives your source file one time.
2. Transcodes it into multiple optimized MP4 renditions (different resolutions and bitrates) for fast, adaptive playback on any device.
3. Generates HLS and MPEG-DASH segments for streaming.
4. Creates a poster thumbnail.
5. Distributes all of the above across our global CDN so your viewers get the fastest possible experience.

After that, we deliver those optimized copies anytime a video on your site is played. We don’t hold on to a byte-for-byte copy of the exact original file you uploaded.

What this means in practice: the version of your video that lives inside SmartVideo is the delivery-ready version our player serves, not the master file. For most use cases they’re effectively the same video, but if you ever need the exact original - for re-editing in a different tool, archival purposes, or regenerating masters - you’ll need to have kept that original yourself.

Why we work this way

Keeping an unmodified copy of every original upload alongside the encoded renditions would double our storage footprint for every customer, which in turn would push up our pricing. Most customers already keep their originals somewhere (a local drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, S3, etc.), so we optimize our side for delivery speed and cost rather than archival duplication. If you’re using SmartVideo as your CDN, think of it as equivalent to how you’d use a service like Cloudflare or a traditional CDN in front of your own file storage - fast delivery, not primary storage of record.

Recommended backup habits

The single most important rule: always keep a copy of your master source files somewhere outside of SmartVideo. A few practical options, from simplest to most robust:

• Keep them on the same cloud storage you’re already using. If you’re importing videos from Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, Wasabi, or similar, those files stay in your bucket or folder after SmartVideo has ingested them. Don’t delete them thinking SmartVideo will hold the only copy.
• Archive to low-cost cold storage. Services like Amazon S3 Glacier, Backblaze B2, or Wasabi archive buckets are designed specifically for long-term video storage at pennies per gigabyte.
• Keep local backups. An external drive or NAS at your office is a perfectly valid second copy - especially for final masters of important projects.
• Follow the 3-2-1 rule for critical content. Three copies of the file, on two different types of storage, with one copy stored off-site. For videos that would be painful to recreate, this is worth the effort.

What happens if my subscription lapses?

If your SmartVideo subscription lapses due to a failed payment or cancellation, we hold onto your encoded videos for a 30-day grace period. If you reactivate within that window, your library, CDN keys, and embedded players pick right back up where they left off. After 30 days, encoded content is removed from our storage to make room. This is one more reason why keeping your originals elsewhere matters - so you can always re-upload if your account lapses for longer than a month.

Can I download my videos from SmartVideo?

Yes. There isn’t a self-serve “download” button in the dashboard, so our support team generates the download links for you. Here’s how to get them:

1. Open your video in the SmartVideo Library and click its thumbnail to open the Media Details screen.
2. Copy the swarmify:// source URL shown there. (If you’d rather not dig out each one, the video titles as they appear in your Library work too.)
3. Email those to support@swarmify.com and tell us you’d like download links.

We’ll send back a direct download link for each video. A couple of things to know so nothing trips you up:

• Links are good for 7 days. Download your files within that window - after that the link expires and you’d need to ask for a fresh one.
• You’ll get one link per file. If you’re working through a whole library (say, consolidating your backups), it’s totally fine to send us your swarmify:// URLs in batches and we’ll keep the links coming as you go.
• These are the optimized delivery MP4s, not your exact original upload. That’s the highest-quality encoded version our player serves (adaptive up to 1080p) - great for most uses, but it isn’t a byte-for-byte recovery of the master file you uploaded. See What SmartVideo stores for you above for the full picture.

Because SmartVideo is built for fast delivery rather than long-term archival, it’s always best to keep your own master copies somewhere you control - see the Recommended backup habits section above. That way you’ve got your originals on hand whenever you need them, no download request required.

Don’t have a Swarmify account yet? You can start one from the pricing page.

I already lost my originals - can you help?

If you’ve lost the master files for videos that are currently in your SmartVideo library, reach out to our support team at support@swarmify.com and we’ll help you retrieve what we have. We can provide direct download links for the highest-quality encoded MP4 version of any video in your library. Just note that this is the optimized delivery version, not a recovery of your exact original file.

To speed things up, include either:

• The swarmify:// source URLs from the media details screen for each video in your SmartVideo Library, or
• The video titles as they appear in your library

We’ll batch up the download links and send them to you.

Summary

• SmartVideo stores optimized delivery copies of your videos, not your exact originals.
• Always keep your master source files somewhere you control (cloud storage, local backups, or both).
• The 3-2-1 rule is a reliable habit for anything you’d hate to lose.
• If your subscription lapses, you have a 30-day grace window before encoded content is removed.
• Lost your originals already? Contact support and we’ll get you download links for the versions we have on file.

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