When you add photos to your anim8map project, they are securely uploaded to our servers. This is a necessary step in the video generation process — because anim8map renders your travel animation as a high-quality video file, your photos need to be accessible at the moment the video is being composed.

You can upload photos once and reuse them across multiple video exports without having to re-upload each time, as long as your account remains active.

Your privacy matters to us. Photos you upload to anim8map are used solely for the purpose of generating your travel animation videos. We do not use your photos for any other purpose, and they are never shared with third parties or used to train models.

Once your video has been generated, the uploaded photos remain stored on our servers so that you can conveniently re-export or adjust your animation later without starting from scratch.

To keep our storage lean and respect your data, anim8map automatically deletes uploaded photos that have not been used in any recent video generation after 6 months of inactivity. "Inactivity" here means no video exports have been generated using those photos during that period.

This policy exists for a couple of reasons:

1. It keeps your data footprint small: we only hold on to what's actively useful to you.
2. It helps us keep the service running efficiently and sustainably for all users.

If you come back to a project after several months of inactivity and find that your photos are no longer available, this is why.

If you'd like to continue working on an animation after a longer period away, you may need to re-upload your photos. Simply head back to the photo upload section of your project and add your images again. Your route and other animation settings will still be saved; only the photos themselves may need to be re-added.

We recommend keeping a local folder of the photos you've used in your anim8map projects, so re-uploading is quick and easy if you ever need to revisit an old animation.

If you have any questions about how anim8map handles your photos or personal data, we're happy to help. You can find more detail in our Privacy Policy, or get in touch with us directly. We'll do our best to answer any questions you have.