Security · active storage
File deletion lifecycle
What happens to uploads, intermediate files, downloadable results, scan sessions, logs and backups.
Generated files become eligible for automated deletion 15 minutes after their last modification. With the documented five-minute web-tier cleanup schedule, they are normally removed within about 20 minutes.
1. Selection in your browser
A file remains on your device until you select or drop it into a tool. Browser previews may use local memory before upload. Choosing a server-processed operation sends the file to the service over HTTPS.
2. Upload and validation
The web tier receives the file through PHP temporary storage, checks request limits, validates the file type and applies configured security controls. PHP upload temporary files are removed when the request finishes.
3. Local or VPS processing
Most operations run on the Hostinger web tier. Selected advanced operations are forwarded over HTTPS to worker.pdfconvertor.online. The worker authenticates each request with an HMAC-SHA256 signature, timestamp, SHA-256 file hash and single-use nonce.
4. Intermediate files
Tool-specific intermediate files are created only when necessary. VPS job workspaces are removed in a guaranteed cleanup block after success or failure. A scheduled VPS backstop checks every 15 minutes for abandoned job data older than 30 minutes, so an exceptional abandoned workspace can remain for approximately 30–45 minutes.
5. Downloadable output
The completed output is stored under an unpredictable generated name and returned as a download link. Web-tier output, upload and temporary directories are scanned by the scheduled cleanup job. Files become eligible after 900 seconds and are normally removed by the next five-minute run.
6. Phone scan sessions
Scan-to-PDF pairing sessions expire after 30 minutes. Expired session directories are removed during scan-session cleanup, including a short cleanup grace period for abandoned sessions.
7. Operational logs
Application operation logs contain IP address, operation type, timestamp and user agent—not document contents, passwords or signature data. Their configured retention is 30 days by default. Hosting-provider access and error logs are controlled separately by the infrastructure provider.
8. Backups and limitations
Application policy says that active upload, temporary, output and worker job directories must not be intentionally included in application backups. Hostinger may maintain infrastructure or hosting-account backups that the application cannot inspect or erase individually. For this reason, the active-storage deletion schedule is not a promise of immediate deletion from every provider snapshot.
Deletion failures
The cleanup task writes a private heartbeat and reports errors to operational monitoring. If cleanup is degraded, the public status page reports that its heartbeat cannot be confirmed. Highly confidential documents should be processed with approved offline software when temporary server handling is unacceptable.
Questions
Contact support@pdfconvertor.online before uploading if you have a contractual deletion, residency or backup requirement.