How tapeshelf works

Create a free account and you get a page of your own. Upload videos in any common format, such as mp4, mov, mkv, avi or webm. We check what's inside the file, so the extension doesn't matter. On the free plan a video can be up to 1 GB and the shelf holds 20 GB; Pro raises that to 5 GB and 200 GB. Only your own uploads take up room, so videos other people give you cost you nothing. If the connection drops, the upload carries on from where it stopped. Each video gets a streaming version, a cover and a 16-frame preview you can scrub through with the mouse.

Everything you upload starts out private. You can also hide any video from visitors, and then it shows on your shelf for you alone.

When you delete a video you uploaded, it disappears from every shelf at once, yours and everyone else's. For 30 days (90 on Pro) it waits in “Deleted”, and you can put it back. Delete it from there, or empty “Deleted”, and it can't be brought back for you or for anyone who had it. Deleting a video someone gave you only removes your copy. It stays with its author and with everyone else who has it.

Sort videos into categories and drag them into any order you like. Drop one video onto another and they form a stack, the way apps group into a folder on a phone. A stack can have a name and a cover you pick; open it to see what's inside and change the order. If you upload a whole folder, its subfolders become stacks with the same names.

Every shelf has a search, for its owner and for visitors. Videos you received and haven't opened yet carry a small “new” mark. A video someone gave you can also go by your own name and description on your shelf. Everywhere else, trades included, it keeps the author's title.

Tick “Make it public” and anyone with the link can watch the video, no account needed. People who are signed in can also download it and add it to their shelf as a bookmark. A bookmark can't be traded or sent on with a temporary link.

A private video shows visitors its cover and the 16-frame preview, enough to tell what it is. There's no player. In its place is a “Request this video” button with room for a short note, and you can pick some of your own videos to offer in return right away.

The owner gets a notification and can answer in one of these ways:

• Share it for free. A copy lands on your shelf.
• Accept your offer, if you made one. The trade happens on the spot.
• Ask for something else from your shelf, which starts a trade.
• Decline, with a comment if they like. You can ask for the same video again after seven days.

If the video on someone's shelf came from another author, you ask the person whose shelf you're on. It's their copy, so it's their call. The author's name stays on the video wherever it goes. There's a daily limit on how many videos you can ask for.

A trade is a short back-and-forth. Either side makes an offer: one video for one, one for several, several for several. The other side accepts, declines or answers with a different set, for as many rounds as it takes. You can offer anything on your shelf except bookmarks of public videos, and that includes videos you got in earlier trades.

When an offer is accepted, both sides get their copies at the same moment. A copy stays on your shelf for as long as the video exists, and you can trade it on. Nobody can take it back from you. The author can still delete the video itself, and then it's gone from every shelf.

Requests between people with accounts don't expire. They wait on the Requests page until someone answers.

In Settings → Profile → Exchanges you can fill in “Looking for” and “Please don't offer”. Both are shown in every trade with you, so people know what you want before they make an offer. On your shelf they appear only if you turn that on.

Someone without an account can trade with you too. They press “Offer an exchange” on the page of one of your private videos, or open an exchange link you sent them. To make one, select one or more videos on your shelf and choose “Copy link → For an exchange”. The link works until you revoke it in “My links”, and everyone who opens it starts their own deal with you.

The guest lands on a page called “A fair exchange”, with big frame previews of what they'd get on the left and the deal on the right. They add up to 5 videos of their own, each up to 1 GB, and the deal starts with the first file. A new guest passes a captcha first, and one guest can have up to three deals open at a time. They can leave a message, and an email address if they want news and a link back to the deal; nobody asks them to confirm it. “Send the offer” becomes active once all their files are processed.

Until the trade happens, the guest's videos sit locked on our servers, and nobody can watch or download them. Each side sees only the title, length, size, quality and frame preview of what the other offers. You can accept, offer something else, decline or block; the guest can accept, offer something else, decline or cancel. In your requests, and as the author of their videos on your shelf, they show up as “Guest”.

A deal with a guest waits three days for an answer, and every new step by either side adds three more. If it's declined, cancelled or runs out, the guest's videos are deleted from our servers right away. If you both agree, the videos change hands both ways at the same moment. The guest then has a week to watch and download what they got on the deal page. If they sign in or create an account, the deal and their videos move into that account for good.

Trades with guests are on by default. To stop them, turn off “Take exchanges from guests” in Settings → Profile → Exchanges; your exchange links keep working either way. Someone with an account who opens an exchange link simply sends you a request with their videos in return.

Besides the exchange link from the previous section, there are two more kinds of links you hand out: a temporary link to a few videos, below, and, on Pro, an anonymous link to your whole shelf, in the next section.

A temporary link sends videos to anyone, whether they have an account or not. Select one or more videos on your shelf, your uploads or ones you received, and choose “Temporary link”. Pick how long it works: 1 hour, 1 day, 2 days, 3 days or a week.

Whoever opens it sees a page saying you're sharing videos with them, with a countdown to when the link stops working. They can watch right there and download each video, or all of them as one ZIP. Downloads through the link run at full speed and don't count toward any monthly limit. Someone signed in can also add the videos to their shelf, and those copies stay with them after the link runs out.

To send a link to one person only, tick “Only for one person” and enter their email. We email them the link, and it opens only with a one-time code sent to that address, or right away if they're signed in with it. On Pro you can also protect a link with a password. “My links” in the account menu lists the links that still work: copy one again, or revoke it and it stops opening at once. You get a notification the first time someone opens a link and whenever someone adds its videos to their shelf.

On Pro you can also hand out a link to your whole shelf that doesn't say who you are: tapeshelf.com/p/ and a random code instead of your @nickname. Whoever opens it sees the shelf as a visitor does — your videos with their covers and previews, the name you gave the link, the avatar and the cover of the page — but not the nickname: not in the address, not inside the videos, not in a trade that starts there. They can watch what's public, ask for a private video or offer a trade, and in those deals, in the notifications and on the copies they receive you stay under the link's name for good. Make as many as you like in “My links”, each with a note for yourself about who it's for, and delete any of them: it stops opening at once, and whoever has it gets “page not found”. If your display name gives the nickname away, the link gets a name of its own. These links work even while your page is hidden: then only the people you gave one see your shelf. When Pro ends, anonymous links stop opening until it's back.

Adding someone as a friend means following them; when they add you back, you're friends. Friend lists are public, which is how people wander from shelf to shelf. Friends can message each other and attach videos to messages. New videos from the people you follow, private ones included, show up in “What's new” in the account menu, newest first. To bring someone in, send them a link from “Invite a friend” on your shelf. You can block anyone, and they aren't told.

New requests and offers, finished trades, new followers, messages, replies from support and opened temporary links all arrive in the bell, and by email if you want. You choose for each kind in Settings → Notifications.

When you're signed in, you can download any video you may watch: one on your shelf, or any public one. You get the video in full quality, without its hidden data (what we remove). Without an account you can download only through a temporary link someone sent you, or, for a week, what you received in a trade as a guest.

On the free plan you get 10 downloads a month, one at a time, at up to 1 MB/s, each after a short wait page. Videos you uploaded yourself don't count, and neither do downloads through a temporary link.

To download videos from other sites to your computer, there's our free browser extension: no limits, no account, and it can also put a video straight on your shelf.

Apart from passwords on temporary links, everything above works on the free plan. Pro costs from €5 a month. It removes the download limits, raises the file and shelf sizes and keeps deleted videos longer. It also adds the video editor for cutting, cropping, blurring and captions, a page you can hide from everyone, passwords on temporary links and anonymous links to your shelf, which open it without your nickname. Compare Free and Pro.

An account is free and there are no ads. It helps to upload a few videos first, so the people you ask can see what you might offer in return.