# When I upload my files to IPFS, how do I know where they are stored?

**URL:** <https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/when-i-upload-my-files-to-ipfs-how-do-i-know-where-they-are-stored/4385>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [December 3, 2018, 3:58am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/when-i-upload-my-files-to-ipfs-how-do-i-know-where-they-are-stored/4385 "2018-12-03T03:58:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mirror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3be4f8/32.png) [@Mirror](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/Mirror)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 3:58am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/when-i-upload-my-files-to-ipfs-how-do-i-know-where-they-are-stored/4385/1 "2018-12-03T03:58:17Z")

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When I upload my files to IPFS, how do I know where they are stored?Who can help me ? Thank you very much!

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**Author:** ![koalalorenzo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/koalalorenzo/32/745_2.png) [@koalalorenzo](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/koalalorenzo)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 3:52pm UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/when-i-upload-my-files-to-ipfs-how-do-i-know-where-they-are-stored/4385/2 "2018-12-03T15:52:41Z")

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Your files are not uploaded anywhere technically speaking. The files are added into the IPFS local node.

When another node or a gateway is requesting the files, then they are requested and you send the data to the node requesting them.

If you are curious to know who has the files/data you can run:

```auto
ipfs dht findprovs $FILE_CID

```

where `$FILE_CID` is the content identifier of your file/directory/data

If you are curious about where the actual files are added, in your local node, those are located in the datastore. By default the files are copied in the datastore when adding them, and you can find the data store in the default configuration directory (`~/.ipfs` on macOS and GNU/Linux), but the content is in the “database” and no longer accessible as plain files.

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**Author:** ![Mirror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3be4f8/32.png) [@Mirror](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/Mirror)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 6:03am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/when-i-upload-my-files-to-ipfs-how-do-i-know-where-they-are-stored/4385/3 "2018-12-04T06:03:26Z")

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Woa~thank you very much .Ur helping me a lot .

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mirror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3be4f8/32.png) [@Mirror](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/Mirror)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 6:04am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/when-i-upload-my-files-to-ipfs-how-do-i-know-where-they-are-stored/4385/4 "2018-12-04T06:04:54Z")

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Excuse me, can I ask you another question? How do Chinese users apply to join filecoin test?

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**Author:** ![stebalien](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/stebalien/32/156_2.png) [@stebalien](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/stebalien)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 6:08pm UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/when-i-upload-my-files-to-ipfs-how-do-i-know-where-they-are-stored/4385/5 "2018-12-04T18:08:15Z")

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This forum is for IPFS (the decentralized filesystem protocol), not Filecoin (the decentralized storage market). You should take a look at the [filecoin FAQ](https://filecoin.io/faqs/#how-do-i-become-a-storage-and-or-a-retrieval-miner) or ask on the #filecoin freenode IRC channel.

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**Author:** ![Mirror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3be4f8/32.png) [@Mirror](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/Mirror)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 10:04am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/when-i-upload-my-files-to-ipfs-how-do-i-know-where-they-are-stored/4385/6 "2018-12-19T10:04:45Z")

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Yeah~I know that . thank u very much