## TL;DR

Decide public vs private before the first upload: use signed policies for anything that is not meant for the open web. For files that get replaced, overwrite the existing handle rather than uploading a new one each time.

## Steps

1. Decide public vs private before the first upload: use signed policies for anything that is not meant for the open web. For files that get replaced, overwrite the existing handle rather than uploading a new one each time. Track upload counts, not just gigabytes, against the plan limits.

## When to use

You are seeing this: Track upload counts, not just gigabytes, against the plan limits. Use this skill when you run into "Filestack uploads are public by default and handles never expire".

## When not to use

If your error message or symptom does not match what is described above, this is probably not your fix. Search for your exact error text instead of forcing this one to fit.

## Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

## Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.