# telegram-bot-api: "File is too big" even though the server was started with --local
## The problem
A bot pointed at a self-hosted telegram-bot-api server started with --local could send/receive messages, but sending any file over 50 MB failed with telegram.error.BadRequest: File is too big - as if local mode was not active. The server was launched as: ./telegram-bot-api --api-id=... --api-hash=... --local. getUpdates against the loopback address:8081 worked, so the bot was talking to *a* server on that port.
## The verified fix
The bot was not actually talking to the --local server: an older telegram-bot-api process without the --local flag was already bound to port 8081, so all requests hit the non-local instance (whose 50 MB limit applies). Check which process is listening on the port (Task Manager/htop/top) and confirm the running instance's launch parameters include --local; kill the stale process and restart with --local. Only one bot API server can own the port at a time.
Source: https://github.com/tdlib/telegram-bot-api/issues/371