Your upload reaches 100%, you share the link, and for the first while the quality options in the player are fewer than you expected. Nothing is wrong. The upload finished; the conversion hasn't yet.
First, the original is stored
When the last piece of your upload arrives, the file is written to storage exactly as you sent it. From that moment it's in your drive. You can rename it, move it, share it, download it, and set a cover. If the connection dropped halfway through, the upload resumed from the missing part rather than starting over, and the stored file is still byte-for-byte what was on your device.
The cover is generated separately: a frame is pulled from the video and used as the thumbnail. That usually appears before the conversion is done, so a video can have its cover while the quality options are still filling in.
Then the renditions get made
A separate worker picks the video up and converts it into streaming renditions at 360p, 480p, 720p and 1080p. Each rendition is a full re-encode of the whole video at a target size and bitrate, prepared so the player can switch between them mid-stream. That's what lets playback adapt to a viewer's connection instead of stalling on a slow one. The how it works page follows a file from upload to share link.
Two details about the order. Nothing is upscaled: a 720p source gets 720p and below, not a padded-out 1080p. And 480p is made first, so the standard-definition stream is ready as early as possible, then the rest follow.
Why it takes time
Three things decide the wait.
Length. The encoder runs through every frame. A two-hour film is roughly twenty-four times the work of a five-minute clip, and there's no shortcut through the middle.
Source resolution and bitrate. A 4K source has four times the pixels of a 1080p source to decode per frame, and a high-bitrate file takes longer to read. Making a 1080p rendition from a 4K master is more work than making it from a 1080p original, even though the output is the same size.
The queue. Yours isn't the only video. New uploads go ahead of older housekeeping work, but a burst of uploads still means a line. Short clips are usually done quickly. A feature-length 4K upload takes noticeably longer, and that's expected.
Conversion happens once per file, not once per viewer. A thousand people opening the link doesn't trigger a thousand conversions. And a file saved to your drive from someone else's FileNext link doesn't need converting again, because it's the same stored file and shares the renditions that already exist.
What viewers see in the meantime
The share link works right away. The share page shows the cover, the file's details, and Play and Download buttons, and the file opens in the free FileNext app on phones and computers (Android and Mac today; iPhone and Windows are coming).
Until the first rendition exists, the original file is what plays. It's one file at one quality, so a viewer on a weak connection may see buffering that won't happen later. As soon as the 480p rendition is ready, free viewers get that instead, and it starts faster and survives a wobbly network. As the other renditions land, the quality options fill in. Someone who opened the link early sees the extra qualities the next time they play it.
If the link matters, upload a little before you need to post it. For a long video, that means minutes, not seconds. The Telegram bot sends the link the moment the upload is in, so the same applies there.
SD for free viewers, HD for Premium viewers
Free viewers of a shared video get SD, which means below 720p. Viewers with Premium get HD, 720p and up, and can download the original. That depends on the viewer's account, not the uploader's. If you have Premium and share a link with someone who doesn't, they get SD. If they have Premium and you don't, they get HD.
HD renditions carry several times the data of SD, and HD streaming on shared videos is part of what Premium includes. For most content on a phone screen, 480p looks fine. Where SD shows its limits is small on-screen text, fine detail in sport, and anything watched on a TV. If your audience is mostly on phones, the difference is smaller than you'd think; if you're sending a client a cut to review on a monitor, it matters, and they'll want HD or the original.
Downloads follow the same rule. A free viewer who taps Download gets the best SD rendition. A Premium viewer gets the file you uploaded. The pricing page has the full list.
You always keep the original
Renditions are derived copies, and every one of them is a lossy re-encode. You can't turn a 1080p rendition back into the original, let alone a 360p one. Your original is the master, and FileNext keeps it alongside the renditions. From your own drive you download your original, in full, whenever you want.
If you ever need to cut a different version, fix the audio, or crop for a different aspect ratio, you want the source, not a re-encode of a re-encode. Encoders improve over time, and new renditions can be made from an original; they can't be made well from an old rendition. And when someone needs the actual file rather than a stream, the original is the file to give them.
Converting for streaming is for your viewers. It never replaces what you uploaded, and it never changes it. The same goes for the cover: it's a preview, and swapping it for your own image via "Change cover" doesn't touch the video.
If a video seems stuck
Give a long file time; the length and the queue add up. If a short clip has sat for a long time without quality options, check the file's Details in the drive and try reloading. Occasionally a file can't be converted, usually a damaged recording or an unusual codec. The original still plays and downloads as it did before, so the link isn't dead. Write to support@filenext.in with the file name and a short description, and see help for other common questions.