GridFS & large files in MongoDB

🔹 What is GridFS? GridFS is a system used to store large files in MongoDB . MongoDB has a limit of 16MB per document GridFS helps store files larger than 16MB Simple: Big file → split into small chunks → store in DB 🔹 How GridFS Works File is divided into small chunks (usually 255KB) Stored in two collections: files collection → stores file info (name, size, type) chunks collection → stores actual file data 🔹 Example Idea Uploading a video file: Metadata → stored in fs.files Binary chunks → stored in fs.chunks 🔹 Why Use GridFS? Store large files (videos, images, PDFs) Stream files efficiently Avoid file system dependency 🔹 When to Use GridFS Use when: File size > 16MB Need to store files inside database Need streaming support 🔹 When NOT to Use Small files (normal storage is enough) Better to use cloud storage (like AWS S3) in many cases Simple Understanding GridFS = file storage system in MongoDB Splits large files into chunks