Media uploads saved to draft, but missing at later visit

When revisiting the form, the media uploaded is not prefilled.

that’s correct, default file fields cannot be pre-filled. This is a limitation of the browser itself.

Therefore, it is impossible for the server to repopulate this field on subsequent visits.

it is possible with a js plugin file field (like drag and drop file upload fields)

Could you please consider, urgently, that when saving to draft that the [file …] field is ignored.

ignored, or saved to the same location? This way subsequent uploads would just overwrite what was saved previously.

As the user on subsequent visits has no confirmation that the uploaded file was accepted he/she is going to attach the file again, and must do so if the requirement is set by [file* ...]

In the meantime I solved the problem by

add_action('cf7_2_post_form_mapped_to_page', 'saved_new_post_mapped',10,3);
function saved_new_post_mapped($post_id, $cf7_form_data, $cf7form_key){
   if ('new-article-form'==$cf7form_key) {
      if(isset($cf7_form_data['save_cf7_2_post']) && 'true'==$cf7_form_data['save_cf7_2_post']){
         $attachments = get_attached_media( '', $post_id );
         foreach ($attachments as $attachment) {
            wp_delete_attachment( $attachment->ID, 'true' );
         }
      }
   }
}

Here with this action the previous uploaded media is immediately deleted if the form is saved to draft.

Again, I must praise you for well documented source code allowing me to extract the relevant code and hooks.

In the meantime I solved the problem by

nice one!

Again, I must praise you for well documented source code allowing me to extract the relevant code and hooks.

most welcome. I code these plugins with developers in mind so others can build on top of it.

I will add a todo note for providing a better solution to this issue.

PS: When you get a moment to write a review, thanks!

housekeeping: marking as resolved