Upload links are a great way for people outside your Egnyte account to upload content to a specific Shared folder, without being able to see the contents of that folder. Construction companies may need to securely solicit bids from subcontractors, but don't want them to see their competitors’ pricing or a university professor wants a way for students to upload problem sets without peeking at each other's answers. Upload links can solve both of these dilemmas.
In this article, we'll learn how to create upload links, what additional link options you can customize, and show you what the upload process is like for those using the links. If you're an Admin that needs to change the settings for upload links or see what upload links have been shared, read our Upload Link Settings article.
Power or Admin Users with Editor, Full, or Owner permissions to a Shared Folder will be able to create an upload link and request files from others.
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Create an Upload Link
Additional Options
Create an Upload Link
To create an upload link, you'll need to navigate to the Shared folder where the uploaded files should be stored. Then, click the Share option and select Request Files from Others from the drop-down menu.
You have two options for dispatching the upload link: you can copy the link and paste it into another place (social media, your company's website, etc.) with Get Link, or you can email the link right from Egnyte and specify link recipients with Email Link.
Get Link
If you need to collect files from a lot of people, send the link through a chat client, or you aren't sure who will respond on the link (e.g., customer suggestion boxes, resume uploads...), select the Get Link option at the bottom of the screen. The link will be shown, and you can copy it to your clipboard and paste it anywhere.
Email Link
If you only need to send the link to a handful of recipients, Email Link may be the easier option. Simply enter the email addresses of the people who need to upload a file, enter a message if desired, and click Send.
The recipients of the email will not be able to see who else is receiving the link.
When your recipients click on an upload link, they will see a screen similar to the one below. The recipient will enter their name, email address, and the optional company name field before clicking Continue.
If you used the Email Link option, the email address field will be greyed out.
Users will be able to upload files to the folder by dragging and dropping or through their file explorer/Finder. They'll be able to upload a maximum of 500 files per session, each file can be up to 25GB in size (or plan limit, whichever is smaller), and the total upload quota for one link cannot exceed 10% of the plan limit. However, they may be subject to the browser's inherent upload limits.
Admins can contact Support to request an increase to these limits.
Once the user clicks Send these files, they'll appear in the linked folder. Each file will include a Comment which contains the following information:
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The name of the user who uploaded the link (remember, this is a self-reported value and not a system username).
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That user’s company (if they entered it in the upload screen).
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The IP address and approximate location where the files were uploaded
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When the file was uploaded
Additional Options
Link Expires
If you only want your link to be active for a certain period of time (e.g., you don't want to receive resumes after the position is closed), you can set an expiration date so the link will no longer accept uploads. Before you copy or email the link, make sure the box next to Link expires is checked.
From the drop-down, you can choose to have the link expire in 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, or on a specific date.
Separate Folders for Each Recipient
To help you stay organized, we’ve provided an option to have each recipient’s files stored in a unique sub-folder. If 100 people respond to your upload link, you will see 100 sub-folders with eachperson's name and email address as they entered it on the form.