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Creating Share Links from the Desktop App

The Desktop App creates Share Links without the need to open the Files.com web app. An option to Create Share Link appears when you right-click a file or folder you are allowed to share.

In Mounted Drive Mode, it sits in the context menu in Windows File Explorer or macOS Finder. In Turbo Transfer Mode, it sits in the Files.com pane. It does not appear for files in your local file system.

Choosing it opens a dialog with the link's settings, then shows the finished URL with a Copy URL action, ready to paste into an email or a chat message.

Required Permissions

Creating a Share Link requires the sharing permission on the folder holding the item. Site Administrators, Workspace Administrators, and Folder Administrators already have it. Every other user needs it granted explicitly, as a folder permission held by them or by a group they belong to. This includes users with the Full access level, which does not carry sharing.

Selecting What to Share

A selection of several files or folders produces one Share Link containing the whole selection, not a link for each item. Every item must be one you can share, and all of them must come from the same connection.

What you select also decides which allowed actions the dialog can offer. Upload needs a folders-only selection, since there is nothing for a visitor to upload into a file. Download & Upload and Full access each need at least one folder. Full access is never offered when the selection includes the root of a connection, because renaming and deleting take effect in the parent of the shared item, and the root has no parent to check.

What the Dialog Offers

The dialog carries the link type, allowed actions, expiration, password, and registration. Beyond what your selection allows, the actions you can offer a visitor are also limited by your own permissions and by whether the link is live or a snapshot.

When your site requires an internal note, a share recipient, or clickwrap acceptance on every Share Link, the dialog displays or collects those too, because the link cannot be created without them.

The Share Link created using the Desktop App appears in the web app's Share Links list alongside every other link on your site, and it obeys the same site-wide sharing policies.

You own the links you create, so you can edit, re-share, or revoke them yourself, as can your site's administrators.

Both create the same kind of link, and a link made using the Desktop App is fully manageable in the web app afterward.

The web app offers several settings the dialog leaves out: a publish date, a visitor limit, an internal name, group ownership, and an associated Inbox for collecting uploads alongside a download. Use the web app when a link needs any of those.