Forms collect registration information from visitors before they access your Inboxes or Share Links. When registration collection is enabled, visitors see a built-in, default registration form with three standard fields: name, company, and email address. With a Custom Form, you can hide any of those fields and add your own fields tailored to your business.

Custom Forms are associated with individual Inboxes and Share Links, so you can tailor the registration experience to each link and collect different information in different contexts.

Answers on Uploaded Files

Custom Form answers are automatically saved as Custom Metadata on each file uploaded through a Share Link or Inbox registration. A receiving team or application can read information such as an order number or reporting period from the file's metadata, without encoding it in the filename or looking up the registration separately.

Each custom question's label becomes a metadata key, and its answer becomes the text value. For example, an answer of 2026-09-30 to a Date question labeled "Reporting Period" creates a Reporting Period key with the value 2026-09-30. Date answers use the calendar date in YYYY-MM-DD format. The built-in Name, Company, and Email fields remain registration information and are not copied to file Custom Metadata.

All files uploaded through the same registration receive its saved answers, including uploads through an existing registration. Later form edits do not change those answers or the original labels and field types used to interpret them. Files already uploaded retain their existing metadata. For separate submissions that need different answers, the Require logout from Share Links and inboxes setting requires visitors to register again.

By default, capture includes the first 32 eligible custom answers in the registration's saved answer order. Unanswered optional fields and answers longer than 1,024 characters are skipped. Earlier saved answers are also skipped if their original question definition is unavailable or a Date answer cannot be interpreted as a valid date. Skipping these answers does not prevent file delivery, and the original answers remain in the registration. New registrations save answers in the form's configured order; older registrations use their stored answer order. Reordering the form does not change the order of answers already saved.

When an upload also supplies Custom Metadata, form answers take precedence for keys that exactly match the question labels, including case. The combined metadata must fit the file metadata limits, or the upload fails before completion.

Capture works for files stored on Files.com and in configured Remote Server Mounts. The automatic mounts under _/RemoteServers do not support Custom Metadata, so an upload that captures answers to one of those paths fails. A registration that contributes no captured answers can still upload there when the upload supplies no other Custom Metadata.

Organizing Uploads into Subfolders

Automatically put uploaded files into subfolders for an Inbox or a Share Link that lets people upload. You can insert any of your form's fields into your Subfolder name template so that the subfolder names are based on the answers given in the form. This keeps uploads organized and makes it easier to find files later.

Saving answers as Custom Metadata does not rename files or create or select subfolders. The Share Link or Inbox's organization settings and any applicable folder settings determine where files land and how they are named.

Pre-Filling Form Fields via URL

Inbox links support query parameters that pre-fill and lock specific form fields. For example, adding ?representative=Jean%20Dupont to an Inbox URL would pre-fill a "Representative" field on the registration form with "Jean Dupont" and make it read-only for the visitor.

Who Can Manage Custom Forms

Any user can create a Custom Form. Creating one requires no folder permission, Sharing permission, or administrative access, including for users with no folder access. The same creation rule applies through the web interface, API, SDKs, and CLI.

A form belongs to the user who created it. Users can view, edit, and delete only forms they own. Site Administrators can view and manage every form on the site, and Workspace Administrators can view and manage every form in their Workspace. Folder Admin, Group Admin, and Partner Admin access does not grant access to another user's forms.

Creating a Custom Form

When you create a form, you specify its title, choose which of the standard registration fields to hide, and add custom fields of your own.

The Form title is for internal use only. It helps you select the correct form when applying it to a Share Link or Inbox.

The standard registration fields are Name, Company, and Email. All three are included by default, but you can remove any combination of them from your form.

When you add a custom field, provide a label, an optional description, and a field type. The label is displayed above its field on the form. The description is shown as help text when a visitor hovers over the question mark next to the label.

The available field types are:

Short Answer (one line of text)
Paragraph (multiple lines of text)
Date (calendar date)
Multiple Choice (radio buttons allowing user to select one)
Dropdown (select list allowing user to select one)

For Multiple Choice and Dropdown fields, define the options visitors can select from.

When a receiving process needs every answered custom question on the file, a form can require complete metadata capture. This option rejects new registrations with answers longer than 1,024 characters or more than 32 answered custom fields, instead of accepting answers that would be skipped. Unanswered optional fields do not count toward the limit. Multiple Choice and Dropdown options must also fit the value limit when saving the form. The option is disabled by default and can be configured through the Custom Form API. Enabling it does not revalidate answers in existing registrations.

Editing a Custom Form

Any user with permission to manage it can edit a Custom Form, including while it is assigned to an Inbox or Share Link and after it has collected registrations. You can change the form's title, show or hide standard registration fields, and add, edit, remove, or reorder custom fields.

Editing a custom field changes the question for future registrations. Earlier answers retain the original question label, field type, and choices, so changing a question does not change the meaning of an answer already collected. Removing a custom field takes it off the current form while preserving its question definition and earlier answers. Newly added fields have no answers in earlier registrations.

Using a Custom Form

Creating a form does not grant file access or display it to visitors. It takes effect only when attached to a Share Link or Inbox, so the permissions for that Share Link or Inbox determine who can attach the form.

Users with Sharing permission can attach one of their own forms to a Share Link they own. Folder Admins can attach their own forms to Inboxes they manage. Site Administrators can attach any form to a Share Link or Inbox in the same Workspace. Workspace Administrators can do the same within their Workspace.

To use a Custom Form with a Share Link or Inbox, edit its Custom form setting to choose the form. The Require registration setting must be enabled for a Share Link to use a custom form.

Once the Custom Form is selected in the Inbox or Share Link's settings, it is displayed when recipients visit the link's page.

Deleting a Custom Form

A Custom Form can be deleted as long as it is not currently assigned to any Inbox or Share Link. Remove the form from any Inbox or Share Link's Custom form setting first, then delete it. The creator of the form or any administrator with permission to manage it can delete a form that is not in use.

Registration data remains in your site when the Share Link or Inbox has been revoked. Deleting a form preserves earlier registration answers and their original question definitions.

Form Data Visibility

Registration data collected through a Custom Form is visible to site administrators and any users with access to the registrations. For inboxes, this includes anyone with folder admin access to the inbox folder. For Share Links, this is the user who created the share link, Site Administrators, and Workspace Administrators.

Answers copied to a file follow the Custom Metadata access rules. Users and integrations that can view the file's Custom Metadata can read those answers even when they cannot access the registration. Choose questions with the file's audience in mind, especially when collecting sensitive information. The file's copy remains editable under the normal metadata rules; editing it does not change the original registration answers.

If you're organizing uploaded files into subfolders using the form names, those subfolder names will be visible to anyone with access to the target upload folder.