External Sharing & Inboxes

Exchanging files with someone outside your Site does not always require creating a Files.com user. You may need to deliver selected documents, collect submissions without exposing a folder's contents, or publish files for visitors to use.

Those arrangements create different kinds of access. A recipient's invitation, an uploader's registration, and a website visitor's password do not all establish the same identity or permit the same actions. Choose the arrangement for the relationship with the people receiving or supplying files.

Delivery, Collection, and Publication

A Share Link gives recipients selected file access for a delivery. Its allowed actions can permit previews, downloads, contributions, or broader file management. A link to live files follows changes within its shared scope; a Snapshot Share Link supplies a fixed copy.

An Inbox is a continuing collection point. Visitors can submit files without browsing the destination folder or receiving a continuing Files.com identity. Attaching an Inbox to a Share Link keeps returned submissions separate from the documents being distributed.

Public Hosting supports published files and websites. Permission to write into a hosted folder can also permit changing the pages and scripts visitors receive. That publishing responsibility differs from receiving a controlled document delivery.

Identity and Continuing Relationships

Registration records details a visitor supplies. An invitation identifies the delivery URL used, while an email-based one-time password adds a check of access to an invited mailbox. A shared password or shared mailbox does not establish a particular individual.

For an ongoing relationship requiring individually managed credentials, protocol access, and permissions, use users or Partner Users. External sharing does not provide every control associated with a user simply because it asks a visitor for a name and email address.

Files, Processing, and Access Lifetime

Received files can enter Automations and other processing configured on their destination. Permission to submit a file does not establish that its contents are suitable for choosing a later destination or recipient. Automation & AI explains execution authority and decisions based on supplied data.

External access also has its own lifetime. Removing an employee's folder permissions does not automatically revoke a Share Link they created, and a completed download cannot be recalled. Review the link, Inbox, or published folder when the exchange ends, alongside Access Revocation.

Embedding a sharing experience or publishing scripts introduces browser decisions as well. Browser & HTTP Security explains framing, content execution, and origin boundaries; each sharing feature retains its own recipient and uploader access requirements.