Links (Share Links)

Links provide secure, web-accessible URLs that allow external contacts—those without a user account—to access or upload files and folders.

They are ideal for one-time sharing, ad hoc file delivery, or collecting files from outside parties, especially when email attachments are not viable due to size limits.

There are no size limits for individual files shared via links, and links can be created for folders of any size.

Common Use Cases

• Sending large files without worrying about email attachment restrictions

• Allowing clients or vendors to upload files into a designated folder

• Creating a simple, branded upload portal by placing your link in your email signature

• Sharing project folders with external stakeholders

Creating and Managing Links

Users who have permission to create public links can generate a link for any item they have access to.

Each link is owned by the user who created it. If that user is later disabled, the link becomes inactive. Administrators can see, edit, and remove links created by other users.

Linking to Folders

When linking to a folder:

• By default, the link will allow the folder to be downloaded.

• You can optionally configure the link to allow uploads only (no download access).

• You can also enable both uploads and downloads, provided the link creator has upload permissions to the folder.

By default, folder links do not expose subfolder contents. This is helpful when you want to contain public uploads in a top-level folder, while internal teams sort and organize files into subfolders that remain private.

However, if you'd prefer a two-way data room experience, you can configure the link to allow access to subfolders. In that case, the visitor will inherit the same access level to all subfolders as they have to the root folder of the link.

Security and Expiration Options

Links are flexible but secure. You can control access in several ways:

• Password Protection: Add a password to limit access to intended recipients only. Administrators can enforce site-wide policies requiring passwords for all links.

• Download Limits: Set a maximum number of allowed downloads. Once the limit is reached, the link becomes inactive.

• Expiration Date: Configure links to expire after a certain date. Expired links cannot be accessed, but they can be reactivated by updating the expiration settings.

Direct Download URLs

To bypass the user interface presented in a Share Link and instead directly download a file from a URL, you can append the exact file name to the end of the link URL. When this method is used, the file download begins immediately, without first displaying a user interface in the browser.

To support legacy URLs, generated by previous versions of ExaVault, you may also use a legacy structure where you append /api/2/or /api/3/before the link and add ?download=trueto the end of the link.