What someone sees when they open a link I sent

Whoever opens a link does not get into Files: they see a single page, with your company’s logo and colours, the document (or the folder) and the buttons to open or download it.

First, though, they may meet one or two steps, and they are deliberate.

The password

The page says «Protected content» and asks for the word. Whoever created the link set it, and it cannot be recovered from the page: ask the person who sent it to you — and have it sent through a different channel from the link itself.

The email

The page says «Verify your email». This happens when the document carries a watermark with the viewer’s address: your address will be printed on the document. Type the address and then, depending on how the link was set up, either a confirmation link reaches your mailbox or a six-digit code to type back into the page.

”The link has expired”

Links nearly always have an expiry, and sometimes a maximum number of downloads. When one of the two runs out, the page says so and shows who sent it to you: you ask that person to make a new one. It is not a fault and it is irreversible — the old link does not come back to life.

If it asks you to upload instead of download

There is the opposite kind too: a link made to collect documents. In that case you only see the upload area — you cannot browse or download anything, and that is how it should be.

Questions this guide answers

• what does the client see when they open the link
• it asks me for a password and I don't remember it
• it asks me for my email to open the document
• the link says it has expired
• protected content
• verify your email
• the link doesn't work any more
• six-digit code
• what the person receiving the link sees