Two things that look unrelated and are both about a file leaving your control.
Public links
A link anybody can open, with no account and no sign-in. That is the point — a customer will not create a login to read one PDF.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Password | They must type it first. At least four characters. |
| Expires | The link stops working on a date you choose. |
| Allow download | Whether they can keep a copy or only read it. |
The link shows how many times it has been opened and when it was last viewed. “I never received it” becomes a question with an answer.
A public link is always view-only
There is no such thing as an editable public link here. Somebody outside your business can read a file and, if you let them, download it. They can never change it, replace it or delete it.
The link is the permission. Anybody holding it can open it — forwarded, pasted into a group, screenshotted. Put a password on anything you would not be happy having forwarded, and an expiry on anything that stops being relevant.
Revoking
Revoke it and it stops working immediately, for everybody, including people who already had it. The file is untouched — only the link dies.
Revoke when the reason for sending it has passed. A link from eighteen months ago that still opens is not a link anybody is watching.
The trash
Deleting moves to the trash. It is not gone.
Delete a folder and you are told exactly what goes with it before anything happens — how many files, how many sub-folders — and you have to confirm. Deleting it a second time, from the trash, is delete forever.
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Delete a file | To the trash. Recoverable. |
| Delete a folder | The folder and everything in it, to the trash, after a confirmation that counts it. |
| Delete from the trash | Gone. No recovery. |
| Restore | Back where it was, with its sharing. |
A public link on a file that has been trashed stops working. Restoring the file brings it back — which is worth knowing before you restore something you deleted on purpose.
Where to go next
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