Google Drive is great—you can access your files from anywhere, on pretty much any device, and sync them between your computers. But there’s also another great feature: sharing. If you have a file that someone needs, it’s as easy as a few clicks (or taps) to shoot them a download link.
Here’s how to generate a link for basically any file that’s stored in your Google Drive, as well as how to control the privacy of the file (and link).
- Locate the file you want to share and click the file name. In the pane that appears on the right, click Copy URL in the File URL section to copy the link to your clipboard. Most modern browsers will open links to PDF files in a new browser tab or window, as opposed to downloading the file to the visitor's computer.
- Paste the following HTML link code in the Web page, blog post or other online content where you want to create a download link: Download ZIP File. Type the exact URL of your ZIP file in-between the two quotation marks.
- Feb 19, 2016 _____/LINKS _____ USERSCLOUDS: Try Out The Link That i Did Create on This video: _____|Fix Some Problems|_____ IF YOU HAVE ZIP FILE.
Zip the file. Compress the file and create a.ZIP file or another compressed file format. Then, create a link to download the file on the web page using the HTML tag. By compressing the file into a ZIP file and creating a link to it, a web browser is unable to directly open the ZIP file.
How to Generate a Share Link on Windows, macOS, or Chrome OS
If you’re a Windows, macOS, or Chrome OS user and have the Google Drive app installed (which, if you don’t, you really should), generating a link is super easy, and can even be done directly from Windows Explorer or Finder. It’s worth noting the Drive app is built into Chrome OS’ file manager by default, so there’s need to install anything else.
(If you aren’t using the Drive app, skip down to the last section of this guide, which explains how to share files from Drive’s web interface.)
First, navigate to the file you want to share. Doesn’t matter if it’s a document, picture, executable, or any other type of file, the sharing process is the same. Right click on the file, then go down to the Google Drive entry into this menu.
When the new menu options pop out, choose “Share.”
Note: On macOS and Chrome OS, there is no “Google Drive” option—simply select “Share” (on Chrome OS) or “Share using Google Drive” (on macOS). From there, everything else is basically the same.
The first box that shows up will allow you to send the link to a specific email address—you can do that if you’d like, but since we’re talking about creating shareable links here, we’re going to go a couple of steps further.
In the upper right corner of the Share Settings dialog box, there’s a button that reads “Get shareable link.” Click that.
How To Create A Download Link For A Zip File Download
Once that option is enabled, the link will be populated. You can simply highly it, then copy and paste it into an email, chat message, or anywhere else.
But there’s still more control here. When you generate a download link, it automatically allows the file to be viewed by anyone with the link. You can, however, change this setting using the dropdown menu directly above the link.
There are a handful of options here:
- Off: If you accidentally shared the file, use this option to basically un-share it, making it private once again.
- Anyone with the link can edit: This is more for documents and such, but this basically gives the shared users full read and write access. They still can’t delete it from your Drive, though—this is just for the contents of the file.
- Anyone with the link can comment: Again, this is mostly for documents. It allows shared users to leave comments if desired—this is great for team projects.
- Anyone with the link can view: Shared users can simply view the file, but can’t edit it in any way. This is the default action when you share a file, and the best option if you’re trying to share file for download.
There’s also a “More” option at the very bottom, which allows you to change the general privacy settings for the file:
- On (Public): This basically makes the file public. Anyone can search for, find, and download the file.
- On (Link): Anyone with the link can download it. They don’t have to sign in to their Google account to do so.
- Off: Only specific people can access the file. Thus, Google sign-in is required.
Yeah, that’s a lot to kind of take in when all you’re doing is sharing a simple file. The good news is that Google does most of the heavy lifting here, and the default sharing action is fairly private (your link is accessible by anyone, but only if they know the link), so you can quickly and efficiently share files.
How to Generate a Share Link on Android and iOS
If you need to build a link on a mobile device, the process is equally as simple—though the varying options are more hidden. Because of that, we’re going to break this down into a couple of sections: generating the link, and controlling the shared link.
Generating the Link
I’m using an Android device for this tutorial, but the Drive app works basically the same way on both Android and iOS, so you should be able to follow along regardless of what platform you’re on.
Go ahead and open the Drive app, then navigate to the file you want to share.
Tap the three-dot button on the file, then tap “Share link.” On iOS, this actually reads “Get link.”
This is where the only real difference between Android and iOS happens: on iOS, the link is simply copied to the clipboard, so you can share it. On Android, the share menu will show up, giving you a lot more options.
Your Share Dialog box will probably look different than mine, because it’s curated based on your sharing history, installed apps, and so on. But you should be able to wing it from here—just choose the app you want to share the file in. Alternatively, you can select the “Copy to clipboard” option if you’d rather just copy the link and share it manually.
How to Modify Your Shared Link
Now that you have your shared link, you’re probably wondering where all the options are. Unlike on Windows or Chrome OS, these options aren’t directly available from the share dialog. Instead, they’re tucked away in the file’s Drive menu.
Again, navigate to the file you shared, then tap the three-dot menu button again.
This time, however, tap the “i” button on the right side of the file name. This is the information button.
Scroll down just a bit, until you see the first sub-section after the file info. This section, “Who Has Access”, is where you’ll modify the file’s shared settings.
The first thing here is Link share—since you’ve already shared this file, sharing will be On. The privacy will be set to “Anyone with the link can view” since that’s the default action. If you want to change that, tap the eyeball/down arrow.
You can change the status to “Can Edit,” “Can View,” or “Off” (to unshare the file). Easy peasy.
Otherwise, you can also add specific people to the file if you’d like to share it with individual users. Just click the “Add People” button under the “Who Has Access” section.
And that’s pretty much all there is to it.
How to Generate a Shared Link on the Web
If you’re not into using integrated apps (or just don’t have them installed), you can also share files directly from the Drive website. The process is actually really similar to the native apps on Windows, macOS, and Chrome OS.
From the Drive website, navigate to the file you want to share, then right-click it. I love that the modern web supports things like this.
There are actually a couple of options you can choose: Share or Get Shareable Link. They both basically do the same thing, though the former offers more options. The latter simply generates the shareable link and makes it easy to copy. For this section of the tutorial, I’m using the “Share” method.
Once you click the Share button, a the share dialog will pop up. Click the “Get shareable link” in the top right corner, which will essentially activate the shareable feature. From here you can copy the link, add specific email addresses to share with, and change the privacy of the file.
By clicking the dropdown just above the link, you can edit how much power the shared user(s) have over the file:
- Off: If you accidentally shared the file, use this option to basically un-share it, making it private once again.
- Anyone with the link can edit: This is more for documents and such, but this basically gives the shared users full read/write access. They still can’t delete it from your Drive, though—this is just for the contents of the file.
- Anyone with the link can comment: Again, this is mostly for documents. It allows shared users to leave comments if desired—this is great for team projects.
- Anyone with the link can view: Shared users can simply view the file, but can’t edit it in any way. This is the default action when you share a file, and the best option if you’re trying to share file for download.
There’s also a “More” option at the very bottom, which allows you to change the general privacy settings for the file:
- On (Public): This basically makes the file public. Anyone can search for, find, and download the file.
- On (Link): Anyone with the link can download it. They don’t have to sign in to their Google account to do so.
- Off: Only specific people can access the file. Thus, Google sign-in is required.
Once you’ve set everything as you want it to be, just click Save (or Done if you didn’t jump into the “More” menu). And that’s that.
While not a dedicated file sharing solution, Drive is great if you want to share a file with a colleague, family member, friend, or the like. It’s a great sort of two-in-one solution for both storing and sharing files quickly and easily, all with essentially universal access.
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Sending one or two files over email is no big deal, but if you're emailing several, and especially dozens or more, the best way to do it is by first putting all the files into a ZIP file.
ZIP files are much like folders, except they act like files. This means you can put all the files you want to send into this special folder, and when it's time to send them off, your email client will treat it like a file, meaning that just one file (the ZIP file) will be sent.
Emailing ZIP files keeps everything neatly organized in one folder. Once the recipient receives your email, they can open the ZIP file to see all the files and folders you stored inside.
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Put Your Files Into the ZIP File
Locate all the files you want to include in the ZIP file. You can do this for your internal hard drives like the C: drive, flash drives, external hard drives, your Desktop items, documents, images, etc.
It doesn't matter how many files you want to include in the ZIP file; the steps are the same:
Create A Download Link
- Select the files and/or folders you want to compress.
- They'll become highlighted to show that they've been selected.
- Right-click one of the selected items.
- Go to Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder.
If you have several files from different locations that you want to include in the same ZIP file, make just one to start with. Then drag and drop the rest of the files into the ZIP file, and they'll be copied to it. You can drop them in one at a time or several at once.
The method above is how you make ZIP files in Windows without using a third-party program. 7-Zip, PeaZip, and Keka are other ways to make ZIPs in Linux, Windows, and macOS.
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Name the New ZIP File
Type the name you want the attachment to carry. Make it something descriptive so that the recipient can understand at a glance what the folder contains.
For example, if the ZIP file holds a bunch of vacation images, name it something like Vacation Pics 2017, not an obscure name like the files you wanted, or photos.
The option to rename the ZIP file will be available right after you complete Step 1 above, but if you don't see that option, right-click the ZIP file and choose Rename.
The ZIP file you made in the previous step is stored in the same folder where you selected the files and folders.
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Attach the ZIP File as an Email Attachment
Every email client is a little different when it comes to composing messages and including attachments. No matter what program you use, find the area where you can add files as attachments, and then select the ZIP file you created.
For example, this is how you'd email the ZIP file from Outlook.com:
- Click New message.
- If you're sending the ZIP file as a reply to an existing message, open that email and click Reply.
- Click the paperclip (attachment) button at the bottom of the message.
- Click Browse this computer.
- Locate the ZIP file you created, and click it.
- Click Open.
- Click Attach as a copy.
If the ZIP file is too large to send over email, you can upload it to OneDrive first and then send the recipient a link to download it.