Share Files and Folders with Anyone with the Link

You can share files and folders with anyone in the public. Anyone receiving the link may access, download, or further share the content in the link.

Note: You can share Data Exchanges and snapshots of a Model Coordination view, but they can't be downloaded. To view, they must be opened in the Files tool.

In this article, you'll learn how to:

Enable Public Sharing

In order to share files and folders with anyone, a project administrator must enable public sharing in the Files tool.

Enabling public sharing will let project members share:

To enable project sharing:

  1. Click Files from the left navigation to open the Files tool.

  2. On the right of the screen, click the Settings dropdown and select Advanced.

    Note: For more information, see Advanced File Settings.

    Settings main page

  3. Click the Public links to sheets and files toggle to turn On public sharing.

    Enable public sharing

  4. Confirm the action by clicking Turn on in the dialog. Enabling or disabling public sharing affects both the Files and Sheets tools.

  5. In the dropdown menu after Public links will expire, select how long you want the links to be valid up to 365 days.

Once public sharing is enabled, members with View + Download permissions can generate links to share files and folders with anyone.

Note: The maximum rate for sharing public links to files is 10 times a minute.
Important:

Sheets and files shared with public links are accessible to anyone. Protect the distribution of links carefully. Shared links can be revoked if necessary.

  1. In Files, select the files or folders you want to share.

    • For a single file or folder, select the checkbox next to the file or folder. Click the More menu More menu next to the item and select Share.
    • For multiple files and folders, select the checkboxes next to the files or folders. Click Share icon in the header.
  2. Select Anyone with the link.

  3. Click the Link expires field to specify the date when the links will expire.

  4. (For files only) Select one of the following version options:

    • Always the latest current version
    • Only the current version fixed at time of sharing
  5. Choose one of these methods to share:

    • Email: Send an email with a links to the selected files or folders.

      Share link by email

      • Click the Email tab.
      • (Optional) Enter a title. This title will be attached to this sharing event, which you can track in the Bridge tool. Learn more about tracking outgoing items in the Bridge tool.
      • Enter emails for the recipients or paste the emails separated by commas.
      • (Optional) Add a note to include in the email.
      • Click Send.
    • Links: Copy the links to your clipboard to paste wherever you want to share them.

      Share link by copying

      • Click the Links tab.
      • Click Copy next to each file or folder you want the link for or click Copy all.
      • Click Close.

      You can now paste the links from your clipboard to share with other project members.

When the recipient opens a shared link, they'll access a landing page where they can download individual files or Download all files.

Share landing page

Note: Currently, the issues and photos feature markups don't share into the downloaded files.

You can delete the links to folders and files you've previously shared publicly.

  1. Select the checkboxes of the previously shared files and folders.

  2. Click the More menu More menu above the list of files and select Delete shared links.

    Delete shared links

  3. Click Delete to confirm.