Sharing files

How to share large files privately (when email says no)

Email stops at 20–25 MB, so large files end up as links. Here is how to keep those links private: who can open them, how long they last, and where the password should travel.

Updated 5 October 2026 · 5 min read

A video from a wedding, a scanned contract, a folder of photos for an accountant: sooner or later a file is too big to attach. At that point you are no longer sending a file, you are sending a link, and the questions change. Who can open it? For how long? Can the company hosting it read it? This guide starts with the email limits, then shows two ways to share privately.

Email attachment limits

The limits are smaller than most people expect, and they differ between services and even between versions of the same program:

Two details are easy to miss. In classic Outlook the 20 MB includes the text of the message, not only the attachment, and on Exchange accounts the default is 10 MB. And the 25 MB in Outlook.com on the web is not the same number as the 20 MB in the desktop program, so check which one you are using.

Sharing from Google Drive with Restricted access

If you already use Google Drive, the safest setting is to let only named people open the file:

1. In Drive, select the file and click “Share”.
2. Add the email addresses of the people who should open it.
3. Under “General access”, choose “Restricted”: only the people you added can open the link.
4. Pick a role: “Viewer”, “Commenter” or “Editor”.
5. Click “Send”.

The other option, “Anyone with the link”, lets anyone who gets hold of the link open the file. Google also notes that people you share with can see your name and email address. Restricted access controls who can open the file; it does not change who can technically read it on the server. Our guide Is Google Drive private? looks at that question with Google's own sources.

How an encrypted share link works

LifetimeCloud share links follow a different idea: the link itself carries the key. A link without a password looks like this:

https://lifetimecloud.me/s/<id>#k=<key>

Each link gets a new key of its own. The key sits after the #, in the part of the address called the fragment, and browsers do not send the fragment to the server. So our server receives the request for /s/<id> and hands over encrypted data, and the recipient's browser uses the key to decrypt it. If you want the background, what end-to-end encryption is explains the general principle.

The options when you create a link:

• “Expires”: “Never”, “1 day”, “7 days” or “30 days”. The default is Never.
• “Max downloads”: a number, or empty for “Unlimited”. The counter counts each file downloaded, not each visit: on a link to a folder with ten files, downloading the whole folder uses ten.
• “Protect with a password”: with a password, the key is no longer in the link. The link becomes just /s/<id>, and the key is stored on our server locked with a key derived from the link password. Without the password, the link alone opens nothing.

An expired link, a revoked one or one that has used up its downloads shows a message that it has expired. A link to a file you moved to the trash stops working, and works again if you restore the file.

Step by step: create a private link

1. Upload the file from the website (not over WebDAV, see below). The per-file limit depends on your plan: 50 MB on the free plan.
2. Right-click the file or folder and choose “Share”. On a phone, press and hold, or tap the “⋯” button next to it.
3. In the “Share file” (or “Share folder”) window, choose an expiry under “Expires”. For a one-off delivery, 7 days is usually enough.
4. If the recipient only needs it once, put a number in “Max downloads”, remembering that it counts files, not visits.
5. Tick “Protect with a password” and type a password for the link. The window reminds you: “Share the password separately — it isn't part of the link.”
6. Click “Create link”, then “Copy link”.
7. To see or cancel your links later, open “Shared” in the vault menu: the “Shared files” list shows each link with its expiry, and lets you copy or revoke it. A revoked link stops working immediately.

Send the link and the password by two different routes

A link without a password carries its key inside it, so whoever has the link can open the file. If you send it by email, the full link sits in your sent folder and in the recipient's inbox. A password only helps if it does not travel with the link. Send the link by email and the password by text message or a phone call, or the other way round. That way someone who reads one channel still cannot open the file.

What to know before you rely on it

• Files uploaded over WebDAV are different. Files that arrive over WebDAV (rclone, Cyberduck, a network drive, backup apps) are stored as they arrive: protected in transit by HTTPS but not end-to-end encrypted by us. A share link to those files serves them unencrypted, behind the random link. For private sharing, upload from the website, or use rclone's “crypt” remote, which encrypts on your computer before sending.
• Keep names neutral. When you upload from the website, the content of your files is encrypted on your device before it leaves. Do not put sensitive details in a file or folder name.
• Your own access matters too. If you lose your password and have no recovery key, you lose the files behind your links as well. See why the recovery key matters.

Where LifetimeCloud fits

If you only send a large file now and then, the free 1 GB is enough to try encrypted links with expiry, download limits and a password, within the free plan's 50 MB per file. If you share large files regularly, the paid plans are a one-time payment with no subscription; current prices and limits are on /plans.