How to send a large file by link

Send a large file

Attach the file as you always do. mello decides on its own whether it goes in the message or as a link.

1. In a new message, choose Attach and pick your files. The hint next to it says it too: files over 20 MB, up to 1 GB, are sent as a link.
2. As long as a message’s files add up to 20 MB, they are attached as usual. Any file past that is uploaded instead, with its progress beside it: Uploading 42%.
3. When the upload is done, the file shows Link added, and the message gets a line with the file’s name, its size and the link, followed by the date it’s valid until.
4. Send the message. Send waits until every upload is finished.

The line is ordinary text: you can move it or write around it. Cancel next to a file stops its upload.

The file is saved in Files, in the Sent by email folder. If a file there already has that name, the new one gets a number after it.

What the recipient gets

The link opens a page titled Download a file, with the file’s name, its size, the date it’s available until, and a Download button. No account is needed. Images, PDFs, text, spreadsheets and office documents also show a preview on the page, as long as they aren’t too big (10 MB for images, 25 MB for the rest).

The link works for 30 days. After that, or once you stop it, the page reads “This link has expired or was removed.” The file itself stays in your Files.

See and stop your links

Open Files and choose the Shared tab. Each link is listed with its file, the time it has left, how many downloads it has had and the emails it went out in, with Copy link and Stop sharing. A stopped link stops working at once; the file stays in your Files.

If someone needs a file after its link has expired, share it again from Files:

1. Open the file’s more menu and choose Share a link.
2. Pick For 1 day, For 7 days or For 30 days. 30 days is preselected.
3. Choose Create the link, and send the new link: it isn’t the same as the old one.

Any file or document in Files can be shared this way, not only the ones you sent by email. Deleting a file in Files ends its link too. Files has no trash: a deleted file is gone for good.

The limits

• 1 GB per file. A bigger file is refused.
• 20 MB in the message itself. Up to that, a message’s files are attached as usual; past it, they go as links.
• 30 days per link, at most. The file stays in Files after that, until you delete it.
• Your storage. Files you upload count toward your mailbox storage. When it’s full, the upload fails: delete files you no longer need in Files.

What you can’t do yet

• A link for longer than 30 days. When one expires, share the file again from Files.
• Share a whole folder. Links are for single files and documents.

from Files, next to Attach in a new message, attaches a file you already have in Files to the message itself, within the usual 25 MB. For a bigger one, share it from Files and paste the link.