---
title: "Blog — BetterFileTransfer"
canonical: "https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog"
---

# BetterFileTransfer blog

Guides to sending large files, link expiry, and end-to-end encryption.

## Topics

- [Guides](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/topic/guides) (13)
- [Security](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/topic/security) (5)
- [Comparisons](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/topic/comparisons) (4)
- [Troubleshooting](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/topic/troubleshooting) (4)

## Posts

- [How to send large files without email getting in the way](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/how-to-send-large-files): Email gives up at around 25 MB, and every workaround costs you something different. Here are the five real ways to get a big file to another person, what each one asks of you and of them, and how to choose.
- [A download link is not working: five reasons, in order](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/download-link-not-working): You clicked and got an error instead of a file. It is almost always one of five things, and four of them you can resolve yourself in under a minute — including the one where the link was broken in transit.
- [How to send large files for free, and where the free tiers stop](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/how-to-send-large-files-for-free): Every service has a free tier and they are not the same shape. What free actually buys you, the things worth checking besides the size limit, and how to get a big file across today without paying.
- [What end-to-end encryption actually means for the files you send](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/end-to-end-encryption-explained): Nearly every file service says it encrypts your files, and almost none of them mean the same thing. Here is the difference that decides whether the company holding your file can open it, and how to tell from the outside.
- [The file downloaded but will not open](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/file-wont-open-after-download): Four quite different problems look identical from the desktop, and none of the fixes overlap. One size check rules out the most common cause in about ten seconds.
- [How to send a whole folder, with the structure intact](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/how-to-send-a-folder): Email cannot attach a folder and most upload widgets flatten one into a pile. Structure is information, so here are the two honest ways to keep it, and the details that trip people up.
- [How long should a download link last?](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/how-long-should-a-download-link-last): Expiry is the most under-used control in file sharing and the one that does the most work: it is the only protection that keeps going after you have lost track of where a link ended up.
- [It says delivered, but they never got the link](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/file-link-email-went-to-spam): Delivered means their mail server accepted it, not that a human saw it. What each receipt actually proves, why file-sharing emails attract filters, and the fix that always works.
- [Sending large files from a phone, without losing quality](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/send-large-files-from-phone): Most large files start on a phone, and the convenient way to send them quietly shrinks everything. What to use on iPhone and Android, and the three settings that keep a long upload alive.
- [Email attachment size limits, and why your file is bigger than you think](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/email-attachment-size-limits): The limits are lower than the numbers suggest, because attachments are encoded as text and grow by a third on the way out. What each provider allows, and why the same file reaches one person and bounces off another.
- [Cloud storage or a transfer link? They are built for different verbs](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/cloud-storage-vs-file-transfer): Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive all produce a share link, so why use anything else? Because storage is for files you keep and transfer is for files you hand over — and one question tells you which you have.
- [How long will this upload take?](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-upload): It is arithmetic, and the mistake almost everyone makes is mixing up megabits and megabytes. The formula, a table to skip it, and why the bar looks frozen when nothing is wrong.
- [How to send large video files to clients without wrecking them](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/how-to-send-large-video-files): A minute of 4K can run to several gigabytes, and the fix is usually not compression. How to decide between a review copy and the untouched original, and how to move the original when that is what is needed.
- [Attachments or links? What the paperclip actually costs](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/email-attachments-vs-links): An attachment is not sent to a recipient, it is copied to every one of them and stored forever in mailboxes you do not control. When that is still the right call, and when it plainly is not.
- [Password-protecting a file is not the same as encrypting it](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/password-protect-vs-encryption): Three different things go by the same name, and one of them is a door with a lock painted on it. How to tell which you have, why legacy zip encryption is worthless, and the mistake that undoes all of it.
- [Why large uploads fail, and what actually fixes them](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/why-large-file-uploads-fail): Stalls at 94%, files that arrive corrupted, transfers that work at home and never at the office. There is a short list of causes, and most of them are not your file.
- [SFTP or a transfer link? They are not competing](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/sftp-vs-transfer-links): One is for systems exchanging files on a schedule, the other for a person handing something to a person. The friction starts when either is used for the other's job — and dormant SFTP accounts are the risk nobody owns.
- [How to send files securely, without turning it into a project](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/how-to-send-files-securely): Most people worry about interception and are actually exposed by a link that outlived its purpose. Name the threat first, then pick the method — and a short routine that covers nearly every real case.
- [Sharing files with clients: the delivery is part of the work](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/sharing-files-with-clients): A client's last impression of a project is often the moment they try to open what you sent. What they should never have to do, how to structure a delivery, and the three-line message that prevents most follow-ups.
- [Sending sensitive documents: a twelve-point checklist](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/sending-sensitive-documents-checklist): Passports, payslips, contracts and medical letters get sent with about as much thought as a holiday photo. Run this before you attach anything, and know what to do in the first ten minutes if it goes wrong.
- [Moving files between your own devices](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/transfer-files-between-computers): Emailing yourself has become a genuine workflow for millions of people. What to use instead, ordered by the situation you are actually in — same room, different places, or a machine you do not control.
- [How to share photos without losing quality](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/share-photos-without-losing-quality): Photos arrive softer and greyer than they left because almost every convenient channel re-encodes them on the way through. Where the quality goes, and how to hand over the file you actually started with.
- [When zipping actually helps, and when it does nothing](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/when-zipping-helps): Compressing is the reflex when a file is too big, and about half the time it saves nothing at all. One property of the file decides it, and you can predict the answer before you try.
- [Choosing a file transfer service: eight questions worth asking](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/choosing-a-file-transfer-service): Every service takes a file and gives you a link, so the category looks interchangeable. The differences that matter are mostly not on the pricing page — here is what to compare, in the order the questions actually bite.
- [File sharing and GDPR: the parts that actually apply](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/gdpr-file-sharing): Sending a spreadsheet of customer records to an agency is a transfer of personal data whether or not anyone thought about it. A practical read of the parts that touch file sharing, and what to do in the first hour if it goes wrong.
- [Sending files without an account: what you get and what you give up](https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog/send-files-without-an-account): Handing one file to one person should not require signing up for anything. Anonymous transfers are still encrypted end to end — but there is one thing you lose that is worth understanding before you rely on it.

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Canonical HTML version: https://betterfiletransfer.com/blog
BetterFileTransfer · https://betterfiletransfer.com