A File request (also called a collect link) is a share in reverse: instead of you sending files out, other people send files in — straight into a folder of your Drive. Perfect for collecting photos after an event, submissions, or scans from a client.
Creating one
Sign in, find the target folder in your Drive, and pick the File request action on the folder's row. The link always has a password (at least 4 characters) — you set it when creating the link, and it cannot be changed in the interface afterwards; if you need a different password, create a new link and close the old one. You can also give the link a title, a note for the uploaders, an expiry, and close it manually at any time.
What the sender experiences
They open your link, enter the password, give their name and email, and upload. No account needed. Their files land in your folder, automatically organised into a subfolder named after the sender, so multiple people never mix together.
What you get
- One notification per finished submission — you do not get spammed per file.
- The files appear in your Drive like any other file: shareable, organisable, deletable.
Limits worth knowing
- A single file can be up to 5 GB; one submission can hold up to 200 files and 10 GB in total.
- Each link accepts up to 100 uploads per hour from the same network, and after 5 wrong passwords within 15 minutes further attempts are blocked for a while.
- Uploads through a File request count against your storage quota, not the sender's — they do not even have one.
- If your storage runs out, the sender sees a generic error; your usage details are never shown to them.
- Closing or expiring the link stops new uploads; everything already received stays in your Drive.