Attach files to a vault

Upload first, attach second

Files live in your Files area, independently of any vault. Upload there, then open the vault and attach from your existing files. The same file can be attached to several vaults without being stored twice and without counting twice against your quota.

Attaching and detaching

Open the vault, use the attachments section, tick what should go. Changes take effect immediately, on armed vaults as well as drafts. Whatever is attached at the moment the vault delivers is what gets sent.

Detaching a file from a vault does not delete it. It stays in your Files area and on any other vault it is attached to.

Small files are attached, large ones are linked

Storage is measured in gigabytes; email is not. The delivery email carries roughly 9MB of attachments in total, because that is what email providers will accept. Anything that does not fit is not dropped. It travels in the same email as a private download link instead.

So a vault holding a 3MB PDF and a 1MB text file delivers both as attachments. A vault holding a 400MB video delivers your message with a button that downloads the video.

How the download link works

Each recipient gets their own link, and opening it asks them to confirm the address the vault was sent to before anything is shown, so a forwarded copy of the email opens nothing. The link works for 90 days, after which the files stay in your account but the link stops. Every time a recipient opens a link or downloads a file it is written to your audit log, so you can see who collected what.

That confirmation is remembered on the device that gave it, for a week, so coming back for a second file does not mean typing the address again. On any other device, or after that week, it is asked for afresh. The link is never left standing open to whoever holds the URL just because somebody has already used it once.

Working with bulk material

Large files do arrive, but they arrive as a download, which asks a little more of your recipient than an attachment does. Three things help:

• Zip a folder of small documents into one archive rather than attaching thirty files.
• Say in your message what the download contains, so somebody reading it on a bad day knows the link is worth following.
• Remember the 90 day window. If the material has to outlive that, also put it somewhere permanent and use the vault to deliver the instructions for reaching it.

Deleting a file that is attached

Deleting a file under Files removes it from every vault it was attached to. Those vaults keep working and keep their message, they simply deliver without that attachment. Check what a file is attached to before removing it.