--- title: "Share links: send a file to anyone, no order needed" url: "https://fileflare.io/send-file-without-order-shopify/" description: "Fileflare share links send one file to someone without an order, with its own expiry and download limits, optional customer login, and instant revoke." published: "2026-10-22T14:00:42+00:00" modified: "2026-10-21T16:57:35+00:00" --- Not everyone who needs one of your files has bought it. A reviewer wants an advance copy of your zine, the producer you’re collaborating with needs the stems, and a customer emails because the bundle they bought in the spring was missing its bonus track. Getting a file to any of them through Fileflare used to mean building a $0 order in Shopify, which works, but it’s a lot of ceremony for one file. Share links skip the order. Open a file in your Fileflare library, create a link, choose how long it works and how many times it can be downloaded, and send it to whoever needs it. Share links are available today on the Lite plan and above. ![A file’s page in Fileflare with the Share links card, listing an active review copy link with its downloads used and expiry date.](https://fileflare.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/fileflare-asset-share-links.png) ## Send a file to anyone who didn’t check out Each link carries its own expiry and download limits, can be locked to a single customer, and stops working the moment you revoke it. Here’s where that fits: - **Review copies**: an advance PDF for press, or a sample pack for the creator who covers your corner of the internet. - **Bonus and replacement files**: a corrected edition, or the file a customer’s order was missing, without a placeholder order to explain later. - **Handoffs**: source files for a contractor or teammate that only need to work for a few days. - **Small-group sends**: one file for a beta-tester group chat or a workshop’s handful of attendees, with a download limit sized to the group (the limit counts every download on the link, not per person). ## Create a share link from a file Go to **Assets** in Fileflare and open the file you want to share. Click **Create share link**, either in the page’s title bar or on its **Share links** card. ![The title bar of a file’s page in Fileflare, with the Create share link button beside Edit asset and Delete.](https://fileflare.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/fileflare-create-share-link.png) The form asks for four things: - **Expires**: **1 day**, **7 days**, **30 days**, **90 days**, or a **Custom date** up to a year away. The form shows the exact moment the link stops working, so nobody has to do time zone math. - **Recipient**: optional. Leave it empty and anyone with the link can download the file. Pick a customer and only they can (more on that below). - **Set custom limits**: by default, a link follows your store’s [download and IP limits](/docs/download-limitations/), and the form shows you what they are. Enable it to give this one link its own **Download limit** (1 to 1,000) or number of **IP addresses** (the IP limit needs the Premium plan or above). Leave a field blank for unlimited. - **Label**: optional, and only you see it. Something like “Review copy for Acme” makes the link easy to spot later. ![The Create share link window with Expires set to 7 days, an empty Recipient search, custom limits set to two downloads, and the label Review copy.](https://fileflare.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/fileflare-create-share-link-2.png) Click **Create link**, and Fileflare sums it up in one line: who can download the file, and until when. Give it a once-over, click **Copy link**, and paste it into whatever email or DM it’s headed for. If you need it again later, **Copy link** is also in the link’s **⋯** menu on the Share links card. ![The Share link created window in Fileflare, saying anyone with the link can download the file until a set date and time, with the link and a Copy link button.](https://fileflare.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/fileflare-share-link-confirmation.png) Downloads through share links count toward the download totals and top files on your [Fileflare dashboard](/docs/dashboard-overview/), so review copies show up in your numbers alongside everything else. ## Lock a link to one customer For anything you’d rather not see forwarded, pick a recipient. Search your Shopify customers by name or email and choose one; the link then works only for that person, logged in to their account on your store. Someone logged in as a different customer can’t use it. If the person isn’t a customer yet, click **Create customer** when the search comes up empty. Shopify’s own new customer form opens with what you typed already filled in. Save it, and you’re back in the share link form with them picked as the recipient (if they don’t show as picked, search for them by name). On their end, the recipient logs in and lands on a page in your store’s theme that says, “Your download is starting…”, with a **Download** link in case the browser needs a nudge. ![A store’s download page in its own theme, reading “Your download is starting…” above the file name and a Download button.](https://fileflare.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/fileflare-share-link-login.png) Sending the same file to several people? Make a link for each of them. Every link keeps its own download count and can be revoked on its own, so pulling one person’s access leaves everyone else’s link working. ## Revoke a link the moment you need to Every link you make shows up on the file’s **Share links** card with its recipient or label, downloads used, expiry date, and status. To shut one off early, open its **⋯** menu, choose **Revoke**, and confirm with **Revoke link**. It stops working immediately. A revoke can’t be undone, but you can always create a fresh link. You can revoke links on any plan, including after a downgrade, so you can always shut off a link you made on Lite. Deleting a file revokes all of its links, too. ## What share links don’t do Share links are built for one-off sends, and a few limits come with that: - **One file, and always an expiry**: sharing several files means a link on each one, and every link expires within a year. - **No PDF stamping**: share links send the original file. If the file has a stamp template, the form warns you that the recipient gets it unstamped. - **No view-only files**: if customers can only view a file in the browser, with downloads turned off, there’s nothing to download, so you can’t create a link for it. Existing links for that file are refused until downloads are back on. ## Use an order or a membership when it fits better Some no-checkout sends are better handled another way: - **You need a link that never expires, a stamped PDF, or every file on a product at once.** A $0 order in Shopify covers all three, and it works on every plan, including Free (stamping needs the Basic plan or above). [Generate a download link](/docs/generate-a-download-link/) walks through it. - **You’re giving a freebie to lots of people.** A free product at checkout collects each person’s email and gives each of them an order of their own. See [how to sell free digital products on Shopify](/how-to-sell-free-digital-products-on-shopify/). - **You want people to keep getting files.** That’s a membership. When you connect [Zendra, our Shopify memberships app](/app-store/zendra), your files become perks that members open from Zendra’s member portal. The [Fileflare and Zendra setup guide](/docs/zendra-integration/) covers how to connect them. ## Send your first share link The **Share links** card is on every file’s page under **Assets** in Fileflare. On the Free plan, the **Create share link** button reads **Upgrade**, and [Fileflare pricing](/pricing/) shows what each plan includes. For every field and edge case, see [Share a file with a share link](/docs/share-links/) in the docs. For the wider question of keeping files where they belong, [how to share downloads securely](/how-to-share-downloads-securely/) covers link expiry, IP caps, customer accounts, and stamping. If you’re still choosing a downloads app, [install Fileflare from the Shopify App Store](/app-store/fileflare); every paid plan starts with a 14-day free trial.