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Forum Discussion
novalin
3 years agoHelpful | Level 5
Sharing a file with people without Dropbox accounts
I have a PDF I want to share with people so they can download it, but I don't want them to have to create a Dropbox account (or sign in) to download it.
Is there a way to do this with Dropbox? ...
- 3 years ago
Hey novalin, thanks for sending me the steps.
It sounds as if you've shared the file directly, instead of using a shared link. Can you try following these steps and share the link to them via an email or any other means?
They should be able to view the link without a Dropbox account too.
Megan
3 years agoDropbox Staff
Hi novalin, I hope you're doing well!
You can achieve that by creating a shared link of the PDF you want to send to them. They won't need a Dropbox account to view, and download the content.
If you have any other questions, let me know.
- novalin3 years agoHelpful | Level 5
Hi. That's what I had done with my original test and the person I tested with hit a log in page.
- Hannah3 years agoDropbox Staff
Hey novalin, sorry to jump in here.
Shared links provide view-only access to the files you want to share, so the recipient is not required to have a Dropbox account.
Can you please describe the steps you followed to create and share a link to that file?
- novalin3 years agoHelpful | Level 5
Thanks for jumping in. Here's what I did:
- Logged into drop box
- Navigated to a folder
- Uploaded a PDF
- Clicked on the share icon
- Entered an email and clicked "share file"
- Recipient received an email and clicked the link
- novalin3 years agoHelpful | Level 5
I also don't see the dropdown in step 3 from your help article. Does it have to be changed from View to Edit for this to work? I'd think View access would allow someone to download, just not edit the file in Drop Box, so I'd think that would work...
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