Cloud services like Dropbox are great for sharing documents, but what happens when you want someone to send you a file?
I’ve long wished there was an easy way to request a file from someone, especially if the file is too large to email. There have been third-party services that have done this for quite some time, but Dropbox has recently introduced File requests that do exactly what I need, all built in.
Dropbox File requests let you (wait for it) request a file or files from someone, even if they aren’t Dropbox users. Here’s how it works.
First go to https://www.dropbox.com/requests or log in to Dropbox on the web and click the File requests link on the left.
You’ll then enter some text to describe the items that you’re requesting, and you can specify where in your Dropbox folder they’ll appear (by default they go under a File requests folder).
It will then provide you a link that you can copy and paste, or Dropbox can send the email on your behalf.
I prefer to send my own emails, so I went the copy & paste route.
When the receipient clicks the link, they’re taken to a page where they can upload their file(s). If they’re not already logged in to Dropbox on the web, they can enter their name and email address.
Once the requestee uploads their files, they magically appear in Dropbox in the folder I specified. It appends the person’s name before the file name so you can tell who it is from.
Once you’ve received the files, you can close the request so no one else can upload to your account. In the Dropbox File requests interface, hover over the request and hit Edit. Then you can hit the Close request button.
That’s about it. I can see myself using this feature a lot and I like how they implemented it. What do you think?
