Send a file to a contact

Want to get a file straight into someone's hands? You can send any file from your media library to one or more of your contacts. They get an email with a private link, and you get a heads-up the moment they open or download it. It's no trouble.

Before you start

You need a file in your media library and a plan that includes sharing. Sharing is part of every plan, including the free one, so you're covered.

You also need each recipient saved as a contact in your directory with an email address. No contact yet? You can add one without leaving the send screen. We'll show you how below.

Sending a file to a contact

This is the main path. You pick a file, choose who gets it, add a note if you like, and hit send.

1. Go to Media in your sidebar. You'll see your library of uploaded files.
2. Select the file you want to send. Its detail page opens.
3. At the top right, select Send. The Send file window opens with the file shown inside it.
4. In the Send to box, start typing a contact's name or email, then pick them from the list.
5. Optional: fill in the Subject line and write a short message.
6. Select Send.

You'll see a green message that says your file has been sent. The recipient gets an email with a private link to open the file. On the file's page, a new row appears under Shares showing who you sent it to.

Picking or adding the contact you're sending to

The Send to box only lists contacts that have an email address, since that's where the link goes. So a name with no email saved won't show up.

1. In the Send to box, type a name or email. Matching contacts appear as you type.
2. Select a contact to add them. Their name shows as a pill in the box.
3. Don't see them? Type their name, then select Create "...".
4. The Add a contact window opens. Fill in at least a name or an email, then select Save.
5. Your new contact is added to the send list right away, ready to go.

A quick note: you need at least a name or an email to save a contact. To actually send them a file, they'll need an email address on file.

Knowing when they open or download the file

You don't have to guess whether your file landed. We tell you, and we keep a record on the file's page.

The first time a recipient opens your file, we let you know. The first time they save it, we tell you that too. These reach you in the app, by email, or as a live alert, based on your notification settings.

What you see depends on where the alert lands:

• By email, the subject starts with Share viewed or Share downloaded, then a long dash and the file's name. For a file called your-file.pdf, the subject reads "Share viewed", a long dash, then "your-file.pdf".
• In the app, the bell shows a plain sentence with the recipient's email and the file, like "jane@example.com viewed your-file.pdf" or "jane@example.com downloaded your-file.pdf". That tells you who did what at a glance.

You can also check anytime. Open the file from Media and look at the Shares table. Each recipient has a Status badge:

• Pending: the email didn't go out. A normal send shows Sent right away, so this badge means the send didn't complete. Check that the contact's email address is correct, then send the file again from the top of the page. The Resend icon doesn't appear on a row that never sent.
• Sent: the email went out, but they haven't opened it yet.
• Viewed: they opened the link.
• Downloaded: they saved the file.
• Revoked: you turned this share off.

The Activity column next to each name tells you when they viewed or downloaded it, like "Viewed 2 hours ago".

Sending the same file to more than one person at once

You can send one file to a small group in a single go, without repeating yourself.

1. Open the file and select Send.
2. In the Send to box, add each contact one by one. They stack up as pills.
3. Keep it to five contacts per send.
4. Add a subject and message if you like, then select Send.

Each person gets their own private link, so you can see exactly who opened the file.

The Send to box won't stop you from adding a sixth contact. The five-person cap is checked when you send. If you go over, you'll see this message after you select Send: "You can only send to 5 contacts at a time." Remove a few pills until you're back to five, then send again.

My recipient sees "This share is no longer active"

This message means the share was turned off. A link doesn't break on its own, so this almost always means the share was revoked on purpose.

Here's what happened and how to fix it:

1. Open the file from Media and find the person's row in the Shares table.
2. If the Status badge says Revoked, the link was switched off. Select the check icon next to that row to reactivate it. The badge goes back to its old state and the link works again.
3. If you meant to turn it off but want them to have it back, reactivating is all you need. The same link works again right away.

Want to email them a fresh copy too? Reactivate the row first, using step 2 above. The paper-plane (Resend) icon only shows once a share is active and already sent, so you won't see it on a revoked row. After you reactivate, select that icon to send the link again.

My recipient sees "This share has expired"

You'll almost never see this. Shares you send don't get an end date, so they don't expire on their own. This message means the share has an end date that has already passed. Once that happens, the link stops working, the same way it does when a share is revoked.

The Resend icon won't fix this on its own, since it doesn't change the end date. To get your recipient back in, send the file to them again from the top of the page. That creates a fresh share with a new link.

How long the share link stays active

Good news: the link does not expire on its own. Once you send a file, that private link keeps working until you choose to turn it off.

You're in control. To stop someone's access, open the file from Media, find their row in the Shares table, and select the Revoke icon. Their badge changes to Revoked and the link stops working. Change your mind later? Reactivate it from the same spot.

My recipient didn't get the email

If your file never showed up for them, the email is the usual cause. It's not lost, and you don't need to send it from scratch.

Try these in order:

1. Ask them to check their spam or junk folder. Sharing emails sometimes land there.
2. Double-check the email address on their contact. A small typo sends the email nowhere. Fix it on the contact, then resend.
3. On the file's page, find their row in the Shares table and select the Resend (paper-plane) icon to send the link again.

The email comes from NoTrouble on your profile's behalf, with your profile's name and photo on it, so it's clear who it's from.

I don't see a Send button on my file

The Send button sits at the top right of a file's detail page, not on the media grid. So you need to open the file first.

1. Go to Media in your sidebar.
2. Select the file itself, so its own page opens.
3. Look at the top-right corner for Send.

If you still don't see it, check that you're signed in to the right profile. The Send button shares files from the profile you're working in.

One more thing to check: sending needs share permission on the profile. If a teammate added you as a Viewer, you can open files and see who they were shared with, but you can't start a new share, so the Send button stays hidden. Ask the profile owner to give you a role that can edit and share.